The Vine: May 9, 2014
I am asking for the readers to help me remember the name of a cooking show that I watched years ago.
I can remember it very clearly, but I don’t remember the name or the channel on which it aired. Googling has not been helpful, and I’ve also gone through the Wikipedia lists of previously aired Food Network and Travel Channel shows (those are the two most likely candidates for channel) and nothing jumps out. Here’s what I remember:
- It was a show about cooking, but not a competitive show. It also wasn’t a straight-up “here’s how you cook this food” show. It was more a show about watching chefs cook.
- There was no host, per se, but there was a lady (with a Southern accent, perhaps) who narrated.
- Each show featured three different chefs from three different restaurants. Each chef would cook one course in his/her kitchen, and then you’d go to the next chef and watch them cook the next course. The opening narration was always something like “Today on Old Cooking Show, we’re going to Fancy French Restaurant in New Orleans to watch Chef French Guy prepare his world famous foie gras. Then, we’ll head to the Swiss Alps, to Mountaintop Place, where Chef Nancy Highrise will show us how she makes her lovely goat cheese and lemon wiener schnitzel. Finally for dessert, we’re off to Alaska for — what else? — Baked Alaska with Chef Coldnose.”
- Each chef would cook and plate his/her creation. Some would narrate the whole time, some would not. Some had a sous chef, some did not. They were always in the otherwise empty kitchen of their restaurant, not on a set.
I have no idea when these would have been filmed, but I was probably watching around 2000-2003. I would love to watch the show again. They were very soothing shows for when I felt like just laying on the couch. I doubt they are still airing on TV, but perhaps I can find old episodes on YouTube or something, if I had the program name.
Thanks,
Rebecca
Tags: Ask The Readers popcult
There’s an ongoing discussion about good old cooking shows here; do any of them fit the bill?
Me again. Could it be Great Chefs of the World?
Could it have been A Moveable Feast on PBS? http://www.pbs.org/food/shows/a-moveable-feast/
It’s Great Chefs. I loved watching that show. It’s older than you think, though. Here is a clip: http://youtu.be/wCOQaujpwAA
I’m also thinking it may be “Great Chefs of the World”, which I used to watch all the time, before The Food Network, etc., even existed. I had totally forgotten about that show!
Sounds like the Great Chefs series to me — I also loved it, in part because the narration was so soothing. It was also a glimpse into restaurant kitchens and what equipment they had. I was always amazed at how precise their mise-en-place was.
There are a bunch of episodes available on Hulu if you want to double-check.
It sounds a lot like the Great Chefs series to me, too. I think it started with Great Chefs of New Orleans, but then expanded to the World.
It (like Julia Child’s original series) was produced for PBS, which could be why you haven’t turned it up in searching on the Food Network or the Travel Channel. According to its webpage (http://www.greatchefs.com/about-great-chefs/) it began in 1981(!).
I think A Moveable Feast is too recent (if it’s the one produced in collaboration with Fine Cooking magazine) to be the answer Rebecca’s looking for.
Can I just say, I totally want to watch the example episode with Chefs French Guy, Highrise, and Coldnose?
Thank you, Nora! Yes, it is “Great Chefs of the World”. I went on YouTube and looked it up after you mentioned it. I can’t believe I forgot the jazzy theme song.
RC: That’s pretty close to an actual episode, from what I remember. Minus the geographically applicable chef names, of course.
Great Chefs of the world FTW! Nostalgia alert: Back in high school iIhad a free period after lunch and I’d go home cause I could, fix myself lunch and watch Great Chefs of the world, fantasizing I was eating what they were preparing when in reality I had ham and cheese on some wonderbread and some oranges. Oh great chefs how you fueled my culinary love.