"top 10 cooking shows" news and stories

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. ...