As a teaser for the two-part series premiere this Sunday, August 25, Alton Brown has released the first episode of his Good Eats reboot — dubbed Good Eats: The Return — on YouTube, and it’s really everything you could possible want from a re-up of this beloved Food Network show.
Brown doesn’t spend any time explaining the nature of the reboot or what the format of the show is; he just launches straight into a brief history of chicken parm and his preferred method for preparing it at home, which involves a paste-like sauce and chicken cutlets coated in breadcrumbs that have been cut with salt-and-vinegar potato chips. As always, the recipe is interspersed with sketch comedy asides — this time about how to spot authentic San Marzano tomatoes, and select the best mortar and pestle for garlic-grinding. Practically every minute of the episode features an unusual camera trick or angle that you wouldn’t find on a typical food TV show.
The structure, tone, and overall style are exactly like the original show, and yet now, in 2019, this feels like a breath of fresh air. Unlike many of the food shows of the day, Good Eats is not a self-serious affair or an opportunity for celebrities to show off their skills in the kitchen, but rather a gleeful — and pleasantly nerdy! — celebration of cooking at home, for fun.
“American Classics X: Chicken Parm” will air on the Food Network at 10 p.m. on Sunday night, followed immediately by another new episode, dubbed “Every Grain Old Is New Again.” Check out the chicken parm episode in its entirety in the clip above, and stay tuned for a chat with Alton about the Good Eats revival on Eater early next week.
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