It's Alive with Brad

Bon Appétit Test Kitchen manager, Brad Leone, is back and this time he's learning how to make chocolate. (Fermentation plays a key role in the chocolate making process!) Brad travels with Guittard Chocolate to visit a cacao farm in Ecuador where he learns how farmers harvest and ferment cacao beans.

This is part 2 of Brad's adventure to learn how chocolate is made. Brad joins Amy Guittard at the Guittard chocolate factory in San Francisco to follow fermented cacao beans on their journey toward becoming finished chocolate products. Check out Part 1, which took place in at a cacao farm in Ecuador if you haven't already!

This time Brad takes his skills out of the kitchen and into the woods to teach you how to build the perfect campfire for cooking delicious food outdoors. Whether you're at a campground, backyard, or taking a quick day trip into the woods, Brad's setup lets you get creative and flex your outdoor culinary skills.

Join Brad as he prepares a breakfast feast with his multi-zone campfire. He ends up with a delicious egg, potato, and bacon mix, a cheesy sausage wheel, some scrumptious stone fruit, and roughly nine-and-a-half of his fingers.

Brad wraps up his camping series with some delicious campfire cooked BBQ ribs, corn on the cob, and a neat little tip on how to make the most of your cooler.

In this special edition of It's Alive, Bon Appétit Test Kitchen Manager Brad Leone shows you that he's not perfect. Despite a nearly flawless record thus far, Brad demonstrates he knows no bounds when it comes to going off topic, expressing himself with colorful language, and yelling at a tent.

Brad tackles the fermentation classic: sourdough bread. Brad is joined by Bon Appétit's own Claire Saffitz, Senior Food Editor and baker extraordinaire to guide him on this journey.

Brad visits Ben Jacobsen, of Jacobsen Salt Co. (and many "It's Alive" cameos), to learn how seawater from the Pacific Northwest is turned into some of the best salt products in the world.

Time to learn how honey is harvested. In this episode, Brad visits his friends at Bee Local at The Croft Farm just outside Portland, Oregon, to extract honey and test his skills as a bee whisperer.