Cooking on TV has proven to be a massive hit through the years. The idea of a professional imparting their cooking knowledge to cameras seemed like a great way to fill the television schedules to production executives and they were right. Even though we can’t smell how good the food is, the look has certainly more than made up for that. Plus the enthusiasm and the personalities of Chefs have also been a winning combination.
One of the first famous TV chefs was Delia Smith. She was a trailblazer for many women TV chefs to come. Her homely cooking and warm “mumsy” still spoke to many amateur chefs who were duly inspired to try something a bit different from the usual “meat and 2 veg” that had dominated the British palette from the 1950s onwards. Her kitchen wasn’t full of mod cons. It seemed as if with each series she just had a Kitchen Refurbishment like that from https://www.thekitchenrefurbishmentcompany.
As the 1980s arrived it seemed that the format needed a little spicing up. This had already happened to some degree with the groundbreaking work of Madhur Jaffery’s shows on Indian cuisine and Ken Hom’s introduction to Asian cooking, making the Wok an essential part of the UK’s kitchens.
In the 90s the Kitchen became a frenetic place with the likes of Can’t Cook Won’t Cook and Hot Chefs. Masterchef, which had previously just been a reason for Lloyd Grossman to have a chat with friends and then get a nice dinner, was also revamped.