Great news I found out today– Alton Brown, host of Iron Chef America and the creative dynamo behind the long-running Food Network series Good Eats, had joined the Twitterverse.

And then, his second tweet ever, informed everyone of the end of Good Eats, which has been on the air since 1999.

Mourn not? But, but, but. . .

But this is Good Eats we’re talking about. The single geekiest cooking show ever devised. What Alton Brown himself described as a mixture of Julia Child, Bill Nye, and Monty Python.*sigh* Even after a dozen years and almost 250 episodes, it seems like this is getting cut short.

The good news is, Brown is adamant the show is not cancelled. Cancelled means Food Network didn’t want more of it– in fact, they did. He is, instead, pulling a Seinfeld, and ending the show before it gets too ridiculous.  Of course, with this season’s episodes “Pantry Raid XIII: Chickpeas” and “Use Your Noodle V: Asian Noodles” maybe it is time to think about hanging up the old apron.

I have to credit Good Eats with a lot of things. I love cooking. There was a time I considered culinary school rather than the regular academic route. And while I didn’t always like AB’s recipes, his technique was amazing. He always explained things using science and made me understand the why of what was going on in my pan. And, me being the good Mormon that I am and never having drunk one drop of the alcohol, he taught me almost everything I know about booze, including several episodes devoted to home brewing and cocktails.

But, like Lost, he’s going to leave us with a lot of unanswered questions. One of Brown’s catchphrases is “…but that’s another episode” and yet we’re going to be left with at least several dozen episodes of promised content that just aren’t going to get made. *sigh*

Well, I’d say “We hardly knew ye” but that’s not especially true. In fact, I’ve been racking my brain trying to think of a cooking show that has been on longer than Good Eats and could not come up with one. Julia Child’s The French Chef was only on for 10 seasons, not quite the 14 of Good Eats.  Emeril Live also ran for 10 seasons. The only possibility I can think of is Yan Can Cook, and if anyone knows how many episodes that ran I’d love to know. And as for Alton Brown, we’ve still got Iron Chef America, Feasting on Asphalt, and whatever else he’s got cooking for us. We await with drooling mouths, sir.