Educational cooking shows

February 3, 2012 3:57 AM

Are there any newish TV shows actually about cooking out there? All the recent food-related shows I've seen are about people being angry with each other, rather than teaching about food and cooking.
posted by Harald74 to Food & Drink (24 answers total)

The cooking "contests" on the networks probably aren't what you're looking for. But if you have cable, you've got a whole channel.
posted by valkyryn at 4:03 AM on February 3, 2012

If you are interested in british shows - I liked Heston Blumenthal's recent show "Heston at home" - it had a lot of useful "teaching" information for newish cooks and fun sciencey bits where he explained why he was cooking something in a certain way - the recipies were a good mix of basics done well and more ambitious dishes with good explanations. It sounds exactly the kind of thing you might be after? If you are in the US then I expect it is easily available online from the usual semi-illicit places.
posted by Another Fine Product From The Nonsense Factory at 4:21 AM on February 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

I like America's Test Kitchen on PBS, which has just started running in the UK. Its recipes are easy to follow for beginners and, although I'm a keen and experienced cook, I've learned lots of new and interesting techniques from the show. It also tests kitchen equipment and has taste tests to find the best buys.

On the Food Network, the Barefoot Contessa's recipes are great, generally (except for her dislike of cilantro, which she always replaces with basil).

A lot of the Food Network shows tend to be themed - for example, the Barefoot Contessa's theme is all about her "fabulous" Hamptons lifestyle and cooking for friends at various levels of sophistication, from the beach cook-outs to more formal parties. The same cast of friends appears regularly - Michael the florist, Miguel the photographer, TJ the model - she does appear to be a bit of a fag hag. Elie Kreiger's theme is to re-work recipes so they're more healthy. Emeril Lagasse's theme appears to be how many different ways he can find to murder the English language whilst making fairly bog-standard dishes.

If it's shown where you are, I'd also highly recommend the Masterchef, Australia which, although it's a contestant reality show, also has some great segments on cooking, including a weekly masterclass run by the two chef presenters.
posted by essexjan at 4:23 AM on February 3, 2012 [2 favorites]

The Great British Bake-Off, although a 'reality' show, was really sweet and good-hearted and genuinely about baking. Totally addictive and much of it seems to show up on a 'video' search on Google.
posted by Erasmouse at 4:32 AM on February 3, 2012 [3 favorites]

My favorite cooking show is Chuck's Day Off.

Instructive and inventive dishes in a wide range of styles and difficulty levels.

I believe he's on Cooking Channel on Sunday Mornings... set your DVR.
posted by j03 at 4:34 AM on February 3, 2012

I second America's Test Kitchen. They're hardcore enough to also produce a weekly radio show.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 4:38 AM on February 3, 2012

The Food Network has crawled up its own asshole and is largely concerned with the celebrity status of its own stars. (Someone will have to answer for Guy Fieri. IN HELL.) It has, essentially, become the MTV of food, to the point where it has spun off a separate channel to deal with the boring instructional cooking shows.

But one show I rather liked (before I cut cable altogether) that appears on the Food Network in Canada but on the Cooking Channel in the U.S. (see above) is French Food at Home. No idea how to get it in your cod-benighted location. Other instructional shows I like less well: too much "personality" where the hosts should just get the hell out of the way.
posted by mcwetboy at 4:49 AM on February 3, 2012 [7 favorites]

So apparently I'm the last person to discover Alton Brown's Good Eats. A shame, especially now that it's finished a 14-year run. The good news is that there's a great full index of the shows here with links to YouTube recordings. I love this show -- it's informative, educational, and still entertaining. And I will be eternally grateful to Alton Brown for teaching me not to fear phyllo dough.
posted by Shoggoth at 5:07 AM on February 3, 2012 [6 favorites]

Seconding 'Heston at Home'

I brined and slow roasted a chicken as he recommended in a recent episode and nearly passed out by how awesome it tasted.

There is no shortage of these shows on British TV.

- The Hairy Bikers
- The Great British Menu
- The Great British Bake Off
- The Fabulous Baker Brothers
- River Cottage
posted by TheOtherGuy at 5:27 AM on February 3, 2012

Jacques Pepin has a new show, "Essential Pepin," as of 2011. Check your local PBS listings.
posted by Currer Belfry at 5:29 AM on February 3, 2012

Jacques Pepin has a newish series on PBS, Essential Pepin, which I think is available on DVD if your station doesn't carry it. I'm biased since I worked on the book, but there's a reason he's the master. Really clear demonstrations of techniques you can use whenever you cook (and some you'll never use--butter roses?--but are fun to watch).
posted by libraryhead at 5:29 AM on February 3, 2012 [3 favorites]

Seconding Heston. He has a new show currently on in the UK "How to cook like Heston". Lots of fantastic tips on basics like how to poach eggs properly. Reminded me a little bit of the fun educational style of Good Eats, which I also enjoy.

