Alton Brown’s Controversial Grilled Grilled Cheese Sandwich →
During the time it takes Alton Brown just to cook the cheese from his grilled-cheese sandwich (for six to nine minutes), separately from the bread, after he spent however much time it took to get a grill fire going and grate a bunch of cheese and slice a loaf of crusty artisanal bread and fashion a pair of specialized cheese-grilling trays out of already-specialized grilling spatulas lined with aluminum foil, you could make, like, a dozen unspeakably delicious grilled-cheese sandwiches in a friggin' pan, in your kitchen, and eat them, and make some more, and eat those.
I love Alton Brown—I’ve seen every episode of Good Eats, I listen to his podcast, I habitually use several of his recipes and many of his tips and tricks, and I have many kitchen tools simply because that’s the (insert kitchen tool here) he used/uses.
That being said, Burneko is 100% right—when I saw Alton’s video (prior to the article) on how to make grilled grilled cheese, I was kind of shocked. Alton has always been about either simplifying a process previously thought to be difficult, or demanding precise tools/ingredients/measurements to make something simple sublime. His grilled grilled cheese seems to be neither. What a disappointment.