As hard-core foodies go, Alton Brown is firmly poised atop the meringue.
Brown, high-energy star and host, brings the “Alton Brown Live! The Edible Inevitable Tour” to the Mother Lode Theater, 316 W. Park St., at 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 28.
A madcap combination of food demonstrations, food science, musical numbers, talk-show antics, a multimedia lecture, audience interaction, volunteer scenarios and social media aficionados, the culinary variety show visits Butte as part of an extended 14-city tour that ends in Houston on April 4.
“I always wanted to put it together for one large show,” Brown told The Montana Standard via phone recently. “I had this idea for this particular show about five years ago … but it took awhile to put all the pieces together.”
Butte is Brown’s sole Montana stop, so that may play into the robust sales (only 300 tickets are left; see breakout).
Host of the Food Network’s “Cutthroat Kitchen,” Brown’s credentials are well-known in the industry:
He has hosted numerous food series, including “Iron Chef America.” He created, produced and hosted the Peabody Award-winning series “Good Eats” for 13 years on the Food Network. “Good Eats” still airs on the Cooking Channel and on Netflix.
Author of seven books, including the James Beard Award-winning “I’m Just Here for the Food” and the New York Times bestselling sequel, “Good Eats,” Brown bursts with unbridled enthusiasm.
As for Saturday's show in the Mother Lode, “it’s a little bit of everything,” Brown said. “In 2½ hours, it’s multimedia with two very large, potentially dangerous food demonstrations and lots of auditory interaction. I cannot perform, either, without volunteers, so I do choose volunteers from the audience.”
Even puppets and ponchos – the latter provided for those in the first few rows during “extreme” food demonstrations – figure into his show.
He has gleaned his hodge-podge production from science fairs, science festivals, speeches and lectures, too.
“We have combined science, music, food, and a few other things no one in his right mind would allow me to do on TV,” said Brown, “into a two-hour extravaganza that’s fun for the whole family.”
He has cultivated his material for about a decade and wrote most of the musical numbers -- all comedic takes on food.
He forewarns that volunteers will be plucked from the audience to partake in his food shenanigans. But audience members cannot expect to get food samples.