Alton Brown Issues 'Fanifesto,' Has Bizarre Relationship With Twitter

Good Eats and Iron Chef America host Alton Brown has been struggling with his celebrity status recently. On Monday, in preparation for his upcoming cookbook tour, Brown issued a 1,289-word "fanifesto" in which he laid some ground rules for how his fans should treat him. Things that are not okay include him signing things that are alive, taking pictures with camera phones, taking pictures with his family, talking to a fan on the phone and responding to everyone through social media channels. Oh, and don't block his exit or talk to him in a public restroom.

Ruth Bourdain has some additional rules for celebrity chefs, in response to Brown's "a bit douchey" fanifesto, including:

• Yes, celebrity chefs will sign things besides books. Spoons, cutting boards, mixers, you name it. Most won’t sign living things except for Todd English. That guy will sign your private parts.


• Do: Rub Tom Colicchio’s head with the finest extra virgin olive oil. Don’t: Put barrettes in his soul patch.


• If Mario Batali asks you to shave his truffles, you do it.

Many of Brown's rules actually make sense -- if we were famous, we wouldn't want to have to talk to random strangers on the phone either. But Alton's fanifesto offers a deeper clue into his tenuous relationship with celebrity-dom.

A few weeks ago, he quit Twitter after "a parasitic troll fraudulently posing as my wife started tweeting." Then he re-joined Twitter a few weeks later, saying that "things will be different" because he will answer questions twice a week and limit himself to "culinary and cultural matters." (We're not sure how true this is, given the ridiculous amount of @ replies currently on his feed).

Still, Brown's behavior on Twitter may reveal some insecurity about his status on the social network. Recent tweets such as, "Dear Lord, Fieri has 400K followers. But I bet my 70K could beat them at Scrabble" and "Emmy shmemmy. I don't have shelf room anyway" show a humbler, more self-deprecating side of Brown. Despite the strangeness of his relationship with Twitter, it is nice to think that there is a real personality behind the star.

Comments

[cargocult]

07:13 AM on 09/22/2011

I think Brown should be very proud of Good Eats' run
It has been a consistently entertaining and informative program. A remarkable accomplishment over time. Brown has also been an essential ingredient in finally 'Americanizing' Iron Chef
As for his books, the ones I have seen have had a "noisy" layout and design that made them almost unreadable (although they are mostly re-presentations of info from shows i enjoyed).
As for his travelogue shows: well let's just say he is only the latest in a long, long, long line of people who mistakenly believe i want to watch them ride motorcycles.
I've had the impression over the years that he has been serious about his on camera v. off camera life balance and that he has shown restrain in hyper-monetizing his name like most other Food network 'stars'. Boundaries. Remeber them? Good for him.
His 'fanifesto' seems totally reasonable. If it strikes you as over-reach, you probably aren't the sort of person who would line up for his autograph anyway

[OtayPanky]

11:44 PM on 09/21/2011

Thanks for the hot tip about Welch's Grape Juice!

[petey64]

08:21 PM on 09/21/2011

Enjoy the show and leave him be.

[JPCinVA]

05:31 PM on 09/21/2011

Alton Brown had shown the edges of his culinary foundation by the end of his first season. He is a television producer who came up for an idea for a show, THEN went to culinary school to learn to cook. He presents other chef's ideas and innovations well, but he has little of his own to offer. And some of his "recipes" are downright ridiculous. Remember his jerky recipe, made with furnace filters? He is all show and no substance.

[N0NDescript0]

09:21 AM on 09/22/2011

So that jerky recipe didn't work?

[Sungaal]

11:33 AM on 09/22/2011

It DOES work. I know several people use the method with great results.

[Tekkdude]

01:19 PM on 09/23/2011

Most of his recipes are delicious and I like that he uses things around the house that most people have so that you don't have to go out and buy a special piece of equipment just because you wanted to make beef jerky or anything else. His episode where he created a home smoker from spare parts laying around the house is classic.

[merlin57]

04:48 PM on 09/21/2011

Alton seems to have bought into the whole trendy hipster foodie thing... all he needs is some clever tat's and he will be all set. I don't watch this guy anymore and I wish the FN would can him off Iron Chef and The Next Iron Chef.

[sharooni]

03:16 PM on 09/21/2011

At a presentation and book signing at Borders on Royal and Hillcrest in Dallas a few years ago, AB was f.a.b.u.l.o.u.s at the presentation. He was a mincing, dismissive, snarling d!ckhe@ded prima donna, snapping at people and quibbling with writing dedications requested for books that were to be gifts. The crowd was large, admiring, and appreciative. He appeared to view them as he would something that had had stuck to his shoe in a dog park. I left suppressing the urge to suggest that her should either a) not do book tours where he has to interact with the hoi polloi, b) make his appearances in a full body condom for protection from the mob, or c) inquire about Paxil or other OCD meds from his doctor. For myself, I put the book I was going to buy back in the stack on the table, and left. I have neither watched his shows nor read his books since that incident for it left a truly bitter taste in my mouth. A subsequent re-read of Huis Clos left me mentally casting the characters as Alton Brown and Paula Deen. Haven't figured out the 3rd one yet.

[Mary Blickhahn]

02:30 PM on 09/21/2011

I like his shows and books. I can imagine fame being a bit more then most can handle.

[Gunnar Wordon]

02:16 PM on 09/21/2011

I love you, AB.

[Robyn Singleton]

11:57 AM on 09/21/2011

Alton Brown is awesome!!

[Targetdog]

09:14 AM on 09/21/2011

Love the show Good Eats, the host I'm liking less and less...

[Candace8383]

08:09 AM on 09/21/2011

i used to watch him and i do like the science behind the food since i don't need you tel tell me where i want to go with the flavors but then i lost interest in him and the show i don't know why i just did This whole thing does sound nutty to me he seems a bit over the edge

[xstevejx]

01:07 AM on 09/21/2011

I don't see anything that's unreasonab­le or more likely in jest. HuffPo just sees another thing to sensationa­lise, I guess.

[Seedomang]

01:05 AM on 09/21/2011

Let's pick on him the GOP is boring

[Rigoberto Delgado]

08:04 PM on 09/20/2011

What a douch!!!

[Blue One]

06:52 PM on 09/20/2011

This guy is just a little too glib for my taste.