Alton and I have a lot in common. We’re nerds, we love to cook, we love to….oh, who am I kidding? I’m a little Alton-crazy.

Food Network taught me how to cook. I was bedridden with mono in 1998, and starting watching the now-cancelled East Meets West with Ming Tsai. I learned so much that I developed a love of being in the kitchen. Most of my elaborate, dinner-party dishes are Ming-Tsai dishes, such as his miso-based marinade for sea bass.

Then I discovered Good Eats. Alton Brown‘s mixture of food and science was a dead-ringer for what I’ve always wanted to know. I started to understand the true science of cooking. It combined my love of chemistry (hey Alton, I passed Chemistry!) and my love of food.

Here are some pictures of when we met. I was nervous and only had a minute or so. He met about 400 people that day, so I doubt he’d remember me, or even what city it was! He did make fun of people in Indiana for being really young and having hordes of children, which was not very nice and was just a stereotype. After all, I don’t have any kids!

Alton gave two demos: Avocado dishes, and this one, on different types of fried-pocket-dough dishes. I freely heckled him a couple of times when I knew the answers to his questions. At one point he smiled at me and said, “Good question. I like you!” I choose to think he thought “wow! She is so smart! I need her on the show!” That’s reasonable, right?

This isn’t a very good picture, but I couldn’t resist posting it. Look at the Emcee’s bright orange shirt! It’s not 1997! Also not the bright orange socks. Psst, buddy! Having things the same color does NOT make one a natty dresser!

He doesn’t look as happy in the picture with these nice people who held my place in line. I choose to think it’s because he loves me more. *What?*

Alton & Me. What a cute couple! I’m kidding, I’m kidding. But I will say this: it was about 90°F and humid, he had a line of 400-500 people to greet, and he still took the time to be nice to me and draw a little picture on my Erlenmeyer flask. Very professional! Thanks for being a nice guy!