Your favorite Cooking Show or Celebrity Chef....

[ChesterV]

What is your favorite cooking/baking show?

Do you have a favorite celebrity chef?
Why do you like them?




The undeniable Queen Supreme............
Julia Child

 

[ChesterV]

Some of my favorite cooking shows I like to watch........

The Great British Baking Show
Chopped
Barefoot Contessa
The Frugal Gourmet
Weir Cooking in the Wine Country
Louisiana Cookin'
The Galloping Gourmet
Cupcake Wars
Two Fat Ladys
Yan Can Cook

I know some of them are old, but they were some great chefs in these shows.
A few have passes away and I surely miss them.


Some of my favorite Chefs......

Julia Child
Jeff Smith
Joann Weir
Justin Wilson
Paul Hollywood
Mary Berry
Two Fat Ladys
Nigella Lawson



Jeff Smith was pretty much my chef "soul mate" as he believed you can NEVER put too much onion or garlic in anything!!!! YES!!!! I love garlic and onion, and was always thought of as weird because I love them. Then I found Mr. Smith who displayed that sentiment for the world to see!!!

Joann Weir....She's had a few cooking shows, but my favorite series is the one in wine country. Although I hate wine, she didn't do many dishes that had wine in them. But everything she made sounded like something I wanted to eat!

Nigella Lawson is just like super awesome! She's so wonderfully patient and easy going, it's just so calming to sit there and watch her create in her own kitchen.

The Two Fat Lady's are beyond amazing. They did a lot of old country style British cooking, which was amazing to watch! If you can find them online, watch a couple of episodes!

 

[Angie CupcakeQueen]

I love watching Cake Boss. Buddy is one of my favorites. The Baking Championship shows like Halloween Baking Championship, Holiday Baking Championship, etc.

 

[Apocalypso]

I grew up watching Julia and Jacques, and will always love them.

Have watched America's Test Kitchen for years and got so many cooking and baking ideas from them. I've just started watching Christopher Kimball's new venture, Milk Street Kitchen. And I absolutely enjoyed Great British Bake-Off, or Great British Baking Show as it's known in the USA. (Is that because Pillsbury still owns the rights to the word "bake-off"?)

Online, I've found some bakers I really enjoy. I've watched some of Mary Berry's episodes on YouTube, along with the Canadian food star Anna Olson, who really makes her baked goods look effortless and is terrific on camera. Gemma Stafford (of the YouTube channel Bigger Bolder Baking) and Cupcake Jemma, a London-based baker, plus an Australian baker/decorator's My Cupcake Addiction, are some other favorites. Before I discovered them, I was watching a channel called Cookies, Cupcakes and Cardio (which was usually more about impressively themed and decorated cakes). Then suddenly in about May, she (Jenn Jones, a Canadian) stopped posting videos and updating her social media! I don't know what happened - whether there was a legal issue, or a personal health or family problem. Anyone else watch her?

Here's an episode of Bake with Anna Olson that demonstrates how her show teaches a basic concept and then works it through several recipes: Candied orange peel, fruitcake, Lane Cake, and cassatas with candied orange slices. Plus, I love her kitchen setup, with her dry ingredients encased in the drawers.

 

[-Daniel-]

My favourite chef's and cooking programmes go hand in hand.

I love Mary Berry's shows because she makes food I would absolutely make, and her recipes are so simple to follow. Obviously I love the Great British Bake Off.

Rick Stein's shows, particularly when he travels, are fab. I like that with every recipe there's something to learn about the culture of the place he visits.

UK Celebrity Masterchef is brilliant, I could watch it all day long.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

I don’t own a television. So I’m limited to online videos. For some reason I’m drawn to foreign language baking videos, mainly French and Japanese. Can’t understand a word of it. But I like watching the process of pastry making. The French make everything complicated. The Japanese, who are in awe of French patisserie, then take the classic methods and simplify them. Where a French baker will spend forever on the nuances of macaronage, the Japanese will insist you just need to knock the air out of the batter and pipe it.

 

[ninamari]

I absolutely love The Great British Bake-Off (Baking Show). @Apocalypso , you're completely right. They had to change the name for the US broadcast to Baking Show because of rights issues with Pillsbury and "Bake-Off". I absolutely love Mary Berry! She's just so sassy, it's great. I'd love to watch all of the seasons/series for this show, but I'm limited to what's available in Netflix, which I think it's only what they've broadcast in the US through PBS. The Masterclass, that goes along with the GBBO, is also really good. It shows Mary and Paul Hollywood making dishes from the GBBO challenges.

I also enjoyed the US version of it, The Great American Baking Show, which was originally titled The Great Holiday Baking Show. The first two seasons included Mary Berry as the judge and Nia Vardalos and Ian Gomez as the presenters. They were absolutely fantastic. I'm a bit sad for this new third season as none of them will be in it, although Paul Hollywood will come as judge. I'm still going to watch it though!

Other cooking shows I enjoy:

• Holiday Baking Championship
• Halloween Baking Championship (although the Holiday one is my favorite out of the two)
• Zumbo's Just Desserts (I just found this one on Netflix)
• Cooked - (Netflix) This one is not necessarily a show, more of a documentary with Michael Pollan but was just so interesting! I think I may need to re-watch it.

