"[Flame] makes soot, and it makes deposits of various chemicals that are not too good for us. The last thing you really want to see licking at your food while it's on a grill is an actual flame." says Brown, who kicks up the science on Food Network's Good Eats, Iron Chef America and Food Network Star.

Brown is also a grilling enthusiast ("I grill, therefore I am," he says) with seven grills at home. So when you're talking about backyard cookouts with Brown, make sure you know the difference between grilling and barbecuing. Barbecue, according to Brown, is "a meat product produced by long slow cooking and exposure to a good deal of smoke and is usually some part of a pig."