Under the Sea: Alton Brown

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YOU MAY KNOW him as the quick-talking host of Food Network's "Good Eats," or the culinary sportscaster on the television network's "Iron Chef America," but this time around, Alton Brown isn't gracing D.C. with his presence to promote his shows. He's currently preoccupied with the state of the world's oceans.

Brown will be at the National Museum of Natural History for a sold-out seafood tasting March 20 and a sold-out luncheon on March 21. Before the luncheon, though, Brown will head a panel on sustainable seafood — tickets are still available from Residentassociates.org. The activist chatted with Express about his TV shows, his science background and his fears for the life aquatic.

» EXPRESS: How does an episode of "Good Eats" come together?
» BROWN: I like to see it this way — if you don't like "Good Eats," you only have me to blame — I'm at the helm. On the other hand, if you like it, I can't take all the credit. I can only take all the blame.

» EXPRESS: Do you ever employ methods from the show at home?
» BROWN: I actually apply stranger or less safe methods at home. Most of the stuff that ends up on the show that seems unorthodox or downright insane is usually stuff I came up with at my house.

» EXPRESS: Do you have a background in science?
» BROWN: I flunked all of my high school and college courses at least one time. I sucked. I felt like nothing mattered … none of it was applied science. Then I realized pretty early in my cooking career that I wasn't very good at culinary arts either, and I knew science was going to have to be the answer.

» EXPRESS: Is narrating "Iron Chef" as hard as it looks?
» BROWN: I cram. I study a huge amount and I show up really early for work.

» EXPRESS: What can people expect of the sustainable seafood panel?
» BROWN: I never walk into these things with any expectations, but, basically, I don't understand why people aren't freaked out, why people aren't concerned. People don't think about anything that happens under the waves, like the fact that there might not be any seafood in 20 years.

» EXPRESS: How can people participate in the sustainable seafood movement?
» BROWN: Understand about the choices they're making. We vote mostly without money. I started working with Monterey Bay Aquarium — their Seafood Watch has become my touchstone for what I eat and how I eat out of the ocean.

You've got to look at where it's coming from. The simplest thing to do is print out the sustainable seafood regional guide from Seafoodwatch.org and put it in your wallet. Sometimes it's things you wouldn't expect — for example, there is no excuse for farmed salmon, but farmed tilapia is something we should be supporting.

Photo courtesy Studio Chamber