Ranking Every Alton Brown Cookbook from Worst to Best

Alton Brown’s humor, snark, and scientific explanations transcend television to grace the pages of several cookbooks, but knowing which are the best can be a challenge. So, we’ve perused the pages of all eight of his cookbooks to try to figure out what makes each one stand out. They’re all excellent, with an average rating ranging from 4.35 to 4.65 stars across Amazon and Goodreads. So, you’re not going to go wrong choosing any of them. However, we wanted to dig a little deeper to determine what made them different, which made the most readers happy, and why.

If you’re familiar at all with Alton Brown, you know that his food explanation style in his television shows includes a lot of quirky facts, humor, and science-backed cooking instructions to help you understand what’s happening to your food, as well as a little experimentation. He takes the same approach to writing cookbooks. In fact, it seems that people often read Brown’s cookbooks for the entertainment and educational factor more than anything else. So, we explored all eight of his cookbooks and their reviews to help us rank and explain what to expect from them, which should allow you to have a better idea of which you might want to add to your cookbook collection.

“I’m Just Here for the Food” first came out in 2002. The 2.0 update (the one currently in print) came out in 2006 with 15 more recipes. This was the first of Alton Brown’s cookbooks and, thus, the most popular as fans have flocked to it over the years. As you may be able to gather from the “Food + Heat = Cooking” subtitle, it’s a cookbook mostly about how heat affects food during cooking. So, it explores cooking types in its various chapters that include searing, grilling, roasting, frying, boiling, braising, and microwaving. He also includes chapters on brining, sauces, and eggs.

The cookbook contains plenty of explanatory info to help you cook better. For example, in the “Searing” chapter, Brown explains which types of pans are better for searing based on how different metals conduct heat, how to “feed” an iron skillet, kitchen equipment you might need for searing, and other searing advice. Then, he presents seven well-explained recipes (like skirt steak and cast-iron duck) that feature the searing technique. An Amazon reviewer explains that “[t]here’s no difference between the book and his shows except that there’s no need for hurriedly copying down recipe ingredients.”

Reviewers appreciate Brown’s ability to entertain and inform, making the science of cooking interesting and accessible to anyone. Although the cookbook averages ratings above four stars on both Amazon and Goodreads, it has the lowest percentage of four- and five-star reviews. It also has a far higher percentage of negative reviews than any of his other cookbooks. Although there are some illustrations in the book, they’re not overly helpful, and there are no recipe photos. Plus, the recipes are overly verbose, requiring you to parse through a lot of conversations.

The 2008 cookbook “Feasting on Asphalt: The River Run” is Alton Brown’s least popular based on the number of reviews it has. Brown wrote it as a companion cookbook to his 2007 TV series by the same name. It showcases forty recipes from his motorcycle road trip along the path of the Mississippi River, trying food in eateries along the way. Some of the restaurants were willing to share their recipes, while others left Brown to make recreations based on the memory of flavor.

Brown and his crew (which includes photographer and chef Jean-Claude Dhien) start in Louisiana and travel north along the Mississippi River, stopping in diners, inns, markets, and other places that serve food along the way. Toward the start of his journey in New Orleans, Louisiana, he orders a crawfish bowl at Big Fisherman Seafood. In Illinois and Iowa, he encounters loose meat sandwiches. Further north in Crosby, Minnesota, he samples parsley bread from the Nordic Inn.

It’s not only a cookbook but a travel account. Readers find it entertaining as they enjoy the experience of Alton Brown’s journey up the Mississippi. One Amazon reviewer says, “It is well worth reading, the recipes are clear and simple, and the whole journey is a sirens song.” While it’s a highly-rated cookbook, it has the second lowest percentage of four- and five-star reviews of any of Brown’s cookbooks. It also has a few more one- and two-star ratings than some of Brown’s other cookbooks. Those who didn’t like it as much seemed to not like Brown’s rambling writing style or wished for more recipes.

