Alton Brown's Humble Start In The Food Industry - Tasting Table (2024)

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How did Alton Brown get his start in the restaurant industry? ›

College was also when Brown started working as a cameraman, which led to a career as a cinematographer and video editor. That eventually prompted him to enter culinary school with the specific goal of producing good food shows, an area where Brown has found tremendous success.

Brown first joined Food Network in the late '90s, and was the host and creator of “Good Eats,” as well as the host of “Iron Chef America,” “Cutthroat Kitchen” and a slew of other series at Food Network and the Cooking Channel.

Alton and DeAnna still co-parent their daughter Zoey, 19, a sophom*ore at Georgetown University, but otherwise don't talk much. "We have a great kid in common, so we talk about her and I wish her well," he says. Now happily remarried to interior designer Elizabeth Ingram, Alton says he has no regrets about his past.

In 1994 Brown and his wife, DeAnna Collins, moved to Vermont, where Brown enrolled in the New England Culinary Institute and studied with chef Jean-Patrick Matecat.

Although Alton Brown spent plenty of time in his mom's kitchen growing up, his real interest in food sparked in college when he discovered that girls who said “no” to dates sometimes said “yes” if he offered to cook for them.

In 1971, Alice Waters opened the US' first farm-to-table restaurant, Chez Panisse, in Berkeley, California. More than 50 years later, the legendary chef, author and slow food advocate continues to be at the vanguard of change, and her influence has spread across the world.

Brown and Atlanta restaurant designer Elizabeth Ingram became engaged in 2018.

Alton Brown Quotes

We choose to value our nourishment so little that we entrust it to strangers. This is insanity. Feed yourselves. Feed your loved ones.

In an interview with Eater, celebrity chef Alton Brown was asked how his faith and religion play into his professional life. Brown is a “born-again Christian,” though he finds the term overly redundant.

Ramsay's interest in cooking began in his teenage years; rather than be known as "the football player with the gammy knee", he decided to pay more serious attention to his culinary education at age 19. Ramsay enrolled at North Oxfordshire Technical College, sponsored by the Rotarians, to study hotel management.

Who paid for Bobby Flay culinary school? ›

The proprietor, Joe Allen, was impressed by Flay's natural ability and agreed to pay his partner's son's tuition at the French Culinary Institute. Flay received a degree in culinary arts and was a member of the first graduating class of the French Culinary Institute in 1984.

Puck began cooking as a child in his native Austria and started formal training at age 14. He worked in some of France's best restaurants before leaving for Indianapolis, Ohio., in 1973. In 1975 Puck came to Los Angeles and gained the attention of the Hollywood elite as chef of Ma Maison.

Keller began his culinary career at a young age, working in the Palm Beach restaurant managed by his mother. He relocated to France in 1983, where he worked in several Michelin-starred houses including Guy Savoy and Taillevent.

His early aptitude was in sports, but an injury changed his course and placed him on a culinary path. He studied hotel management before getting busy in the kitchen full time. By 1993, he was a working chef in Aubergine, and in 1998 launched his own venture, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay.

A Brief History of The Aristocrat

In 1928, Engracia Cruz-Reyes, or Lola Asiang, converted the ground floor of her family's house into a canteen called Lapu-Lapu. There, she sold her “Big Four,” including arroz caldo, pancit luglog, lumpiang sariwa, and dinuguan at puto.