Like his Food Network television show, “Good Eats,” a half-hour with Alton Brown live and in-person makes you laugh, think and hunger for more both on the plate and in person.

I walk into the office of Clark’s Appliance Store where Brown is taking a much deserved break from the second of three hour-long cooking demonstrations using some of the cutting edge, newly released appliances from GE.    He is scruffy—unshaven and comfortably clad in jeans and a Hawaiian style shirt with a geometric print.  His off-beat blue tone glasses are just rounded enough to not look like a pair you wear to see a 3D movie.  His shoes are chef’s black leathers — thick soles to buffer the time spent standing.   Something Brown knows well, having started then stopped then finished culinary school, and after a stint of “industry jobs that thankfully were short lived” according to the Atlanta based TV personality/producer/food crusader he turned his talents to writing films.

Brown is telling a story about avoiding death thanks to a motorcycle on a highway just south of Chattanooga.  He had to veer in and out and between giant semi trucks with no possibility of stopping upon seeing a line of cars already stopped.  “If I’d been in a car I’d been dead,” he tells the gracious hosts of the event today who are sitting beside him in a back office of the store.    He continues, then stops.  I ask,  “What would have been your last meal?”

He looks me in the eye and with only a beat or two responds, “A candy bar.  Snickers. I got at the rest stop just before the highway.  A King Size one too.”

Maybe not what you’d expect from a culinary crusader who says fighting childhood obesity by teaching kids how to cook is becoming his new cause.  “I want to make school food safe.  Get rid of all the commercial products and vending machines.  Don’t get me started, this is where I get on my soapbox,” says Brown. But if you watch his show or read his books or spend any one-on-one time with him you realize Brown is anything but extreme when it comes to enjoying food and believes that WHY is more important than HOW when it comes to cooking and life.   

“Sure, cooking is going to take more time and maybe more money to visit and buy from farm stands and local products but what are your priorities?  It frustrates me that people make food the last thing on the list.  The more educated about food the better off you are,” says Brown. And that’s the scope of his “Good Eats” show which he says runs about 22 shows a year which are produced in three different cycles. 

“We need to redefine what fresh means.  Too many people think that means raw food and that’s not it.  It should mean food value, we need to support what you believe and vote with our mouth,” says the father of a five year-old daughter (Zoe) who doesn’t like anything spicy and a wife (De Anna) who is not a foodie but is happy to help out in the kitchen.

Brown feeds his finicky daughter by creating what he calls “modular cooking.” “I start with something simple.  Like salmon,  just grilled with olive oil, salt, pepper.  That goes on a plate.  Then I make a salsa and that goes in a bowl too.  Zoe can just eat the fish or she can add the salsa. Everyone can add their own layer of flavor.  And maybe one day she will move up to mango chutney”, he says with a hopeful laugh. 

Being a wine woman I asked if Brown likes the juice.  “ I’m more of a booze guy. I really like classic cocktails.  My wife likes sparkling wines though and one of my favorite aperitifs is a champagne cocktail-pour a sparkler, add a sugar cube and drink,” he replies.

Further conversation proves that Brown does know his wines more than he’d like to admit, perhaps, and that he prefers simple reds over white (“I’m really burned out on American Chardonnay”) but most of all likes to buy a wine for its label.  “I’m not into snobby when it comes to wine or food,” says Brown. 

The door opens and one of the Clark’s managers says its time for the last demo so I ask Brown one more question, “ If you were shipwrecked on an island and a crate floated ashore, what food and wine would you hope to find inside?” He thinks carefully.  “Probably a fortified wine like Madeira that wouldn’t spoil and would kill any strange amoeba things I might have contracted on the island and I could also use it as an antiseptic. 

As for food, something really preserved.  Like dried cod or meat.  It’s not flavorful but I want to live”, he says with a note of seriousness.  But then quickly adds, “ Some vermouth so I could dream about martinis and a chocolate bar would be nice,” he says with a smile.   Perhaps a King Size Snickers?