Cooking shows

Was wondering if anybody had favourites to recommend. I think we all know jacques and julia, and to be honest I still enjoy watching them. Reminds me of cooking at home with my family.


But as a professional I have been really enjoying several shows lately, two are imports. The two british shows I love are Great British Menu (many michelin starred chefs compete) and Masterchef The Professionals UK (This has been great for a long time, I love Roux jr. when he was on, such great exposition of classical techniques - in the final week of every season the contestants go work in michelin starred kitchens, it's truly inspirational to watch how they conduct service)...

In USA on the esquire network I like Knife Fight. Lots of cool japanese knife sightings and even though it's very "hipster" they do live butchery and the cooking can be very interesting to watch. Many award winning chefs compete.

What do you like to watch?

I've been enjoying the last 4-5 years without tv but PBS used to have a great lineup on the weekend here. A grilling show, Pepin, Bayless and Lidia Bastianich (and a few more)...one of the few things I miss about having one of those toobs

Oh yeah forgot that I really like America's Test Kitchen. Dunno if you ever caught that one but it's on what we call "PBS" up here. PS I watch everything online, if you know how to work a proxy you can find both british shows on the BBC website for free if I recall.

I maybe alone here but I like diners drive ins and dives... I don't care for the host but I get great insight on the small things that I may not know... They do these 2-3min recipes for pulled pork with 20 different spices, and you see before, during, final result. For someone who is learning, I think it's great to see such ways

There is an Australian series called kings of the kitchen, it's hard to find, but I really enjoyed it, it's a little dated now, but still a good watch if you can find it.
Here is a trailer from youtube
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IwBzHw-Q7RM

I just blasted through Great British Menu season 10 recently, and I found the standard judging room fairy grating. What I did like was in the finals week the chefs also got to score each other.

I really like MasterChef Australia. It airs something like 4 or 5 times a week, so there are tons of episodes compared to the US version, something like 70 episodes per season. I didn't get to see all of season one, but it's got a different feel/format from the following seasons. Season five, for a few reasons, is the worst of the seven seasons so far. This past season had a really young contestant (turned 21 during filming) who was putting up mind blowing desserts. They always bring in high profile guest chefs too. The previous seasons had weekly MasterClass episodes that show the judges and guest chefs teaching the contestants things. Sadly, to me anyway, those were mostly gone this season - I think they might have turned them into a web series since the TV ratings for them were lacking. I think it's much better than the US version.

I know Gordon Ramsay is a polarizing character, but his UK shows are really good, IMO. The US shows lean more towards the Hell's Kitchen persona than the UK ones. Kitchen Nightmares UK was the first of his shows that I really sat down and watched, and it got me hooked on watching his other shows.

Bourdain's various shows, while not really cooking shows, almost always have something revolving around food in them and I generally enjoy watching. The episodes where Eric Ripert shows up are always the best.

Mind of a Chef is my current favorite, obviously prefer certain chefs much more than others. I loved Molto Mario and even have some old recordings from back when I had cable and hooked it up to my pc...

i like ATK and the Cook's country. just fun and easy viewing.

that Laura Calder show went away, and she was super easy to watch.

the rest are just passing watches while channel surfing..

TurboScooter said:

I just blasted through Great British Menu season 10 recently, and I found the standard judging room fairy grating. What I did like was in the finals week the chefs also got to score each other.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I don't always agree with the judging however, I find the food to be so interesting (theatrical without being over the top) that it makes up for the local heats.

You guys really gotta check out Professionals UK I'm surprised nobody has seen it. The food is absolutely stunning. The skills tests are actually something you can learn from (when Roux Jr. was on they were especially awesome)

I'll watch anything with Giada De Laurentiis, for her cook skills (I swear).

Really? I prefer her breasts.

Those would be the skills I was referring to. Even the wife knows she is loaded on "talent".

bkultra said:

Those would be the skills I was referring to. Even the wife knows she is loaded on "talent".

Click to expand...

And dresses to draw attention to them.

her head is oddly too big for her body..but yes, she can cook!!

boomchakabowwow said:

her head is oddly too big for her body..but yes, she can cook!!

Click to expand...

You're not in the f*c*king club.

[video]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cyFvGL3Z5F8[/video]

haha but those are not the best cooking shows. I really liked jacques and julia and ATK because they actually take you through a recipe or two. Completely, no six chefs working in the background to mince garlic and stuff, they actually do the cooking! I don't really watch foodtv and the like because most of what's on there is ridiculous. I like cutthroat kitchen if I want a bit of noise in the background but that's about it. Good Eats with Alton Brown was another classic. Surreal Gourmet (Bob Blumer cooked at a restaurant pop up here last winter apparently he's really nice).

Not a fan of Gordon Ramsay but I like Marco Pierre White's old old shows (where he cooks for great chefs like Raymond Blanc and Michel Roux Sr., you can see Ramsay as a commis chef) and actually Ramsay's first show "boiling point" was pretty cool. Obviously I have a thing for watching commercial kitchens.

Alton Brown's good eats is what really got me interested in cooking. I have always been very into science and he did a great job of blending the two. I also watch cutthroat kitchen, but like you it's mainly mindless tv playing in the background.

This will date me, but this is one I used to really enjoy watching.