With the popularity of his first cookbook, where cooking over heat was the star, Alton Brown followed it up with a second cookbook in 2004 that explains baking in more detail. “I’m Just Here for More Food: Food + Mixing + Heat = Baking” is Brown’s third most popular cookbook according to the number of ratings it has and has the sixth highest percentage of four- and five-star reviews. It features chapters for making muffins, biscuits, pies, and custards. Plus, it has chapters for recipes that require creaming, straight dough, or egg foaming.

The format of Brown’s second book is far more appealing. However, we love the unique layout, and so do reviewers. Recipe ingredients are laid out in spreadsheet style, with columns for ingredients, weight, volume, count, and prep requirements. The recipes are easier to read, with extra wide side margins for all the pro tips and ramblings and to write recipe notes. Another bonus of the margins is that it allows the cookbook to contain master method foldovers that you can fold out and over subsequent recipes. While there are some ordinary recipes like buttermilk pancakes and pizza dough, there are also more intriguing ones like piña colada waffles and zabaglione.

An impressed Amazon reviewer says, “Alton takes the complexities of baking … and explains why various ingredients and processes work or fail. I am an accomplished cook, but could never produce great baked goods before reading this book.” While reviewers seem to like the few technique illustrations, there aren’t nearly enough. Nor are there any photos of the finished products. Some people find it to have too much information, but at least it’s easier to skim for what you need because of the excellent format.

In 2016, Alton Brown decided to do a more traditional style cookbook called “EveryDayCook.” Rather than being a cookbook full of scientific cooking methods, it contains recipes Brown enjoys cooking for himself. While it’s the fourth most popular based on the number of reviews, it only has the fifth-highest percentage of four- and five-star reviews.

After pages and pages of Brown explaining his favorite kitchen gadgets, ingredients, and cooking methods, you finally get to the recipes. Recipes are categorized by the time of day, which Brown says is the way his brain works. However, you can also find them divided by method and category at the end of the book, like baking, blackening, boiling, and others. Something unique to this cookbook is that the recipes often contain boxed letters beside ingredients or cooking steps to indicate that you can find more information in a certain section of the introduction. In the e-book version, these are clickable, as are some of the ingredients or methods he talks about elsewhere. Oh, and Brown decided to do his own photos for this cookbook, which are sometimes humorous and not always terribly professional looking. However, some recipes look intriguing, like the general’s fried chicken, turkey tikka masala, and chicken piccata.

As usual, reviewers find Brown’s jovial banter fun to read. An Amazon reviewer explains it as being “a little bit ‘mad scientist.'” They say, “I don’t think I’ll be making some of the recipes in here soon, but I spent a few happy hours reading the book from cover to cover.” The cookbook does have a few one- and two-star reviews. Some reviewers don’t find enough convenient recipes in it that don’t require specialized gadgets or complain about measurements being in grams (although the e-book version I have uses cups).

Alton Brown’s “Good Eats” cookbooks are the best of the cookbooks he’s put out. The first one that came out in 2009, “Good Eats: The Early Years,” slots into the number four spot. It’s the second most popular one to own based on the number of reviewers, and it comes in number four when you look at the percentage of four- and five-star reviews together. Each chapter in the cookbook corresponds to one of the first six seasons of the TV Show “Good Eats,” which came out 10 years earlier than the cookbook (although it only covers the first 13 episodes of season six).

This cookbook uses the same groundbreaking format as “I’m Just Here for More Food,” with spreadsheet-style ingredient lists, instructions in the body of the page, and extra tips, diagrams, and photos in the margins. Having photos makes these cookbooks better than the earlier ones. However, all the information packed into each chapter and around each recipe is almost an overload. And the photos tend to be clips from the TV show rather than mouthwatering food photos.

Reviewers like the quirky story-telling writing style that mirrors the TV show. “Finally!” an Amazon reviewer exclaims, “No more having to dig through the search engine of the Food Network website or dreading that I wrote the wrong measurement or ingredient while watching the show.” Reviewers appreciate all the TV show recipes being available in one place, like pan-seared ribeye steak from the very first episode or B&B chicken from the fifth episode. The book has a significantly low percentage of one- and two-star reviews. However, the organizational style is cluttered and disorienting, and it still needs work, which seems to be what most people talk about if they have something negative to say.

