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The summer months give us the rare chance to check in with cable's on-screen talent. Few are more engaging than Alton Brown, 46, host of Food's "Good Eats" and "Iron Chef America." Brown flew into D.C. last month (yes, he pilots his own plane) to emcee Cable's Leaders in Learning awards luncheon. We found Brown exactly the same in person as he is on screen: erudite, opinionated, hilarious. It was not a coincidence that he was hosting this lunch, as he's fiercely proud of Good Eats' emergence as one of Scripps Networks' most sought-after series for Cable In The Classroom. Excerpts from our chat follow. A longer version will be posted at cablefax.com later this month as Brown celebrates 100 eps of Good Eats. Does the fact that you know teachers and students are watching Good Eats influence how you do the show? Absolutely not. I don't shape my show based on any criteria whatsoever. If I make it any good at all, then I leave it alone and just keep doing it. Nobody influences me. And I'm very happy to say Food Network has never tried to influence me. I don't question it, I just make the gosh darned thing. But we know you're involved in the lesson plans that have been created to accompany the series. I guess the show had been on a year, a year and a half, and I started hearing kids saying they would see Good Eats at school. At that time, teachers were taping it at home and bringing it in [to school]. Now Cable in the Classroom has made that much, much easier. Once I knew it was in the system, I tried to remain aware of what the [lesson] plans were like and how it was being used. Then I heard it was being used a lot for home schooling and by home school organizations. I became very interested in that because it was being used for science, home economic and writing, of all things, which is extremely flattering. A lot of the popularity of the show was driven by children initially, getting their parents to watch. Then they began watching together. So you're aware of your role as family entertainment? Yes, all the Scripps Networks shows do this. The best thing I can hear from viewers is, 'We don't cook that much; we're not that into food, but we sit down and watch Good Eats together as a family.' Boom. Bingo. I can step away I've done everything I've wanted to do... it's like a Pixar movie, it reaches kids and adults... that's all I could ever ask for being on television. How do you get feedback? From people. I do a fair number of live events and I treat every one as a focus group. I don't believe in focus groups... they only lead you to lose the very best and very worst of anything. But I spend a lot of time talking to people, and I listen to them. One reason my book signings can tend be long is that I've got this nuclear family buying this many books and this many DVDs from me--what can I learn from them in 1 minute? In 30 seconds? And I have questions I ask.