Here's a short one...with a very dark roux

[video=youtube;eK4umRMJlrs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK4umRMJlrs[/video]

Aw Jim brings me way way back. S'chicken. Love it

How y'all are?

chinacats said:

This will date me, but this is one I used to really enjoy watching.

Here's a short one...with a very dark roux

[video=youtube;eK4umRMJlrs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK4umRMJlrs[/video]

Click to expand...

hey thanks alot for the post. this is really good. a new favourite to be sure!!

Always liked the original Flay & McDavid show Grillin' & Chillin' it was very early in the Food Network TV and fun to see the two cook together with such different styles and the low budget sets (always kinda hoping Flay would catch on fire though ... but that was just my New Jersey roots coming out :bat.

A Chef's Life on PBS. I liked this so much I bought the DVDs.

http://www.pbs.org/food/shows/a-chefs-life/

Have to add "BBQ with Franklin" on PBS and Create.

Well, thanks to this thread I decided to start watching MC UK Professionals. Vague, but possible spoilers ahead.

I started with the current season. It starts off really slow. Some of these pros are shocking, especially in the skills tests - like they'd be out of their depth on the regular amateur MC. In the early rounds it's really predictable in that older chefs who have been in the industry for a while but with no accolades will go nowhere in a competition like this, and even more predictable that a very young self taught head chef that has never worked under any other chef would do terribly. Those same types of chefs are common appearances on Kitchen Nightmares.

The format wasn't what I was expecting from watching MC US and Australia. It's laid out more like Great British Menu or Junior Bake Off. The show doesn't really get going until the Knockout Round, that's when the food really starts looking good.

TurboScooter said:

Well, thanks to this thread I decided to start watching MC UK Professionals. Vague, but possible spoilers ahead.

I started with the current season. It starts off really slow. Some of these pros are shocking, especially in the skills tests - like they'd be out of their depth on the regular amateur MC. In the early rounds it's really predictable in that older chefs who have been in the industry for a while but with no accolades will go nowhere in a competition like this, and even more predictable that a very young self taught head chef that has never worked under any other chef would do terribly. Those same types of chefs are common appearances on Kitchen Nightmares.

The format wasn't what I was expecting from watching MC US and Australia. It's laid out more like Great British Menu or Junior Bake Off. The show doesn't really get going until the Knockout Round, that's when the food really starts looking good.

Click to expand...

if you check out season 9&10 (can check wikipedia to be sure) Roux Jr. takes the place of Marcus Wareing and I'm not sure if there's another chef involved, but yeah... Those skills tests were alot better. I haven't seen the other MC shows so I can't really comment- but yes some of the skills tests can be painful and do underline a big issue with learning on the job (ie. lack of formal training).

spoiledbroth said:

if you check out season 9&10 (can check wikipedia to be sure) Roux Jr. takes the place of Marcus Wareing and I'm not sure if there's another chef involved, but yeah... Those skills tests were alot better. I haven't seen the other MC shows so I can't really comment- but yes some of the skills tests can be painful and do underline a big issue with learning on the job (ie. lack of formal training).

Click to expand...

Wait... I'm confused... are we not watching/talking about the same series? The one I'm watching, season 8 is the latest one; there is no 9 or 10 yet. Wareing replaced Roux, Jr. because he (Roux, Jr.) and the BBC had some disagreement over some commercial interest of his.

Whoops, darned pirating websites have the series listed incorrectly.

You are correct about season 8. I started watching in 2010 season 3. My mistake, sorry for the confusion- my point was that the initial rounds were quite a bit more interesting with Roux Jr.

But to me the real meat is when they go into the Michelin kitchens and then the finals- I think we're kind of in agreement there.

I've noticed everyone is forced to use the same house knives on the show :razz: except when they go into the restaurant kitchens. So the commercial interests bit makes sense to me I guess.

I've started in on season 6 so I can see some of Roux, Jr.'s skills tests.

Since you mentioned it, it looks like in the competition they're using Zwilling Twins, but then they show Roux, Jr. in his kitchen demonstrating the skills test and he's using a Global. The quality of the video is pretty bad, but I think the cookware in the MC kitchen is Circulon, but Roux is shown using an All Clad (and some other stuff) in the demo as well. At least in season 6, episode 6.

Global used to be the contestant knife on regular USA and Australia, but now USA has their own "MasterChef" brand knives, which I always imagine to be godawful. I always wonder, too, if they keep track of the knives so that each contestant has their own set, or if anyone does any sort of maintenance to them over the course of the series. In a competition where time is a major factor I'd be annoyed if I had to use knives other than my own.

I've gotta say, the sound on this show is the worst out of the MCs I've seen. The kitchen in UK Pro echoes badly, and I notice it constantly. The comically oversized nametags, too, what's up with those things. The amateur MC contestants get an apron with their name embroidered on it, but the pros get a nametag that's barely a step above one of those Hello My Name Is _____ sticker ones.

Good eats, Mind of a Chef, the original Iron Chef from Japan, Mexico One Plate at a Time, anything with Bourdain or Zimmern in it, and I used to watch these old cooking shows on Discovery when I was a kid, I think it was called Chefs From Around the World? If I need a recipe nowadays I search youtube.