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Copyright © 2025 Foodies Only
Copyright © 2025 Foodies Only
5 min
25/02/2026
There’s a reason why countless shows have been dedicated to the history, trivia, and practice of cooking. From baking wars to pressure tests, restaurant overhauls to home chefs, everyone and everything from the world of cooking has made it to TV screens today. Because few things are as high-pressure, interesting, and innovative as cooking. Today, these formats compete with soap operas and news for viewers’ attention. And some even win the fight. But what was the show that set the ball rolling? Read ahead to find out.
For many Indians, Tarla Dalal and Sanjeev Kapoor remain the first celebrity chefs. Because it was the two of them, and their shows (The Tarla Dalal Show and Khaana Khazana, respectively), that popularised cooking as a TV concept in India. Today, the Indian TV has more cooking shows than days in a week. The introduction of global channels and streaming platforms takes the number even higher. The format, too, has changed drastically. While many shows still have chefs breaking down complex dishes and teaching the art of cooking to the average viewer, many new formats have emerged. Competitive cooking, in fact, has become a genre in itself. And it’s interesting to know where and how this journey started.
Talking about cooking is not a novel act. People have been passing on recipes and trivia for centuries. From oral tales to a grandmother’s notebook, recipes are the unofficial language of history and culture. And it was recipes, or rather, tips and techniques on cooking, that first became material for entertainment.
Yes, long before cut-throat reality shows and fast-paced series were the simple, demonstrative shows, focused on helping homemakers with recipes rather than entertaining the general audience. And like all forms of entertaining and informational content, even cooking shows were first broadcast on the radio before making it to the TV screen.
According to the Guinness World Records, the first cookery show to be broadcast on television was the live, black-and-white Cook's Night Out on the BBC. It debuted at 9.25 p.m. on 21 January 1937, presented by French chef and restaurateur Marcel Boulestin. This was the first ever broadcast, aired in a series of five 15-minute-long episodes, each focusing on a single dish that could be made individually or combined into a five-course meal. The premier episode focused on making an omelette. Boulestin went on to host other cookery programmes on the BBC, including Dish of the Month (1937) and Foundations of Cookery (1939). Though the first broadcast came out in 1937, it wasn’t until 1962 when The French Chef with Julia Child began airing that the genre gained widespread popularity.
These early programs were largely educational, intended to teach homemakers specific skills. Competition-based shows, like the present-day MasterChef series, The Great British Bake-Off and more, came much later. The earliest identified television cooking competition is Now You're Cooking, which aired in 1951. This 15-minute program featured three audience members preparing the same dish, with a guest chef judging the best, offering prizes like a wristwatch or a pen and pencil set.
While there is a clear answer on the first-ever cooking TV show, the story has enough drama for a soap opera. Though Cook's Night Out is recognised as the earliest, Philip Harben's Cookery (1946) is often cited as the first true, long-running TV cooking series. Cookery aired post-WWII, and ran for a year, often focusing on rationing. The same year, I Love to Eat with James Beard also premiered on NBC. It’s regarded as the first-ever cooking show in the US. However, in the strictest sense, the first-ever broadcast that focused on demonstrating how a dish is cooked remains Cook's Night Out.
With the advent of multiple streaming platforms, social media channels, and, of course, TV channels, calculating even an approximate number of TV shows is an impossible task. Suffice to say, thousands of shows exist across national and regional channels in India alone. The point is not to binge-watch all of them. But to know there are enough options to cater to your interests, no matter how massy or niche they may get. You never know which one may end up becoming your new favourite!
