Hey gang: this week we’re talking about food TV. I have an opinion about what the greatest cooking show of all time is because it’s clearly TWO FAT LADIES.
If you’ve never seen Jennifer Paterson and Clarissa Dickson-Wright pad around the UK on their motorcycle built-for-two in the late nineties, you’re in for a treat: the entire series is on YouTube. The show is full of wit (Jennifer, making coq au vin: “There’s a lot of good in an old cock”), joie-de-vivre (“We can’t have you savaging the men”), and genuinely useful (though slightly dated) cooking tips. I’m embedding the first episode below in case you’ve never seen it, but now it’s your turn to take a stance.
What do you think is the greatest cooking showof all time?
I’ll get some hate for this, but Good Eats. Probably because I was a kid when I watched it, and a science nerd, but it did teach me the most about cooking (for better or worse) until ATK came into my life.
I watched a lot of The Frugal Gourmet in the 80's, and loved Jeff Smith. Not saying it's the GOAT but it was a show I loved and got me into food and cooking as a young person.
Sara Moulton used to do a cooking show live - I think on Food Network in the early days - and it was great. Sometimes she would forget to add things or get distracted and of course there were no edits, no second takes, just cooking on live TV.
I’m going to get hate for failing to follow the assignment, but I have a handful of favorites, and I can’t pick just one. First, there’s nothing I love more in my pandemic and post-pandemic life than PBS cooking shows on a snowy winter Saturday morning. Of the PBS array, Martha, Jaques Pepin, Lidia, and America’s Test Kitchen / Cook’s Country, Nick Stellino and (somewhat begrudgingly) Milk Street are all great. My husband Bjorn and I will not miss New Scandinavian Cooking with Andres Viestad, we are quite Norwegian in our heritage and it feels like a visit to Bjorn’s quirky cousin’s place for some outdoor fish boil and force-fed late in the day cups of black drip coffee, and I love it. Is this aired nation wide?
I have watched many of the cable channel cooking shows and I am lukewarm about a handful that aren’t worth mentioning…and I adore Ina, and am a secret fan of Rachael Ray’s “a week in a day” and her show about 30 minute meals, not her current show.
My most formative shows that have had a lasting impact on me are the original Martha Stewart show…from the ‘90s, before she had a studio audience, where Sarah Carey was standing nearby (mostly out of sight) cooking alongside Martha, who truly knows it all, her Mother, Big Martha, and an array of stellar guests. And lastly, and most obscure, a Canadian cable show from the 1990s called Savoire Faire hosted by Nik Manojlovich…there are occasionally an episode to find here and there on YouTube, and I love and totally relished that show. He says “herbs” and pronounces the H, and pasta has “ass” in it. I haven’t lived in Canada in many decades, but it take me home.
I’d maybe be hesitant to disclose the hours I’ve devoted to cooking shows over the years, but having closely observed the television watching habits of an All-American sports fans and I have concluded I have nothing to be ashamed about.
I do love this show. But my vote would be for the original Iron Chef (from Japan) dubbed in English on PBS. My memory is that I watched it most Friday or Saturday nights (sad, I know!) in college because it was one of the only clear channels on my tiny TV. (Too poor for cable.)
The 2 Fat Ladies was by Far the greatest cooking show. They didn’t care what anyone thought of them, we’re not politically correct, had senses of humour and it looked like they genuinely liked each other. I have the boxed set of those programs and I still watch them. Great way to see the UK too
I'm also a fan of Good Eats, and I watched a lot of PBS cooking shows back in the 80s/90s (especially loved Ming Tsai). I have to say I conflate Two Fat Ladies with Absolutely Fabulous, so I may need to go back and watch both shows...But also a shoutout to the original Naked Chef, which made cooking seem so fun and casual: just bung it into a pan, mate.
How did everyone in America get to see Two fat ladies?? I remember when it was on in the 90s in England, I'd watch it with my mum. Fun fact, one of the two fat ladies drank only gin and tonic, to the point where she contracted quinine poisoning.
Best cooking show ever, for me, was Delia Smith's hours to cook. Very soothing.
