This is the third post in my Reality Television series over at rehaleyty.wordpress.com
As anyone who knows me personally can tell you, two of my favourite things in life are television and snacks. So why it took me so long to get into watching the Food Network? Who knows, but once I started watching, I was in love. Now there are two types of Food shows – cooking/restaurant and competition. I’ll leave the latter for a later date.
PBS gave life to the cooking show phenomenon back in the early 1960s when famed chef, Julia Child, brought her style of French cooking into the homes of Americans. Since then, the popularity of cooking shows has steadily grown. In 1986, the Queen of DIY herself, Martha Stewart, made her debut on PBS, and shortly became a household name (and eventual convict). In 1995, we finally saw professional chefs and at-home cooks come together on Ready, Set, Cook!. It wasn’t until the early 2000s that we saw the boom of professional-chefs-turned-tv-hosts with Emeril Lagasse, Jamie Oliver, Rachel Ray, and Nigella Lawson.
Cooking shows then again evolved with Anthony Bourdain‘s A Cook’s Tour, where for the first time we went with professional chefs into restaurants and saw them eat food that others had prepared. Later came shows likeDiners, Drive-ins, and Dives, Bizarre Foods, World’s Weirdest Restaurants, and You Gotta Eat Here.
The restaurant shows are the cooking shows that I really enjoy. I love seeing all the different types of dishes from restaurants all over the world, and making a mental list of places I need to visit, and dishes that I need to try. These shows never really inspired me to cook, but they sure have inspired me to eat more good food.
Haley Strong 