Alton Brown On Food Culture And Its Flaws: Loving Food 'Doesn't Make You Special'

In an interview with The New York Times, Alton Brown — author, television host, and longtime encyclopedic Food Network presence — shared some of his observations of contemporary food culture and its biggest blind spots.

For starters, Brown is tired of people who think the fact that they "love food" counts as a defining personality trait, much less a reason for giving them their own Food Network show.

"I got so tired of hearing people tell me that the reason they should have their own show is that they love food so much," Brown says. "Well, so freaking what? I love food. We all love food. If we don't, we die. Even supermodels in New York secretly love food. That doesn't make you special. And people who want to be stars often make the mistake of thinking that it does, and that if they can just show you how much they love it, they will somehow become compelling. This is not the case."

Secondly, despite the fact that we would all like to think of ourselves as increasingly educated consumers, "the price gap between junk food and real food only seems to be widening," such that healthful food has seemingly become a matter of belonging to the right tax bracket. "We have designed our system to force people into nutritional slavery," Brown tells the Times.

One more thing — Alton Brown was not impressed by Ted Cruz's bacon-by-gun stunt. "There are so many other cheaper, easier ways to cook bacon."