Julia Child without a doubt. For the younger generation that didn't get to see her shows when they originally aired, and grew up watching taped shows on Food Network, can't appreciate what she accomplished early on. I wanted to be Sara Moulton when she joined Julia. Then Jeff Smith, The Frugal Gourmet, showed us that cooking didn't have to be complicated. His cookbooks were easy to follow and he was personable on air. I even took one of my sons to Liberties Book Store in Boca Raton to meet him and get his autograph in the cookbooks of his that I owned. Following Jeff's exit there were cooking shows, The Galloping Gourmet and Mr. Food and the many produced by the Food Network, but none rose to the top till Ina. Martha tried but I felt everything she did was too fussy and complicated. Buy her cookbooks if you want to go that route. That's my vote, Julia Child followed by Ina Garten.
Two Fat Ladies was a gas and so entertaining but I didn’t learn much about technique there. I loved Good Eats…the precursor of J Kenzi Alt Lopez. I was a science major so understanding technique has always intrigued me.I also loved Molto Mario before he was so deservedly,unceremoniously cancelled.
Lidia Bastianich has always been solid on Italian and very instructive on Italian recipes as well.
As I was growing up (here I go dateing myself) my dad watched ‘Yan can cook’ which I watched with him sometimes. Over the years I’ve watched more than my share of cooking shows and I’ve enjoyed Ina, Giada, Amy Schumer, and even Chopped. But I will always be a die hard fan of my favorite - Top Chef. I’ve watched every season of that and some of them twice!
i loved two fat ladies! my sister was born in 1994, and she would watch it with me when she was little because the intro was fantastic and just the words "two fat ladies" and their accents would crack her up. very, very fond memories of the show itself and time spent with my very own real live baby doll of a sister. (who just had her first child, my precious nephew, in june. where does the time go?)
i also have fond memories of watching julia child with my gramma, she really was the best. (my gramma and julia.) we also loved to watch the frugal gourmet, and i wasn't going to bring him up, given how that all turned out but, i see several others have mentioned him so i felt safe to join in.
i used to watch sara moultin's show, remember when she took live calls? there was something comforting about the whole ordeal top to bottom. i think she's also why i hear "with your very clean hands..." every time i cook since, my hands are definitely the tools i use most in the kitchen. around the same time, david rosen...something (rosenthal?) also had a show. every time i try to look this up it doesn't seem to exist, it feels like a fever dream in which i have two specific memories - one in which he and his kids, all in white, on a white set, enjoyed a messy pomegranate or some other brightly colored fruit; and one in which he makes a tunafish sandwich, and he lovingly wraps the sandwich up, places it in a paper bag, and sets it aside as a crucial part of the recipe, so it's just like what you had in your school lunch but, you know, delicious. someone please tell me this really happened.
these days, of course i love ina - but just her, i can't stand when she has guests or worse, kid guests. it's too cringe. (remember when she went to some bougie candy shop and picked out candy for kids to decorate a sheet cake and she said every kid loves licorice and jordan almonds?) her recipes are always a winner, though. and top chef? still amazing, and the only competition show i enjoy. however, since switching away from cable to streaming tv, i've been loving the tastemade channel. actual food shows, sans competition or gimmicks, how novel! i love "make this tonight" which features a different chef every episode, including many top chef alum. i also can't get enough struggle meals with frankie celenza, about cooking on a budget. he's just fantastic. and last but not least, pati's mexican table with the one and only pati jinch. they've also started airing nigellisima, and sometimes there's so much bokeh and glimmering light you can hardly get a good look at what she's making but who cares? it's nigella. and that show makes me feel like going back to my mom's at christmastime. it'll cure what ails ya.
david rosengarten! "taste" was the name of the show. unfortunately i so far can't find either of the specific episodes i remember, but this updated filming of The Tuna Recipe and ensuing comments at least confirm he did make this on his very white set of the original tv show prior to this.
I adore Two Fat Ladies! On a similar note, does anyone remember Floyd on Food drunkenly traveling and cooking through the UK? However, and sorry to be basic, The French Chef has never been surpassed. I remember coming home from school and watching with my mom. We were both mesmerized. We are an Italian family and my mom was much better than the average white bread 60s cook, but we had never seen anything like Julia!
I’ll get some hate for this, but Good Eats. Probably because I was a kid when I watched it, and a science nerd, but it did teach me the most about cooking (for better or worse) until ATK came into my life.
I love the old Good Eats episodes as well
I watched a lot of The Frugal Gourmet in the 80's, and loved Jeff Smith. Not saying it's the GOAT but it was a show I loved and got me into food and cooking as a young person.
Instructive cooking or entertainment cooking? Good eats for the former, iron chef japan for the latter.
