Foodie News

What it was like to be a contestant on Alton Brown's show in Dallas

Alton Brown at the Music Hall in Dallas on December 10.

Geoff Keah

NOTE: Geoff Keah, a food-savvy Dallas resident, attended the Alton Brown show in Dallas on December 10 and shares his first-person account of participating as a contestant on stage.

I thought I knew my steaks — but I got tripped up by the T-bone.

That was my downfall when I joined culinary whiz Alton Brown on stage as a contestant in his Alton Brown Live: Beyond The Eats - The Holiday Variant! show at the Music Hall at Fair Park.

Since 2013, Brown has periodically mounted this culinary variety show tour featuring food trivia, cooking lessons, and a game show with volunteers.

I've always been an AB fan - I love his quirky way of introducing the science behind why things work the way they do when cooking/baking. His style isn’t for everyone, which makes it even more appreciable.

I brought my dad along for the ride, which included tickets to a pre-show VIP Q&A featuring Alton and his wife, Elizabeth: It consisted of a 30-minute session where attendees asked whatever they wanted about his shows such as Good Eats and The Next Iron Chef, as well as a multitude of questions about food.

The official show opened promptly at 7:30 pm, when Brown and his band played a comedic, holiday-themed ditty, followed by a bit called "Rolodex of Regrets" -- humorous outtakes from various times in his life. One example involved his Aunt Verna and a case of mistaken chocolate that turned out to be Ex-Lax.

alton brown The T-bone was especially tricky.Geoff Keah

Fun and games
Next came the game show segment, requiring volunteers from the audience. Many raised their hands, but luckily enough, I was seated dead center in the front row, right in front of the mic, and got called on stage, along with my two food-savvy opponents, a woman named Liz and another woman named Chris.

In the first round, Alton asked culinary questions, often bizarre, and we hit our buzzers to answer. Unfortunately, I scored only one point here, and I can't even recall the question. Years of Toastmasters go out the window when you’re in front of a live audience and Alton Brown is the emcee.

For the next round, we each faced individual challenges. These would determine who would reign supreme.

Liz had to identify ingredients that were in one of his famous recipes.
Chris had to identify tins of spices. (Post-segment, one of the producers said this challenge was harder than you’d think. He said that people usually take a big sniff of the first tin, and it’s so overpowering, it throws off their palate for the rest of the segment.)
I had to identify cuts of beef.

I was led to a chalkboard-style diagram of an Angus Beef Chart and tasked with correctly placing a whole slew of beef cut tags -- brisket, chuck, skirt, rib eye, filet, sirloin - into their corresponding areas of the cow. All within a glorious 60 seconds.

The T-bone was especially tricky, because it also includes the filet/tenderloin as well as the strip steak. I am certain I could nail this sitting in the comfort of my own home, but when the pressure is on, things go south quickly!

And yet, I still made second place. My prize: a four-inch golden trophy with the show logo stickered onto the side. Liz, who'd skunked us all in the first contest, won first place.

My time on stage now done, I could sit back and enjoy the ride, but Alton wasn't done with me yet.

Intermission
After intermission came the "spicy segment," in which contestants must eat spicy wings on stage.

A pair of 22-year-old twin girls from Louisiana, who'd also attended the VIP segment, were selected, and powered through some pretty spicy wings with aplomb.

They threw Alton off his game so much, that he approached me in my seat and asked what was in my drink that I'd left sitting on stage. "Vodka," I said. He chugged half my drink and gave me his nutmeg in exchange.

Post show note: Some of us were able to taste the chicken wings. They had a nice heat signature/zing, but they weren’t nearly as hot as you might expect.

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Movie Review

Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney go off in trashy film The Housemaid

Photo courtesy of Lionsgate

Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney in The Housemaid.

Both Amanda Seyfried (the upcoming The Testament of Ann Lee) and Sydney Sweeney (Christy) are starring in movies with Oscar ambitions this year. By sheer coincidence, the two actors are also co-starring in The Housemaid, a thriller coming out within weeks of their more ambitious works, one that is likely to be seen by many more people than those prestige plays.

Sweeney is given top billing as Millie, a down-on-her-luck ex-convict looking to land any type of job so as not to break her parole. She finds a too-good-to-be-true lifeboat with Nina (Seyfried), who hires her to be a housemaid for her large house on Long Island, where she lives with her husband, Andrew (Brandon Sklenar), and daughter, Cecilia (Indiana Elle).

After a warm interview, Nina almost immediately becomes highly erratic, whipping back-and-forth between happy-go-lucky and rageful. It seems clear that Nina is suffering from mental health issues, as she’ll often accuse Millie of misplacing or stealing items that she didn’t take. Andrew, apparently used to Nina’s tirades, tries to protect Millie from the worst, something that grows increasingly difficult as Nina ups the ante.

Directed by Paul Feig (A Simple Favor) and adapted by Rebecca Sonnenshine from the bestselling book by Freida McFadden, the film is likely the trashiest mainstream movie to come out in 2025. The first half of the movie relies not on story but on moments as Nina embodies the word “hysterical” to an unbelievable extent. The resigned acceptance of the abuse by Millie, as well as the saintly patience of Andrew, make almost every scene laughable, as nobody seems to be acting anywhere close to how a person would normally react to such extreme situations.

The scenes and the performance of Seyfried are so over-the-top, in fact, that it’s clear that the filmmakers are in on the joke. It’s next to impossible not to have a little bit of fun while watching the actors react to outrageous incidents as if nothing is out of the ordinary. The worse Nina acts, the more Millie and Andrew retreat into their chosen roles, and the funnier the film becomes.

Fans of the book will know that the story changes course, eventually turning into a more stereotypical thriller that also has some relatively gnarly visuals to offer. But the trashiness continues, with Sweeney’s, um, assets repeatedly on display in both clothed and unclothed ways. The sex appeal of the R-rated movie makes it an outlier, as recent studio films have shied away from asking their big stars to disrobe completely.

Both Seyfried and Sweeney are far from their Oscar hopeful roles here. Seyfried is given free rein to act as brazenly as she pleases, and she takes full advantage of that ability. Sweeney seems to have been told to be much more reserved, and unfortunately that results in too many wooden line readings. Sklenar continues his breakout streak (It Ends with Us, Drop) with a role that allows him to show more range than either Seyfried or Sweeney.

The Housemaid is an unusual type of movie to be released at a time of year when most films are either those aiming for awards or more family-friendly fare. Despite its many flaws, it’s still an enjoyable watch that features a variety of crazy scenarios not typically seen in movies nowadays.

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The Housemaid is now playing in theaters.

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