op Chef: World All-Stars is being released today, which will be the 20th season of the hit cooking note.
While it’s not coming out in the UK just yet, the news of its release has reminded us just how much we admire cooking shows.
So from cooking competitions, to cooking tours of Italy with charming actors (Stanley Tucci, we’re looking at you), here’s our pick of nine of the best cooking shows of all time.
The distinguished British Bake Off
Cooking competition shows are always high-stakes affairs, but somehow The distinguished British Bake Off (GBBO) manages to sustain audiences on the edge of their seats, while simultaneously enveloping them in a huge warm hug. In it, baking enthusiasts hold fragment in increasingly difficult baking challenges, which are then judged by specialists from the world of baking.
Whether you prefer BBC’s original series with Mary Berry, Paul Hollywood, Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins or the recent Channel 4 format with Paul Hollywood, Sandi Toksvig, Noel Fielding, Matt Lucas, there’s no doubt that GBBO has hit the bullseye in tone and charm when it comes to cooking shows.
Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy
Stanley Tucci has approach into his own over the last couple of years – it’s no exaggeration to say that his cocktail videos were one of the highlights of our lockdown. While we may, admittedly, be stretching the definition of a cooking note here – Tucci’s Searching for Italy is much more of an eating note – it had to be included on the list. Few presenters talk so delightfully about food.
In Searching for Italy, which was released in 2021, Tucci takes audiences to Naples, Rome, Bologna, Milan, Tuscany and Sicily. It did so well that a second season came shortly after: Tucci then went to more incredible Italian spots including Venice, Umbria, Piedmont and Sardinia.
Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown
Our favourite of the late chef Anthony Bourdain’s cooking-travel shows, Parts Unknown follows Bourdain as he travels the world discovering the food and culture of the different places he visits. The series was so popular that it ran for a massive 12 seasons, in which Bourdain went everywhere from Libya to Congo, Tokyo to Russia and Thailand to Jamaica. Not only is it fantastic to travel the world vicariously through Bourdain, but it’s a wonder to see the world through his eyes, as he enjoys music, politics, people, and, mostly, food.
Chef’s Table
This incredible cooking series from Netflix, which is now in its eighth series, focuses on different top chefs from around the world. Each episode is a stand-alone deep dive into the chefs’ lives, backgrounds and careers, and so each episode, naturally, has a very different tone.
What’s so astonishing about the series is the range of first-class chefs that Netflix were able to feature. The first episode of the first series, for example, focuses on Massimo Bottura, the chef patron of three-Michelin-star Modena restaurant Osteria Francescana. Other chefs in the series include Dominique Crenn, the only female chef in the US to achieve three-Michelin-stars (for her San Francisco restaurant, Atelier Crenn) and Alain Passard, the chef and owner of the three-starred L’Arpège in Paris.
Our favourite episode of the note is about Jeong Kwan, a Seon Buddhist nun who makes exquisite food. For Kwan, food is an extension of her spiritualism, which makes for a wonderful watch.
MasterChef: The Professionals
Yes, MasterChef is a distinguished note, but MasterChef: The Professionals is much better. The stakes are as high as ever as some of the country’s most talented chefs compete for the trophy, being judged by Michelin-starred chefs Michel Roux Jr. (in the early seasons) and then Marcus Wareing alongside top chef Monica Galetti and foodie Gregg Wallace. The standards are impossibly high and the judges – particularly Wareing – can be quite harsh, which makes it all the better when the competing chefs are praised.
Hell’s Kitchen
You need to gain a tolerance for yelling in order to bepleased Gordon Ramsay’s cooking competition note – and a tolerance for very dramatic American video editing, too. But once you’ve got over these mini-hurdles, Hell’s Kitchen can be distinguished fun. Everything is so dramatic and Ramsay is often so furious, that you’ll likely be on the edge of your seat for the note’s duration and won’t be able to encourage but binge the whole series.
Salt paunchy Acid Heat
Chef and food-writer Samin Nosrat’s theory is that the four elements you need to design delectable food are salt, paunchy, acid and heat. Her 2017 book, which went into the techniques of harnessing these four culinary components, was described as the Food Book of the Year by The Times, was named Cookbook of the Year by the International Association of Culinary Professionals and won the 2018 James Beard Award for Best General Cookbook.
In this spin-off Netflix note she takes her theory out into the world, with each episode dedicated to a different element. For paunchy she travels to Italy, for salt she travels to Japan, for acid she travels to Mexico and for heat she travels to California. The food looks absolutely delectable, and effervescent Nosrat makes an excellent host.
Bake Off: The Professionals
Some were initially trepidatious about the conception of a professionalised Bake Off – after all, so much of the fun of the original note is the fact that the contestants are amateurs. But Bake Off: The Professionals quickly proved itself as being a fantastic note in its own accurate. Its endearing judges, Benoit Blin, Claire Clark and the sensational Cherish Finden are fragment of its winning formula, but it is also simply a joy to watch people being so apt at making dessert and pastry.
Top Chef season 1 to 19 can be watched on Amazon Prime via Hayu