Favorite cooking shows?

FONSguy

Super Member
I learned a lot from these.
Cookin' Cheep - funny show from Roanoke Va.
Galloping Gourmet - Graham Kerr got me to experiment
Diners, Drive-in's and Dives - I can be eating 25,000 calorie dinner and still be hungry watching
Good Eats - The only HOW TO COOK show, not strictly learning recipes
Justin Wilson - Boy he sure has some spicy recipes!
 
Don't like the DDD show, he never criticizes anything.............every dish is the most amazing thing he's ever tasted, so misleading. I like Huang's World and Good Eats (at least you learn something). The Country Kitchen show on PBS is good also, really in depth learning opportunity.
 
I like the DDD show. I am more likely to end up in places he visits than in some of the high end places I've seen in other shows.
 
I am not a fan of DDD--I just don't respect his own cooking ability (as a former kitchen professional)--clearly he can eat, but he is nothing more than a TV personality to me. As a for my favorites--"Chopped" and "Beat Bobby Flay" are my favorites. Show me some skills and creativity. "Chopped" reminds me of days gone bye when I didn't have a fully stocked kitchen at all times and it is "open the doors and see what's in there and what can I make of this?". Bobby Flay is just "fun". He really doesn't care whether he wins or loses, but he always seems to have fun--but what would you expect from a multi-millionaire chef/restauranteur/TV personality that dropped out of a prestigious private school in the 10th grade. Obviously, he has serious skills, and is more than willing to try to make anything--I respect anyone up for a challenge.

EDIT/ADDITION--You gotta love Justin Wilson (back in the day) and Julia Childs--it takes one cup of wine, but somehow we go through 3 bottles in a half hour or one hour show LOL.
 
I like DDD for the ideas I get from the show. You can replace Guy with anyone else and I would watch it for the show. I like Adrew Zimern's Delicious Destinations, for the same reason. I don.t care for Bizarre Foods though. I like Food Paradise on the travel channel. I don't like any of the competition cooking shows. I change them quickly. I can watch most of the shows, where the Chef(who ever) is just in the kitchen or on the grill cooking in a timely manner. I mainly watch all these shows for new ideas and techniques.
 
Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, Good Eats, Pasquale's Kitchen Express, New Orleans Cajun with Justin Wilson

 
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I'm a big fan of Good Eats. I learned a lot from Alton. I like his scientific approach to cooking. I also like America's Test Kitchen, Cooks Country, and Simply Ming on PBS.

I do enjoy DDD, but I agree with Jim. You could replace Guy with another host and I would still watch the show.

-Dave
 
Cookin' Cheap was done in the late 1970's out of Roanoke VA. Two guys tag teamed doing their recipes, one chopped the other talked. The object was to send in recipes that would feed a family of 4 for less than $10.00. The guys would prepare and taste the recipes. It could be very funny.

 
Uhg, that Cookin' Cheap show would drive me nuts. Just get to the cooking. Times have changed, folks don't have time for useless blather I suppose. I gave it like 6 minutes and they hadn't even started. These days, you would have already had a main course finished and on the way to dessert.

It also reminded me of everything I hate about late 70's and early 80's kitchens.

Chopped and Cooks vs. Cons are two of my favorites. Iron Chef is also good.
 
I find everything on the Food Network to be too dumbed-down to enjoy. I kinda enjoy Andrew Zimmern's shows on the Travel Channel and very much like Bourdain's Parts Unknown on CNN. These shows are as much about foreign cultures as they are about food though.
 
Julia Child's original cooking show "The French Chef" is still IMO the best for learning basic classic cooking techniques. Just watch the first season in black and white crappy 2 inch videotape and you won't need to go to cooking school. Most of the episodes are on youtube. The one where she teaches how to make a classic omelette will get you hired in any 3 star kitchen.

The Galloping Gourmet was the first and still one of the best that combined entertainment and humor with solid cooking information.

Cook's Country and America's Test Kitchen are awesome. They really do the research and get the recipes right for ethnic and historical foods. They go so far as to tell you what ingredients should be used even when they substitute easier to acquire domestic ones. I hope the continue that now that the founder was forced out. The new season is IMO awkward without Kimball but let's see if they can improve next year.

When Food Network started, the original shows were great and they were actually about cooking. Now it's garbage. Seek out the old shows from the 90's to actually watch cooking shows and get some great recipes. Those original shows weren't slick, but they really had some great food you can make!


Frugal Gourmet was also good. Too bad about the scandal that was so heinous it made reruns impossible. Although some of the research on the show and in his books was lacking in accuracy. For example, putting hot peppers in Cuban black bean soup.
 
I used to like "Cookin' in Brooklyn". The guy turned out to be a personal train wreck, but he was fun to watch.
 
I used to like "Cookin' in Brooklyn". The guy turned out to be a personal train wreck, but he was fun to watch.

At least it wasn't the cliche "drugs and alcohol" (or no one is talking about it) but seems like he's just bad at saving money and getting divorced.
 
A lot of Good Eats fans on here (myself included). But, my most recent favorite cooking show can only be found on YouTube. The show in question is called Tasty Tuesdays. Basically it's a cooking show hosted by a woman (Nikki Limo) who's not the greatest cook, but things usually work out in the end. Usually.
 
A lot of Good Eats fans on here (myself included). But, my most recent favorite cooking show can only be found on YouTube. The show in question is called Tasty Tuesdays. Basically it's a cooking show hosted by a woman (Nikki Limo) who's not the greatest cook, but things usually work out in the end. Usually.

I've watched 30 seconds of her and I'm already hooked. For one, she's hot. But she was funnier in those 30 seconds than most folks in 30 minutes. Now to see if it holds up. She's hot, so it's always good for 10 or 15 videos at least. :biggrin:
 
Wait.... she's hot??

::runs to computer::

::runs back:::

She's cute. She's not hot. But she's funny! I'm hooked.
 
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