The Gear book
Okay last week was pretty easy. We had Monday off for the holiday. Tuesday I was here at work. Wednesday I was sick, some sort of stomach bug again that kept me up part of the night in the bathroom. I took Thursday and Friday off to go with Erik and Mary to St. Louis.
Alton (pronounced ALton in the south, as opposed to the way I'd always said it, ALLton) Brown was at a small bookstore on the west side for a signing of his new book ("I'm Just Here For More Food"). The folks who run it were very nice but incredibly clueless. They had no idea who he was (Erik maintains it was the haughty "I get all I need to know from books" attitude which purposely excludes Cable TV, and thus misses all of the great stuff on the Food channel, the History channel and assorted PBS and BBC channels) so they were totally unprepared for some 130 or so people to show up for the thing. We got there about 1815 or so (it was set for 1900) and Erik and I were 80th in line for signing. There were at least 100 people plus a bunch who had to wait outside.
He's become what I think of as the Modern Southern Gentleman. He was funny and engaging during his short talk before the signing, much as he is on the show (Good Eats on the Food TV channel). And he introduced himself, asked your name and chatted a bit with everyone in line. He posed for pictures with everyone who wanted them and seemed to really enjoy meeting all these people. Overall a very classy gentleman.
I bought his Gear book (see the 'what I'm reading' on the right) and started reading it the next day. I like it even better than the baking book. He talks about the why of what gear you really need, how to clean it, store it and use it. And he uses some amazing things in his kitchen. A wood rasp to grate hard cheeses. He uses a mortar trowel for a pie server. Instead of a fancy pizza stone he gets a quarry stone from the Home Depot. On the other hand a lot of his pans are of the $150 variety and he spends a bunch on some of his knives. But he talks a lot about the why of these sorts of knives and pans and it makes sense once you understand the physics of it. Very cool!
On Thursday we stopped by the Science Center in St. Louis and met Jay and Simon there. Whoa! I chatted with him a bit and he told me he is planning on coming to the Retreat, which I had thought he couldn't make.
Friday we went to the Zoo before we came home and I was home in time to play some WoW before the Stargate premiers that evening. Overall a pretty good week.
Alton (pronounced ALton in the south, as opposed to the way I'd always said it, ALLton) Brown was at a small bookstore on the west side for a signing of his new book ("I'm Just Here For More Food"). The folks who run it were very nice but incredibly clueless. They had no idea who he was (Erik maintains it was the haughty "I get all I need to know from books" attitude which purposely excludes Cable TV, and thus misses all of the great stuff on the Food channel, the History channel and assorted PBS and BBC channels) so they were totally unprepared for some 130 or so people to show up for the thing. We got there about 1815 or so (it was set for 1900) and Erik and I were 80th in line for signing. There were at least 100 people plus a bunch who had to wait outside.
He's become what I think of as the Modern Southern Gentleman. He was funny and engaging during his short talk before the signing, much as he is on the show (Good Eats on the Food TV channel). And he introduced himself, asked your name and chatted a bit with everyone in line. He posed for pictures with everyone who wanted them and seemed to really enjoy meeting all these people. Overall a very classy gentleman.
I bought his Gear book (see the 'what I'm reading' on the right) and started reading it the next day. I like it even better than the baking book. He talks about the why of what gear you really need, how to clean it, store it and use it. And he uses some amazing things in his kitchen. A wood rasp to grate hard cheeses. He uses a mortar trowel for a pie server. Instead of a fancy pizza stone he gets a quarry stone from the Home Depot. On the other hand a lot of his pans are of the $150 variety and he spends a bunch on some of his knives. But he talks a lot about the why of these sorts of knives and pans and it makes sense once you understand the physics of it. Very cool!
On Thursday we stopped by the Science Center in St. Louis and met Jay and Simon there. Whoa! I chatted with him a bit and he told me he is planning on coming to the Retreat, which I had thought he couldn't make.
Friday we went to the Zoo before we came home and I was home in time to play some WoW before the Stargate premiers that evening. Overall a pretty good week.
posted by banzai at 14:30
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