Sara Moulton used to do a cooking show live - I think on Food Network in the early days - and it was great. Sometimes she would forget to add things or get distracted and of course there were no edits, no second takes, just cooking on live TV.
Graham Kerr was fun back in the day. He really took the intimidation out of cooking long before YouTube and cooking shows.
I have to agree with folks who said Good Eats and the original Iron Chef. But Two Fat Ladies was also a treat.
I’m going to get hate for failing to follow the assignment, but I have a handful of favorites, and I can’t pick just one. First, there’s nothing I love more in my pandemic and post-pandemic life than PBS cooking shows on a snowy winter Saturday morning. Of the PBS array, Martha, Jaques Pepin, Lidia, and America’s Test Kitchen / Cook’s Country, Nick Stellino and (somewhat begrudgingly) Milk Street are all great. My husband Bjorn and I will not miss New Scandinavian Cooking with Andres Viestad, we are quite Norwegian in our heritage and it feels like a visit to Bjorn’s quirky cousin’s place for some outdoor fish boil and force-fed late in the day cups of black drip coffee, and I love it. Is this aired nation wide?
I have watched many of the cable channel cooking shows and I am lukewarm about a handful that aren’t worth mentioning…and I adore Ina, and am a secret fan of Rachael Ray’s “a week in a day” and her show about 30 minute meals, not her current show.
My most formative shows that have had a lasting impact on me are the original Martha Stewart show…from the ‘90s, before she had a studio audience, where Sarah Carey was standing nearby (mostly out of sight) cooking alongside Martha, who truly knows it all, her Mother, Big Martha, and an array of stellar guests. And lastly, and most obscure, a Canadian cable show from the 1990s called Savoire Faire hosted by Nik Manojlovich…there are occasionally an episode to find here and there on YouTube, and I love and totally relished that show. He says “herbs” and pronounces the H, and pasta has “ass” in it. I haven’t lived in Canada in many decades, but it take me home.
I’d maybe be hesitant to disclose the hours I’ve devoted to cooking shows over the years, but having closely observed the television watching habits of an All-American sports fans and I have concluded I have nothing to be ashamed about.
I somehow did not mention Julia!!
And I’ve seen like two episodes of Two Fat Ladies and now I’m going to watch all of them.
I loved this show. The old aga stoves, Clarissa larding meat, the cigarettes and Jennifer’s cocktails. I will have to rewatch.
I do love this show. But my vote would be for the original Iron Chef (from Japan) dubbed in English on PBS. My memory is that I watched it most Friday or Saturday nights (sad, I know!) in college because it was one of the only clear channels on my tiny TV. (Too poor for cable.)
The 2 Fat Ladies was by Far the greatest cooking show. They didn’t care what anyone thought of them, we’re not politically correct, had senses of humour and it looked like they genuinely liked each other. I have the boxed set of those programs and I still watch them. Great way to see the UK too
I'm also a fan of Good Eats, and I watched a lot of PBS cooking shows back in the 80s/90s (especially loved Ming Tsai). I have to say I conflate Two Fat Ladies with Absolutely Fabulous, so I may need to go back and watch both shows...But also a shoutout to the original Naked Chef, which made cooking seem so fun and casual: just bung it into a pan, mate.
Yes, young Jamie Oliver was amazing, fresh and unique, before he went all Dad on us!
How did everyone in America get to see Two fat ladies?? I remember when it was on in the 90s in England, I'd watch it with my mum. Fun fact, one of the two fat ladies drank only gin and tonic, to the point where she contracted quinine poisoning.
Best cooking show ever, for me, was Delia Smith's hours to cook. Very soothing.
I LOVED Two Fat Ladies! I really like to watch old episodes of Great Chefs of America on YouTube. The theme song gets me hype!
Julia Child without a doubt. For the younger generation that didn't get to see her shows when they originally aired, and grew up watching taped shows on Food Network, can't appreciate what she accomplished early on. I wanted to be Sara Moulton when she joined Julia. Then Jeff Smith, The Frugal Gourmet, showed us that cooking didn't have to be complicated. His cookbooks were easy to follow and he was personable on air. I even took one of my sons to Liberties Book Store in Boca Raton to meet him and get his autograph in the cookbooks of his that I owned. Following Jeff's exit there were cooking shows, The Galloping Gourmet and Mr. Food and the many produced by the Food Network, but none rose to the top till Ina. Martha tried but I felt everything she did was too fussy and complicated. Buy her cookbooks if you want to go that route. That's my vote, Julia Child followed by Ina Garten.
