Alton Brown
One of the recent inspirations to get me cooking has come from Alton Brown. He is not your typical "chef" or food instructor. Alton looks at food from the scientific angle. He tells you why certain things happen the way they do. Watching Emril, Bobby Flay, or Mario Batali give you great ideas on recipes but they don't tell you why they are great recipes...or for that matter the seceret of how to truely make that dish. Alton takes you step-by-step through making his dishes and takes the time to tell you why mixing the yolk of the egg with the sugar and saving the egg white to add in later is a good idea. You can then take this knowledge and apply it to a multitude of other dishes.
Links:
Good Eats - Altons Food Network show
I'm Just Here for the Food: Food + Heat = Cooking
I'm Just Here for the Food: Food x Mixing + Heat = Baking