This Star Chef Showed The Right Way To Cook Pasta – And You’ve Probably Been Doing It All Wrong
Even the most culinarily challenged among us could probably cook up a batch of pasta. Most recipes advise simply dropping the staple into boiling water and waiting until it goes suitably soft. But while this may seem like the preferred method, according to TV foodie Alton Brown it’s all wrong. As a result, he’s put forward a controversial cooking technique which, he claims, makes the perfect pasta. And it may just change the way that you prepare the food forever.
But who is Brown? And why does he have the authority to tell us where we’ve been going wrong when it comes to cooking pasta? Well, it’s probably fair to say that Brown knows a thing or two about food. In fact, he’s been on top of the culinary game for over 20 years, first coming to the public’s attention in 1999 with the launch of his show Good Eats. That program was picked up by the Food Network, and it featured Brown taking a more scientific approach to cooking as well as investigating food history and techniques.
Prior to launching Good Eats, however, Brown was a relative newcomer to professional cooking. In fact, he’d previously studied film at the University of Georgia and had embarked on a career as a cinematographer, working on music videos. One of his best-known credits from this time was the video to R.E.M.’s 1987 hit “The One I Love.”
But Brown’s life changed course in the late 1990s when he became frustrated with the quality of American cooking shows. Explaining his problem with the series of the time, Brown later told the digital publication Bitter Southerner, “I remember I was watching food shows, and I was like, ‘God, these are boring.’”
Continuing his critique, Brown said, “I’m not really learning anything. I got a recipe, okay, but I don’t know anything. I didn’t even learn a technique. To learn means to really understand. You never got those out of those shows.” So, Brown seemingly endeavored to do better.
