Family chefs in the television kitchen

The ‘cooking on television’ trend is far from over. There are still appearing new variations in the genre. In January 2012 three new cooking formats were launched in which relatives act as cook.

The UK

1. In The Fabulous Baker Brothers (Channel4, 04-01-2012) brothers chef Henry & baker Tom Herbert cook together and also participate in a cooking competition against each other. In each episode they create a tasty recipe which is judged by different groups of people, e.g. sports players or students. They cook in Italian style.
2. In Hungry sailors (ITV1, 16-01-2012) dad Dick and son James Strawbridge sail along the South-coast of Great-Britain and meet regional farm owners, food producers and restaurant owners to exchange all sort of information. At the end they create together a meal out of local ingredients, served on their boat for the locals. Their cooking style is the Slow food style.   

The USA

3. In Not my mama's meal (Cooking channel, 04-01-2012) son Bobby Deen takes his mother's classic recipes (of famous tv-chef Paula Deen) to change them into healthier low calories and low fat variations but still deliver on taste. His cooking style is the modern healthy way.

Previously relatives occasional appeared in cooking programs, but at the start of 2012 the ‘relative-trend’ finally breaks through. A short overview of occasional cooking formats in which relatives take part: 

In the USA Down Home With the Neelys (Food network, since 2009) is presented by the married couple Patrick and Gina Neely. They always discuss things but also whispering sweet things to each other.

In Denmark son Harry at the age of 6 helped his dad Carsten Kyster (who is a famous chef) in the tv-program Harry–med far I kokkenet (Harry with his dad in the kitchen, DR1, 2007) preparing recipes and visiting food producers. Harry wanted to become a professional chef like his father.  

In the UK married couple Monty en Sarah Don presented the cooking program Fork to Fork already in 1999 (Channel4) from a country kitchen preparing healthy recipes in organic style. The married couple also wrote the book Fork to Fork, published in 2006. 

Agnes Dijker