'I'm not normal' - the quirky genius that is Alton Brown

Alton Brown thinks about food differently than you do. You don't get obsessive with hummus. He does. You don't research the long, weird history of nutmeg or put sumac in everything. He does.

You never considered having spaghetti in the morning. He did - and made it delicious. "Why aren't we having pasta for breakfast? I don't understand why we don't do this?" the TV chef and writer asked recently.

You can find Brown at the intersection of food, science, history and theater. It's a weird place, as even he admits: "I don't fit in anywhere." He has a restless, inquisitive mind and a chemist's rigor. He blends his own red pepper flakes and yet knows how strange that is. "I'm a freak," he confesses.