A Goodbye to Good Eats

Last week, it was announced that the Food Network series "Good Eats" will come to an end after nearly 13 years and 249 episodes. It is a show that will not only change the way you look at cooking television but the way you look at food. Period. Host/mastermind Alton Brown (aka the host of "Iron Chef America") forged a gold standard which nobody before or since has even come close to, using nothing but a superhuman enthusiasm for knowledge. For that alone, he deserves a statue in the nerd hall of fame.

Food Network is an odd thing. It began simply enough: professional chefs walking viewers through the steps of preparing an exquisite meal. Initially, this lead to a lot of unqualified people attempting grand culinary experiments at home. Suddenly, everybody with a kitchen fancied themselves a gourmet just because they sprinkled everything with goat cheese. A few thousand stove fires and dicing accidents later, a lot of us decided to leave the cooking to the pros. By the mid-late 1990s, Food Network wasn't so much teaching us to cook as it was providing pornographic gauntlets of temptation for budding fatsos.

And then in 1999, there came a man who had grown dissatisfied with the quality of American cooking shows and took it upon himself to create the solution. Alton Brown, with his horn-rimmed specs and creative flair for visual aides, used "Good Eats" to deconstruct the cooking process down to the underlying scientific principles. Each episode provides a comprehensive explanation of everything from thermodynamics to the chemistry of flavors, then uses that knowledge to help you make the best freakin' grilled cheese humanly possible. The secret ingredient is science, and it is delicious.

On May 11, 2011, Mr. Brown announced via Twitter that he would be ending production on "Good Eats" this year. And while I'm eager to see whatever he does next, I'm sad to see it go. Below are a few clips that best exemplify the show's playful enthusiasm and laymen-friendly teaching style. I dare you to not learn something.