Alton Brown Has Divided Twitter With His Latest 'Culinary Truth'

How much garlic is too much garlic? Now that's a question that has long divided the world. Some say that there is no such thing as too much garlic and insist that the more garlic used, the better the dish will taste. In 2019, the New York Times tweeted a recipe for a dip that called for a whole head of roasted garlic and wrote that using so much garlic might "scare" some but that the dip would taste out of the world. However, the Twitterverse called the newspaper out for insinuating that using so much garlic was anything out of the ordinary at all. "Wait.. I'm so confused... do people NOT add at least three whole cloves of garlic to every home cooked meal?" questioned one user.

While garlic loyalists might insist that there's nothing wrong with eating entire bulbs on a daily basis, especially given garlic's proven health benefits, Healthline indicates that for some, eating too much garlic can lead to uncomfortable symptoms like heartburn and digestive issues.

As for the flavor of a recipe that using so much garlic might affect, in her legendary cookbook "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking" Marcella Hazan says that using too much garlic without balancing it is "the single greatest cause of failure in would-be Italian cooking" (via The Globe and Mail). It turns out, Hazan isn't alone in dropping culinary truth bombs about garlic. Alton Brown has Twitter divided over his own scandalous opinion.

The Food Network star caused a culinary battle among fans when he published a tweet stating "Why do we need gazpacho police? BECAUSE YOU GUYS KEEP ADDING TOO MUCH GARLIC." This rant, however, did not sit well with some of his fans. One comment compared garlic with money to argue that in both cases, it can never be too much. 

The Tweet debate escalated when a fan wrote, "Alton, I've always stood behind anything you've ever said, but this is where I have to draw the line. There is no such thing as too much garlic." To this, Brown replied, "#CulinaryTruth YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!"

While some insist that you can never add too much garlic, even if it means being caught by the gazpacho police, others are coming out in defense of the chef. One user even reveals stomach issues after eating too much garlic. One fan, however, offers a more enlightening stance on the garlic debate, stating "AB I love and respect you, but you are wrong sir there is no such thing as too much garlic. What there is however is a lack of understanding how to balance the garlic." 

As the world remains divided over the use of garlic cloves, there might be one universal agreement, Twitter is an entertaining arena for watching people hash out their culinary differences.