Alton Brown's Last Meal Is Heavy On The Booze

Across dozens of YouTube episodes, Mythical Kitchen's "Last Meals" show probes celebrities with the ultimate culinary question: What would comprise life's final feast? Split into several courses, with drinks included, the requests come wide-ranging and insightful. Joseph Gordon-Levitt famously opted for exclusively cereal, while Gordon Ramsay's ideal last meal consisted of truffle scrambled eggs, butter chicken, and beef Wellington, all concluded with two Scottish desserts.

So when Alton Brown — beloved James Beard Award-winning television host, chef, writer, and internet personality — came on the show, his selections were accompanied by great anticipation. The underlying thread? Booze.

Served alongside the dishes, the liquid pairings begin with a shot of Chopin potato vodka for the first course, before segueing into a London dry martini — crafted with Beefeater gin and garnished with a pickled caper berry. The second course — a seafood-heavy feast — comes with a three-year-aged junmai sake, as well as two types of French Chablis white wine: Fourchaume and Vaillons. The dual wine pairing continues into the savory finale with a glass of Gevrey-Chambertin, a bold French red wine, as well as Amarone, a coveted rich yet dry Italian wine. Finally, to conclude the meal, there's a French Sauternes dessert wine — dedicated specifically to complementing fresh peaches — as well as a pour of Bowmore 18 Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky. A cheeky glass of half-and-half appears, too — though, to be fair, it's primarily reserved for dunking cookies. All in all, the bottle assembly is impressive, a reflection of Brown's meticulous curation.

Although he so often highlights food, drink culture is also part of Alton Brown's repertoire. Whether clarifying spirits or crafting Brown's Bitter Truth — his own signature cocktail — a tasty tipple often appears in Brown's released media. "I know that [in] every culture that I have visited ... there's been something to drink that made the food add a dimension," noted the chef (via YouTube).

Accordingly, his selected beverage pairings play a prominent role, occupying a spotlight often equal to the eats. Prior to his "Last Meals" appearance, Brown revealed potato chips as his favorite comfort food, with a martini as his designated comfort drink. In the video, the two fittingly appear as the appetizer, albeit with some Ossetra caviar alongside. "I realized that my entire culinary thing came out of my father teaching me how to make martinis," Brown noted in the video, reinforcing the prominence of the cocktail in his life.

Such beverage poignancy continues later into the meal, once the white wine arrives alongside the Kusshi oysters. "Wine is mostly important because of its ability to connect to our emotions," Brown said, furthering a sentimental tone. A glass of red wine accompanies Brown's first bite of lamb in 25 years, and booziness even seeps into the dessert itself via a Port-soaked pear. At the interview's conclusion, Brown and his interviewed, Josh Scherer, bonded over the existential nature of drinking. Sure, Brown's a fan of nonalcoholic spirits, too, but in this video, boozy tipples play an important role.