Pop quiz (courtesy of Good Eats)

I watch a show that has been running since 1998, locally and then nationally, called “Good Eats”, hosted by chef Alton Brown. I just discovered the show this year. It runs in half-hour episodes, and while I don’t look to it for recipes, I do find it useful for cooking and grilling tips, and general information (like the difference between baking powder and baking soda). Brown has a delightful screen presence, so it’s been a pleasure to watch him age over time, to gain weight and then go back to svelte using diet tips I would throw out the window, but by which he lost 50 pounds. (Hint: Smoothies are not my thing.)

I tend to watch every episode, even as artichokes, beets and turnips are not of great interest.  But watching as I do early each evening (there are perhaps two hundred shows available by my count), I notice they occasionally (and subtly) toss in a movie or music reference, leaving it to the viewer to decide where it came from. Below are three I’ve picked up on, and I leave it to you to provide the reference. (It helps to have been born in the 20th Century.)

1. Alton was standing in a kitchen trying to figure out how they could squeeze a half hour show out of avocados, and rolled one away in frustration. It rolled a long way on camera and landed in a sink full of water, and he and his helpers went over to marvel at how avocados float. “What else floats?” wondered Alton. Suggestions came from the staffers around him, and a tiny voice in the background said “Very small rocks?” That was the movie reference.
2. I don’t remember what topic the show he was doing was about, but an overbearing staff member was interrupting him on camera, and he finally lost his temper and told a couple of thugs to take him off camera and beat him. As the noise of beating began off-camera, the man pleaded “Not in the face! Not in the face!” That was the movie reference.
3. The last one is more obvious and easier for most. Alton was doing a show on bread pudding, an English treat, and before he started he reminded the audience in an angry voice, “If you don’t eat your meat, you can’t have your pudding!” That was not a movie, but rather a music reference.

That’s it. I’d be surprised if most of you cannot go 3 for 3. People should be right on top of this, and in the meantime, when I have a few minutes, I will try to locate film and sound clips.