Alton Brown Will Never Eat This Food (And We Get It)

I (along with the rest of the internet) am particularly fond of Mythical Kitchen’s Last Meals. Celebrities show off the last meals that they would eat―which essentially becomes a long list of their favorite foods. On the recent season premiere, my childhood hero Alton Brown shared his favorite foods. In talking with the host Josh Scherer, Brown confirmed the rumor that he won’t eat octopus.

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“Because I never had a conversation with a lamb” ― Alton Brown

The conversation led into octopi through the lamb that Brown and Scherer were eating at the time. Scherer questioned the difference between a willingness to eat lamb but the aversion to octopus. It boiled down to Brown having a conversation with an octopus. Well, that might be stretching the situation a smidge, but he explained his point―and it makes sense.

Brown used to visit the octopus at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California often. The first time they met, the octopus stole Brown’s pen right out of his pocket. Then on a subsequent visit, Brown was visiting with the octopus and once again it stole his pen.

“It f***ing remembered me” ― Alton Brown

Brown then went on to say “I was so messed up from that … I went to the bathroom and cried like an actual baby for 20 minutes.” It’s an incredibly valid reaction. We’re so removed from the food systems that produce the food that we eat that it’s a shock when we see them face-to-face. 

I’ve heard many people specifically outline that octopi are off the table for their dinner table. Most of this stems from Netflix’s My Octopus Teacher. In the documentary, Craig Foster grows an intimate relationship with an octopus that he meets while free-diving. Eventually, the octopus shows Foster her world by showing how she lives, eats, and even sleeps. The relationship that Foster shares with the audience was eye opening for a lot of people.

Now naturally, there are a lot of different outcomes to this conversation. One can choose to limit the food that’s on their dinner table by many different criteria. Ultimately, I think it’s too unfair to jump the gun and have a blanket ban on any sentient being that makes its way into your diet. 

Meat and other animal products are more available to some that may not have the capability of getting their needs met through more expensive avenues. It’s all about personal preference and comfort, but it’s nice to see someone as prominent in the food space as Alton Brown share his beliefs.