Maybe you know him as star of his Peabody Award-winning show, “Good Eats.” Or maybe you’ve followed his insightful commentary on “Iron Chef America” or as host and judge of “The Next Iron Chef.” But later this month, you can catch celebrity chef Alton Brown around town drumming up awareness for sustainable seafood – and he has a fish to fry with what we put on our plates.
Alton BrownCheck the skies for a giant, trout-shaped blimp skimming our horizon. If you see it, you’ll know that celebrity chef Alton Brown got his way. He jokes about his showy entrance into the Scenic City while sitting in the third floor conference room at the Tennessee Aquarium, fleshing out the details of their new partnership. He cracks a wry smile on his uncharacteristically scruffy face.
Even if he can’t convince the world’s largest freshwater aquarium to build him a flying fish, Brown plans to uphold his end of the bargain by helping the Aquarium launch its new sustainable seafood initiative, Serve & Protect. And while the goal is to make lasting changes in Chattanooga’s palate, Brown insists the motives aren’t to deprive but rather to introduce.
“Eating sustainably is a lot more about making new discoveries rather than closing doors,” explains Brown, a James Beard award-winning cookbook author and Food Network star. “It’s not ‘You can’t have this!’ It’s more, ‘Hey, have you tried this?'” And that is precisely the question Brown hopes to ask while in town for the kickoff weekend, held Sept. 22-25. It begins Thursday evening with a cooking demonstration by Brown in the Aquarium’s IMAX theatre, followed by a gourmet dinner highlighting sustainable seafood and local produce prepared by chefs from some of Chattanooga’s finest restaurants. During the seated dinner, guests will enjoy a conversation with that chef, local produce supplier and Aquarium expert. Friday and Saturday, those eight restaurant partners will highlight special sustainable seafood offerings on their menus. Finally on Sunday, Brown will emcee the Chattanooga Market’s Cast Iron Cook-off, featuring sustainable seafood in addition to the market’s bounty.
Alton Brown gets a closer look at the food that is served to the fish and mammals at the AquariumBrown also visited last month to work one-on-one with local chefs and wait staffs, helping them get geared up to tell the story – one of his specialties. “It’s all about the narrative,” he explains. A longtime crusader of the cause, it’s a story he’s used to telling. As an avid scuba diver Brown’s concern for our oceans was ignited when his daughter showed an interest in the sport. He feared by the time she was his age, there might not be much to see underwater.