4 More TV Shows That Made Me Love Cooking

Ricesome
Nov 24, 2023
4 min read

Long, long, long ago.....I have written about 5 TV shows which were very near to my heart and were responsible for my early inspirations and world views in the culinary arts. Aziz Ansari once said that when artists start in the beginning, they start things as an imitation, copying the work of people they idolize and eventually building their style. I feel like whatever I write and do now is a proponent of all the things that I have absorbed during the early stages of my explorations, and these 4 shows have played a major part in that......maybe more than I think they do. (Who knows?)

LET'S TAKE A LOOK AT THEM.

1.) Gordon Ramsay's Home Cooking

Gordon Ramsay produced many shows. (many is an understatement) As we have discussed before, he is a global culinary icon. But, my relationship with food like many people started off as a home cook and I still feel I am one at heart. (Even though, my father spent a lot of money on my culinary education.....Sorry father) This is one of those shows that taught me many of the basics which armed me today for the professional culinary world.

There was something so peculiar and fascinating about seeing a chef who is known for being hot-headed, abusive and an absolute dictator in the kitchen have this soft side with his family and kids. This crazy dichotomy and clearly good production and format of the show attracted me towards the show rather than Gordon Ramsay himself.

Like I said, Gordon Ramsay hosted many shows but this one is my personal favourite and I believe you should watch it. I know what you are thinking......"Hypocrite". How can I write about a chef that I spent an entire article blaming for the stereotypes of the culinary industry? All I can say is......click here to read that post.

2.) Highway on My Plate

An interesting and one-of-a-kind food and travel show televised on the NDTV Goodtimes channel between 2007 and 2013, and was hosted by food enthusiasts and childhood friends Rocky Singh and Mayur Sharma. Highway on My Plate is one of those shows that has the format of a typical food and travel show yet manages to captivate the audience with the chemistry between the two hosts and the choices of the places they decide to visit.

This show was started to highlight all the different eating places near and through highways across India. One of the things which I found interesting while rewatching this show was that one of the hosts (Mayur) is a vegetarian which is unusual for a food and travel show, and maybe his perspectives are what might have captured the attention of the vegetarian market.

My favourite clip in this entire show is the one I have shared above where these two quirky hosts just crap on an eatery in Thiruvananthapuram, which serves healthy food, without a care in the world. Rocky's Punjabi side comes out when he is presented with vegetables that have not undergone any processing or cooking and it is pretty amusing to watch.

3.) Food Factory

Food Factory is a TV show that aired on Food Network in Canada, and on National Geographic in the USA. The show consists of 6 seasons which can be viewed on the National Geographic website. I saw this show when I was really young and couldn't understand English.....How did I understand it then? Because it was dubbed in other languages for the Indian audience.

You might be one of the OGs if you remember this show. Weirdly enough, I only have memories of watching this show either late at night or early morning. I watched this either at a time when I wasn't supposed to be awake or didn't want to be awake.

One aspect which I found interesting after rewatching the show is that the hosts have a somewhat sarcastic sense of humour, and this was translated into the dubbed languages. So, it was pretty entertaining to see "foreigners" giving sarcastic commentary in my mother tongue, and it is pretty interesting now to see that they made that choice then, and that is what attracted me to the show.....along with the infographics and the fact that it is "Food" Factory.

4.) SugarStars

SugarStars was featured on Food Network Canada 11 years ago. Unfortunately, the "evidence" I could find for this show is very little. The only thing I found is the trailer for this show that aired on YouTube 11 YEARS AGO! All the episodes for this show exist on streaming platforms that aren't available in my country or require payment. This show I found is also not as popular as other ones in its genre like Cake Boss.

SugarStars features four friends working together behind the scenes of "Petite Sweets" where they design beautiful and elegant desserts according to their client's preferences. Some of their creations are truly marvellous such as making real-life-looking spaghetti and meatballs. This is my earliest memory of watching, "The World is a Cake" kind of content. Unfortunately, most of their creations vaguely exist in my mind and I couldn't find visual evidence for them.

But, you can follow one of the cast members, Yolanda Gampp, who is a professional pastry chef, on the YouTube channel, "How to Cake it", and support her work there.

Well, these are my somewhat lesser-known food television that contributed to my upbringing as an individual as well as a cook and a foodie. Hopefully, you have taken a trip down memory lane with me or I have just given you 4 amazing shows to watch this weekend!

That's it for this time. See you next week!