'Less about particular recipes than about the ideas behind those recipes.' →

By Genevieve Koski, writing for The A.V. Club:

That medium-before-message genesis accounts in part for Good Eats’ singular sensibility: Brown was an expert in the medium (television) before he was an expert in the message (food). His interests expanded well beyond cooking—he dabbled, but it was always more hobby than profession—and would end up imbuing the show he eventually made as much, maybe even more, than the subject at its center. The first words uttered in “Steak Your Claim”—“I think it’s safe to say, John Wayne ate steak”—are indicative of the love of pop culture that’s built into the show’s foundation. The theme song, which threads throughout every episode in any of hundreds of permutations, is inspired by music from Get Shorty, and a glance at the list of episode titles evidences Brown’s love of movies, television, and groan-worthy puns: “Pork Fiction,” “The Egg Files,” “Fry Hard,” “The Big Chili,” “There Will Be Oil,” and so on and so on.

Koski illustrates exactly what made Good Eats such a perfect show—dead simple recipes that always emphasized how and why the end results were attainable. I'm not much of a TV watcher, but I will say this—I miss Good Eats.