Nigel Slater's supper show is also quite good.
posted by wingless_angel at 5:38 AM on February 3, 2012

There's a newish show on our PBS station (or at least one I wasn't aware of before) that shows promise: "Baking Made Easy" with Lauren Groveman. The couple of episodes that I've caught seem good. Less hype, more practical pointers.

The only cooking shows that have ever actually taught me something: Jacques Pepin, Alton Brown, maybe America's Test Kitchen. Julia Child probably too, although that would be more from books than from reruns.
posted by gimonca at 6:17 AM on February 3, 2012

Hm, you're in Norway. My apologies, the Groveman show has a YouTube channel, but that doesn't look informative. Not sure about availability otherwise.
posted by gimonca at 6:20 AM on February 3, 2012

op, it might depend on when you're looking for these shows too.

Food network tends to show the cooking shows in the morning and early afternoon, reserving the evening for contests and reality tv style shows.
posted by royalsong at 6:27 AM on February 3, 2012

PBS has some two of the dorkiest, most awkward, yet immensely entertaining and instructive shows in the genre, produced and cast by the same people:

America's Test Kitchen
Cook's Country

These two shows have a companion magazine, "Cooks Illustrated," that's phenomenal, has no advertisements, and is available online or as an iPad app. (You can find links to the shows on the above site.I

Alton Brown's Good Eats is the other gold standard of educational food TV - he will show you how to make everything from hard boiled eggs to Coq Au Vin, and do it in a quirky, modern style that uses puppets, goofy characters and cartoons and innovative camera rigs. Lots of science and history as well as delicious recipes.

Rachel Ray's old show, "30 Minute Meals", was largely bullshit - if you were a professional chef, you could bang that stuff out in 30 mins, no way for anyone else - but it showed some solid technique and easy-to-imitate recipes.
posted by Slap*Happy at 6:33 AM on February 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

Of all the celebri-chefs, I like Tyler Florence the best. Tyler's Ultimate is a run-down on classic dishes, plussed out to the max, and he has had some really, really good solid stuff on there. His recipe for Chicken Fried Steak using ribeyes was the bomb, and everything else has just been plain excellent.
posted by halfbuckaroo at 7:45 AM on February 3, 2012

I really enjoy Anne Burrell's Secrets of a Restaurant Chef. She's funny and relatable without being over the top, and her show is filled with all sorts of "why didn't I think about doing that?" tidbits.

And nth-ing Good Eats.
posted by kro at 8:43 AM on February 3, 2012

It's not newish, but Canadian chef Michael Smith has a great show called Chef at Home, which shows on the Food Network Canada. It's a half hour show where he cooks, uh, at home and encourages the spontaneity of cooking without a recipe (but then they put the recipes up on the Food Network website). No yelling, very serene.
posted by sillymama at 9:08 AM on February 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

The Food Network divides their programming into two camps -- mostly instructional, aired during the day; and then competitive/reality/spectacle shows in the evening. You kinda gotta set a DVR to find what you want.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 10:08 AM on February 3, 2012

I've always thought Jacques Pepin was helpful, but America's Test Kitchen to me is the height of thinly veiled workplace resentment: a bunch of employees competing against each other for the approval of a hypercritical Mr. Rogers. Don't even get me started on that Nick Stellino poseur.

Thanks for asking this question, though, I was just recently wondering why cooking shows are almost uniformly useless except as catalog.
posted by rhizome at 10:18 AM on February 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

Its not on TV, but I REALLY liked Clara's Kitchen on youtube. Link!
posted by fuzzysoft at 11:59 AM on February 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

I came in to suggest the Jamie at Home series on BBC. I guess you kind of have to like Jamie and his style in the first place, but I love his show and we have three of his cookbooks that we use all the time. Not sure what your availability is in Norway, but check into the BBC iPlayer maybe?

Also nthing The Cooking Channel if you can get it, very informative shows.
posted by ThaBombShelterSmith at 2:16 PM on February 3, 2012

Response by poster: Thanks, guys! Lots of suggestions here that I will look into. As one person noted, I'm in Norway, so I'm unlikely to find any of these shows on my TV, but there usually are other ways to get them. Ahem...
posted by Harald74 at 5:20 AM on February 6, 2012