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Americans love stuffing their faces and crashing out in front of the tube. Which is why the combination of the two has always proved popular.
Cooking shows are a staple of television programming, as essential to the medium as news broadcasts, sporting events and sitcoms. But unlike grandfatherly anchors droning, sportscasters shouting or wacky neighbors barging, cooking on television is a very rare form of mass instruction, with a sensual ebb and flow.
Celebrity chefs cheerfully chop, slice and saute, swearing the whole time it's easy. Anyone can do it, provided they listen up. These affable hosts crack jokes, add oil and set the oven to broil. And then eat, shoveling their delicious creations into their quivering maw.
Over the course of decades, these shows have remained beloved and rightfully so. Here are 10 of the greatest. ...
10. "Good Eats"
Alton Brown combines dry humor, a passion for food and a head for science into a succinct, yet entertaining show that's a love letter to cooking technique.
9. "America's Test Kitchen"
This plucky PBS show is about the kitchen: what to cook in it, what to cook it with and how to cook it. The hosts are serious-minded experts, but with a wink.
8. "Bizarre Foods"
Host Andrew Zimmern doesn't really show his viewers how to cook as much as he shows them how to eat. Fearlessly, with gusto, passion and enthusiasm.
7. "The Naked Chef"
Jamie Oliver brought a youthful, rock-'n'-roll sensibility to a show that featured simple, flavorsome dishes with exotic flourishes.
6. "Emeril Live"
Emeril isn't boring -- his food and his show sung with spice and soul. Perhaps too much the entertainer for purists, he nonetheless put the "show" in cooking show.
5. "Martha Stewart Living"
The Doyenne of Domesticity leaves some people cold, but her masterly skills, exquisite tastes and the unique way she challenged her viewers to aspire to her seemingly impossible standards makes her an icon of the genre.
4. "Yan Can Cook"
Martin Yan demystified the cuisine of an entire hemisphere, demanding Americans not only embrace Asian food, but cook it as well. And he did it with a clever twinkle in his eye.
3. "The Galloping Gourmet"
This Scottish lad did something pioneering -- he made you laugh as he told you how to cook. Graham Kerr was funny, unpretentious and taught a generation of men that one can be debonair whilst laboring over a hot stove.
2. "The French Chef"
It's almost cliche to venerate Julia Child, the woman who reinvented the cooking show and gave birth to generations of gourmets. She was poised. She was accessible. And her joy was infectious.
1. The Original "Iron Chef"
Like any great competition, this Japanese import was about bragging rights. Classically trained chefs pitted their skills against brash upstarts, improvising like jazz musicians and sweating bullets. And in the end, marvelous, inventive dishes were created, all for the love of the game.
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12-30-2009 @5:48PM vaca said... am I the only one that remembers The Frugal Gourmet?
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12-30-2009 @6:08PM JRalat said... How did I not see your comment before posting my own? I remember watching Jeff Smith fondly.
12-30-2009 @7:01PM Coset said... When seven men allege that you had sexually assaulted them when they were teenagers, your show tends to go down in "all time" rankings, regardless of the quality of the food or if the allegations made it to court or were just settled for an unspecified amount of money.
1-18-2010 @5:44PM BG said... I also remember the Frug! He rocked. He didn't talk down to the audience, like some of these chefs today, and actually he was about cooking, not entertainment. I like Emeril, but I don't have a band in my kitchen--hehehe...maybe I should!
1-04-2010 @11:55AM Bobby said... I think Jeff Smith was the best TV Chef there ever was. Only one comes close and that is Emeril LaGasse. Jeff was the 1st chef to make you want to try a recipe, he gave the history of the recipe as well as variations of it. I have all of his cookbooks (wich you can still get on Amazon) and a Frugal Gormet Peppermill that I use all the time for the last 15 or so years. It a shame he could not keep his hands to himself. It probably would not make a difference today!!!
1-04-2010 @4:09PM gap said... Jeff Smith lost his place when he was accused of messing with the young man helping him.
1-04-2010 @4:58PM Mike Kilduff said... The frugal gourmet turned out to be a child molester. Little boys, no less
1-04-2010 @5:04PM Michele said... I used to watch the Frugal Gorumet every weekend, and yes it's sad how he was accused of doing whatever with young men, who knows, it's really none of our business, he did his job just fine, was always a pleasure to watch.
1-04-2010 @5:29PM mariane said... No you are not!! He was the best,made we want to call all my friends and get busy ! I loved his show and his books, am really disappointed that he was not mentioned here, and that his books are so hard to find. He made cooking and sharing food with family and friends a real expression of love.
1-04-2010 @5:27PM John said... The Frugal Gourmet was the best and it wasn't only a cooking show but was a food history show as well. The books are also good.
1-04-2010 @5:42PM akd said... I am Making Bubble & Squeek in honor of the Frug. Page 216 in his book The Frugal Gourmet "1984"
Good on you for remembering Jeff Smith.
1-05-2010 @3:15PM Dartssnake said... OOPS! Three small words say it all...
TWO FAT LADIES!!!!!
1-06-2010 @4:47AM Master Chef said... This list is RIDICULOUS. The entire concept is stupid, in fact. First, because you can not mix educational and entertainment programming together and then rank them. Second, they span a period of about 40 years, and cuisine has changed a LOT during this period. So has the competition for such television programming. This is like comparing a roast beef dinner you ate one day in 1967 in Texas, with a dessert you had at the French Laundry last week. There is NO meaningful comparison possible.
12-30-2009 @5:50PM JRalat said... I agree that the original "Iron Chef" is the best cooking show ever, but what about the "Frugal Gourmet"?
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12-31-2009 @3:09AM nataku said... The Frugal Gourmet definitely belongs on this list. Loved watching that show when I was younger as it introduced so many different types of cuisines.
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12-30-2009 @7:23PM dirtgirl said... I really miss Taste with Jeffrey Rosengarten from the early days of Food TV. Oh and by the way, Emeril Live is completely unwatchable. Surprised it would make anyone's list.
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1-04-2010 @7:28PM Randall said... I agree on Taste. That was the show that first got me interested in learning to cook for myself. Other shows I remember watching and thinking Hmm, I'll have to look for something like that they next time I eat out.
1-06-2010 @12:43AM dale said... I completely agree about Emeril. His audience wildly applauds ingredients. Idiotic
1-06-2010 @9:51AM hamerxham12653 said... I was reminiscing with a friend about an early food network show that I couldn't stand because the star was so arrogant and presumptuous about HIS cooking. Total turn-off. Thank you for reminding me of "sir" Rosengarten. Another one I can't tolerate is that semi-made with Sandy. Totally in love with herself and does she EVER have a show in which drinking isn't involved???
1-13-2010 @8:05PM sharon said... TO DIRTGIRL....EMERIL LIVE IS A GREAT COOKING SHOW AS WITH EMERIL LIVE ONE THAT SHOULD OF NEVER BEEN BACK ON WAS THE WITCH MARTHA STEWART SHOW.