Two Fat Ladies was a gas and so entertaining but I didn’t learn much about technique there. I loved Good Eats…the precursor of J Kenzi Alt Lopez. I was a science major so understanding technique has always intrigued me.I also loved Molto Mario before he was so deservedly,unceremoniously cancelled.
Lidia Bastianich has always been solid on Italian and very instructive on Italian recipes as well.
Keith Floyd!
I love this show. I agree. It's the best.
As I was growing up (here I go dateing myself) my dad watched ‘Yan can cook’ which I watched with him sometimes. Over the years I’ve watched more than my share of cooking shows and I’ve enjoyed Ina, Giada, Amy Schumer, and even Chopped. But I will always be a die hard fan of my favorite - Top Chef. I’ve watched every season of that and some of them twice!
Food Safari (SBS 2006-) is my all-time favorite educational food show. Chef! (BBC 1993-1996) is my all-time favorite food-related sitcom.
Agree 100%. I even have their original cookbook and still cook from it. Much to the detriment of my arteries.
Totally agree with you, Two Fat Ladies
This was a classic show! I miss these smoking, cooking, motorcycle driving broads...
I agree
Ok, I am showing my age with this. I grew up watching the Galloping Gourmet. Graham Kerr was a hoot! He definitely inspired my interest in cooking!
Julia Child's various cooking shows on PBS
i loved two fat ladies! my sister was born in 1994, and she would watch it with me when she was little because the intro was fantastic and just the words "two fat ladies" and their accents would crack her up. very, very fond memories of the show itself and time spent with my very own real live baby doll of a sister. (who just had her first child, my precious nephew, in june. where does the time go?)
i also have fond memories of watching julia child with my gramma, she really was the best. (my gramma and julia.) we also loved to watch the frugal gourmet, and i wasn't going to bring him up, given how that all turned out but, i see several others have mentioned him so i felt safe to join in.
i used to watch sara moultin's show, remember when she took live calls? there was something comforting about the whole ordeal top to bottom. i think she's also why i hear "with your very clean hands..." every time i cook since, my hands are definitely the tools i use most in the kitchen. around the same time, david rosen...something (rosenthal?) also had a show. every time i try to look this up it doesn't seem to exist, it feels like a fever dream in which i have two specific memories - one in which he and his kids, all in white, on a white set, enjoyed a messy pomegranate or some other brightly colored fruit; and one in which he makes a tunafish sandwich, and he lovingly wraps the sandwich up, places it in a paper bag, and sets it aside as a crucial part of the recipe, so it's just like what you had in your school lunch but, you know, delicious. someone please tell me this really happened.
these days, of course i love ina - but just her, i can't stand when she has guests or worse, kid guests. it's too cringe. (remember when she went to some bougie candy shop and picked out candy for kids to decorate a sheet cake and she said every kid loves licorice and jordan almonds?) her recipes are always a winner, though. and top chef? still amazing, and the only competition show i enjoy. however, since switching away from cable to streaming tv, i've been loving the tastemade channel. actual food shows, sans competition or gimmicks, how novel! i love "make this tonight" which features a different chef every episode, including many top chef alum. i also can't get enough struggle meals with frankie celenza, about cooking on a budget. he's just fantastic. and last but not least, pati's mexican table with the one and only pati jinch. they've also started airing nigellisima, and sometimes there's so much bokeh and glimmering light you can hardly get a good look at what she's making but who cares? it's nigella. and that show makes me feel like going back to my mom's at christmastime. it'll cure what ails ya.
david rosengarten! "taste" was the name of the show. unfortunately i so far can't find either of the specific episodes i remember, but this updated filming of The Tuna Recipe and ensuing comments at least confirm he did make this on his very white set of the original tv show prior to this.
https://youtu.be/OqniqDD5_gk
If course , Ina now.
Julia Child
I adore Two Fat Ladies! On a similar note, does anyone remember Floyd on Food drunkenly traveling and cooking through the UK? However, and sorry to be basic, The French Chef has never been surpassed. I remember coming home from school and watching with my mom. We were both mesmerized. We are an Italian family and my mom was much better than the average white bread 60s cook, but we had never seen anything like Julia!
I agree that The Frugal Gourmet was great, very influential.