Alton Brown On His Favorite Food Around The Country — And Why He Won’t Tell You Where To Get It – Exclusive

Would you say then that the best place to go for barbecue now is somewhere less known versus a St. Louis, Kansas City, or Memphis?

The best barbecue in the United States is in western Kentucky.

Where at in western Kentucky?

I’m not going to freaking tell you. I’m not telling you the name of the place. No, not doing it. I am not doing it. You know why? Because the guy that runs that place is probably perfectly happy with business exactly the way it is. Not everyone wants notoriety, and I am not going to do that without that person’s permission.

But I’ll tell you this. It’s mutton. They’re serving mutton, not pig and not cow. They’re serving mutton. You know why? Because you can still get mutton that tastes like something in America. It’s very difficult to get pork that tastes like anything in America, which is why everybody uses so much barbecue sauce.

What about with pizza? Beyond Chicago or New York City, is there another city doing it well?

There is very, very, very good pizza in Chicago, and it’s all on the South Side. It’s deep in the South Side. Not going to say where, but I know where it is. I can get to it, but I’m not going to tell you what it is because I don’t want them to have to deal with that… There is really, really good pizza in Des Moines, Iowa. There is really good pizza in Omaha, Nebraska.

What’s their style?

To me, pizza all breaks down into how it’s cooked… Most of the Chicago pizza that I really like down on the South Side is what I call deck pizza. It’s cooked in deck ovens the way New York slice pizza is, as opposed to Neapolitan or a real, real, real high-heat wood-fire oven, which is a completely different style, or a deep-dish style, like the Pizza Uno style of Chicago, which I think is more fondue than pizza, personally, but some people like it.

So I’m going to call it deck pizza. The real differences come down to really small eccentricities in dough fermentation, sauce style, and toppings.

You could drop me in any part of the United States, and I’d like to think that after three pizzas, I’d be able to tell you where I was exactly, but I’ve gotten rusty. I need to clean up my pizza game, most likely. I’m obsessed with pizza.