The second “Good Eats” cookbook was available for fans in 2010 and starts with recipes from the last six episodes of season six through the first 13 episodes of season 10. “Good Eats 2: The Middle Years.” It has the third highest percentage of four- and five-star reviews combined, showing improvement over the first “Good Eats” cookbook.

The layout of the second “Good Eats” cookbook is significantly better and hurts your brain a little less to try to process. It maintains the idea of ingredients in a spreadsheet format with notes and tips in the margins. However, there’s more uniformity to the template, and the photos are ever so slightly larger, which is more helpful for helping you decide what you might like to cook. You get recipes like the spinach and ricotta filling that you can stuff into the fresh pasta dough from episode 81 in season six. Plus, there are some extra recipes not in the show and improvements upon the original recipes based on fan comments and learning new techniques over the years.

Fans of the show like not having to write down recipes from the show to make them. And the cookbook is just as informative and fun as the shows are. An Amazon reviewer says this cookbook helps them to “understand why you have to do things in a certain order, which I feel not many books are able to do. The information is presented in an entertaining manner as well, which helps me retain it better.” Like the first “Good Eats” cookbook, this one has a very low percentage of one- and two-star reviews. However, the only complaint we found was one wishing for an ordered list of recipes rather than just a list of episode titles, and we agreed.

Alton Brown produced a third “Good Eats” cookbook in 2011, “Good Eats 3: The Later Years,” which covers the last seven episodes of season 10 through season 14. Based on how many reviews there are for it, it’s the sixth most popular by number of reviews. It also boasts having the second-highest percentage of five-star and four- and five-star reviews. So, Brown’s cookbooks seem to be getting better and better even if fewer fans bought them.

The third “Good Eats” cookbook looks almost identical in format to the second one. Still, there’s no master list of recipes in order by episode. However, the pages still feature spreadsheet-style ingredients with all the extra notes in the margins. The photos are still on the small side, but they do help to demonstrate multi-step processes and give you an idea of what the finished product might look like.

Once again, reviewers find this cookbook series entertaining, with information presented in a way that’s orderly and easy to follow. The last couple of pages of the book are a sock puppet blueprint (like the one from the cover), which the other cookbooks don’t have. Overall, this cookbook has the lowest percentage of one- and two-star reviews. The few complaints seem to be about the layout and not being able to easily find the recipes.

The very best of Alton Brown’s cookbooks is “Good Eats 4: The Final Years,” which he released in 2022. Since it’s the newest, it hasn’t had as much time to gather reviews as the others, leaving it the seventh most popular. However, it has the absolute highest percentage of four- and five-star reviews among all Brown’s cookbooks. It covers recipes from both seasons of “Good Eats: Reloaded,” plus the lost season. It also covers the recipes from both seasons of “Good Eats: The Return.”

It’s clear that the production team of “Reloaded” and “The Return” had the cookbook in mind, as the photos are far better and larger than the ones in previous cookbooks, living up to the expectations many readers now have for modern cookbooks. It has a more modern format with no more spreadsheets for ingredients. Extra notes are relegated to footnotes rather than hanging out in the margins. While we miss the ingredient spreadsheets, it’s a much prettier cookbook than any of the others, reminding us more of a textbook layout, but in a good way. 

While there are a few popular older Brown recipes, they’re updated to be better and not just showcases of cooking methods. It’s also appealing to people who have never seen the show before but are drawn in by the recipes and Brown’s fun and highly readable style. An Amazon reviewer described it as being “hilarious, entertaining, and just a fun reference to go to whenever I find myself in possession of one random ingredient or another.” There really aren’t a whole lot of negative reviews, either.

To rank Alton Brown’s cookbooks, we looked at several metrics related to reader reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. Overall, the percentage of four- and five-star reviews seemed to be a pretty good indication of how happy they make cookbook readers. We also looked at the percentage of one- and two-star reviews to see which books were making the most readers unhappy and why, and they seemed to line up fairly well with how happy the four- and five-star raters were. We also tried to get our eyes on as many of these cookbooks as possible, checking both physical and e-book versions out of the library when available and looking at extensive book previews when they were not.