 

[Apocalypso]

Thanks for the Netflix, I hadn't seen those! I had watched the Masterclass ones, not the other 2 you listed.

There were two attempts to copy the success of GBBO in the US. The first one was a 2013 CBS summer endeavor called "The American Baking Competition." It paired Paul Hollywood with California chef Marcela Valladolid (of Mexican Made Easy), and the host was Jeff Foxworthy. I don't think Bake-Off had hit PBS here yet as the "Great British Baking Show." It wasn't renewed. Then Mary Berry had her version as an ABC holiday series (they hiatus many of their scripted shows in December and run limited holiday series and specials). It seemed to do okay.

Incidentally, I had to look up the year and in doing so, I saw that apparently Paul Hollywood's marriage almost ended because he had an affair with his American co-star. Oy.

Someone else I've been enjoying watching on YouTube recently: Tatyana's Everyday Food. She makes beautiful "real" cakes, not just frosting artistry, but beautiful spongecakes and more. There's a coffee flavored spongecake filled with an interesting prune/brandy/orange filling that sounds really interesting.

 

[UnicornHaze]

My favorite is The Great British Baking Show

I love to see people's creativity, and the hosts are realy funny and they seem nice... unlike a lot of other chef shows were they yell and insult the contestants .

 

[Apocalypso]

I like GBBS too. In the UK it's broadcast as "Great British Bake-Off," apparently they had to change the title for PBS in the US as Pillsbury "owns" the word "bake-off."

I'll be interested in seeing the latest season if it comes to PBS next summer, as Mary, Mel and Sue have all been replaced. I knew Sandi Toksvig from listening to BBC Radio 4's The News Quiz which she hosted for years, and Noel Fielding I recognized from the BritCom "The IT Show". But, I think the contestant bakers are all the real stars so I hope we continue to get to watch it all here. BTW UnicornHaze, if you have Netflix, and haven't seen the Masterclass episodes, where Paul and Mary made their own versions of the technical challenge recipes, it's on Netflix and worth seeing. There are holiday bakes, too.

 

[RedShoe]

I grew up on The Frugal Gourmet and The Galloping Gourmet. Loved watching those guys enjoy the art of cooking!

In contrast, I could live a lifetime without watching another second of Bobby Flay. The arrogance makes his food seem less than delicious to me...

 

[kellyon]

I'm fond of Julia Child and Jamie Oliver

 

[-Daniel-]

I knew Sandi Toksvig from listening to BBC Radio 4's The News Quiz which she hosted for years, and Noel Fielding I recognized from the BritCom "The IT Show". But, I think the contestant bakers are all the real stars so I hope we continue to get to watch it all here. BTW UnicornHaze, if you have Netflix, and haven't seen the Masterclass episodes, where Paul and Mary made their own versions of the technical challenge recipes, it's on Netflix and worth seeing. There are holiday bakes, too.

I have really enjoyed what they've done to the show. I think Sandi and Noel are great hosts, and Prue Leith is a brilliant judge. It's also got some whimsical and slightly weird jokes, which adds a great humour.

I've just started watching "Zumbo's Just Desserts", an australian show that's a bit like a mix of the Great British Bake Off and Masterchef USA. I like it. The show has lots of drama and humour, and some spectacular desserts, but often they don't focus a lot on the methods of cooking

 

[Teeth Brusher]

What is your favorite cooking/baking show?

Do you have a favorite celebrity chef?
Why do you like them?




The undeniable Queen Supreme............
Julia Child

Hands down Masterchef Professional UK. I love Monica Galetti and Marcus Wareing. They embody professionalism and seem like genuinely nice people. For a reality show cooking competition, it’s incredibly classy and manages to maintain tension without succumbing to vulgarity or manufactured drama. While I can never hope to cook or bake even a fraction as well as the contestants, I feel like I learn a lot. Especially during the Skills Test portion of the show which is definitely hilarious and compelling.

 

[bellevueace]

For me my favourite is the Great British Bake Off followed by Masterchef and the Hairy Bikers, as for chefs, Delia Smith, Nigella Lawson, Mary Berry and Gordon Ramsey the latter does split opinion though.

 

[AuntJamelle]

I enjoyed Great British Baking show a lot! I also really like Pioneer Woman's series and America's Test Kitchen!

 

[Destiny.]

My favourite is Barefoot Contessa, i've watched Nigella Lawson a few times but what puts me off is she doesn't tie her long hair back.

 

[cyber ghostx13]

Well what got me started watching the food channel years ago was Guy Fierri and his "Triple D" show "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives". What a fun show driving all around the USA in a classic Chevy Camero and going to some real cool places and meeting all sorts of people. I also love the show "Food Paradise". Later.

 

[Linda Adamietz]

Mary Berry

 

[Buddy Baker]

I don’t own a television. So I’m limited to online videos. For some reason I’m drawn to foreign language baking videos, mainly French and Japanese. Can’t understand a word of it. But I like watching the process of pastry making. The French make everything complicated. The Japanese, who are in awe of French patisserie, then take the classic methods and simplify them. Where a French baker will spend forever on the nuances of macaronage, the Japanese will insist you just need to knock the air out of the batter and pipe it.

Have you ever seen the Youtube Channel "Cooking with Dog"?

I can't look away... lol
Buddy