Where Food Network Stars Are Now

No matter how many new TV cooking competition shows and revamped Saturday-morning lineups we're exposed to, we'll always have a special place in our hearts for Food Network's oldest stars. They're the pioneering personalities who taught us how to hold a knife and that sometimes life is just too short to say "extra-virgin olive oil" in its entirety.

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Their earliest shows might be off the air, but that doesn't mean these celebrity chefs haven't been keeping busy. Here's what eight of our favorite original Food Network superstars have been up to over the years.

It seems like ages since he first graced our screens on Iron Chef (and later Iron Chef America), but reality cooking competitions represent just one notch of Morimoto's impressive résumé. His ever-expanding portfolio of restaurants now includes 13 spots, the latest being NYC's Momosan Ramen & Sake, which opened early last year. If you can't experience any of his cuisine in person, you can recreate it at home with his latest book, Mastering the Art of Japanese Home Cooking. And, thankfully, we'll all be able to witness his masterful techniques once more when Iron Chef Gauntlet returns later this year.

Her soothing voice might have left Food Network's lineup in 2007, but those—OK, all—of us who miss Moulton's sagely wisdom can soak it up via her multiple James Beard Award-nominated PBS show, Sara's Weeknight Meals; her weekly Associated Press column, "Kitchen Wise;" or her latest cookbook, Sara Moulton's Home Cooking 101. 

It's hard to believe Hot off the Grill premiered all the way back in 1998, but with a vast library of other projects over the past nine years, including Boy Meets Grill, Throwdown and Beat Bobby Flay, this perennial Food Network celeb doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon. When he's not prepping for his return to Iron Chef's Kitchen Stadium, Flay somehow finds time to manage his six restaurants, including Bobby's Burger Palace, which has 11 locations around the country. Oh—and he never forgets to cook a special dinner for Nacho, his beloved feline companion. 

Food Network's most famous face since the early 2000s, Lagasse had rapt foodies across America gleefully shouting "Bam!" on a daily basis. And even though the last taping of Emeril Live happened a full 10 years (!) ago, the New Orleans-based chef is still kicking, joining the Top Chef judging panel for four seasons, hosting the fifth season of the Cooking Channel's Emeril's Florida and maintaining his ever-expanding group of 13 restaurants around the country.

The show that forever ruined your mom's homemade birthday cakes, Ace of Cakes may have ended its run in 2011, but that doesn't mean the Charm City Cakes owner still isn't buried in fondant and buttercream frosting. You can currently find him judging the pastry chops of rookie cake bakers on Kids Baking Championship. And when he's not hanging out at Charm City's L.A. location or writing best-selling cookbooks, Goldman spends his free time as the bass player for the alternative rock band Foie Grock. 

One of the first people to bring Asian cuisine into the home-cooking spotlight, Tsai opened his second restaurant, Boston's Blue Dragon, named one of the Best New Restaurants of 2013 by Esquire, to great acclaim. In between supporting numerous charities (including the Ment'or Foundation), his James Beard- and Emmy-nominated cooking show, Simply Ming, is now in its 14th season on PBS, where he shares the master recipes and techniques he's learned throughout the 

Fans across the country entered into a state of collective mourning when Good Eats' final episode aired in 2012. And while we've managed to get our fix with a combination of Cutthroat Kitchen; Brown's latest book, EveryDayCook; and tracking his favorite coffee shops around the country on social media, nothing will ever fill the hole left by his original show's departure . . . except its comeback.

Since introducing "EVOO," "sammies" and "yum-O" to the masses, this on-screen hot shot has published 27 cookbooks; earned 11 Emmy noms (and won three of them) for her daytime talk show, The Rachael Ray Show; and launched her own magazine. Oh, and she even has time to coach less-than-stellar home chefs on Food Network's Worst Cooks in America. Her nonprofit organization—named Yum-O, of course—provides families with resources to develop healthy relationships with food and cooking.