One of our favorite cooking shows ever, right up there with the Galloping Gourmet when he was still a drunk, is finito. Alton Brown announced yesterday that after 249 episodes, his Food Network show Good Eats is done. (Chicago Tribune reports Brown announced it as his first post on Twitter, but we can't find the Tweet.) The final new, half-hour episode aired last week. Look for three new one-hour episodes later this year and “good things” on the horizon.

Amid a sea of half-baked celebrity chefs (Katie Lee) and tedious contrived reality shows (pretty much anything involving cake decorating), Brown shone like a diamond among cubic zirconiums, like Valrhona next to carob, like any chocolate next to carob.

The show began its life on Chicago's WTTW in 1998 before it was picked up by the Food Network. Its science-y bent allowed viewers to apply cooking techniques across a broad range of foods. Along the way, “Good Eats” spawned two encyclopedic tomes (with another one reportedly on the way) that are the home cook's equivalent of Modernist Cuisine. It also earned Peabody and James Beard awards, most recently at this weekend's ceremony where Brown won the award for TV Food Personality/Host.

If you miss Brown's voice referring to his freezer as a “chill chest” and his oven as a “hot box,” you can cue up one of the umpteen Good Eats DVDs or you can, finally, follow him on twitter: @altonbrown.

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