To think if I'd never cooked before most food programmes would scare me off cooking

[EddieStobbart]

In making it into "exciting" telly, everything looks so complicated, like something only people with a talent for it can do. Where the fuck is Fanny Craddock when you need her?

[Moanranger]

Never watch 'em & I'm a great cook. Oh, 1 exception Lorraine, for awhile. Most are twats.
Stereotypical watcher views Nigella or whoever & then orders a pizza!

[sashh]

I learned to cook from TV.

I could always follow a recipe but just throwing things in a pan - all from TV.

[DoraGora]

I love cooking. The most interesting programme I ever watched was Reza Mahammad's programme on the food of the Raj. He lit fires underground, put hundreds of coloured ingredients in rice, to make it look like a rainbow, and I don't know what else he did. I was transfixed. I didn't exactly order a pizza afterwards. But, I've no intention of digging a hole in my lawn, lighting a fire and burying half a goat in it.

[Schoolaroundthecorner]

I'm a fairly decent cook and I love cookery programmes. Sometimes just as entertainment but other times it does encourage me to try something new when I see how it all comes together. It's easier then to picture myself trying it and succeeding.

I find it particularly helpful for baking/dough recipes as I can see what the mix should look like, especially for bread.

[DoraGora]

I watched one the other day, which explained the process of making fresh tortillas. Like the goat in the garden, I don't suppose I'm every going to do it. But, it was extremely interesting. (I don't think I'll be eating any grasshoppers in one, either. Apparently that was an Aztec delicacy.)

[Mousefinkle]

I don't bother because most chefs focus around meat and fish dishes and as a vegan that's kind of limiting (plus the sight of corpses makes me feel queasy.) I quite like Nigel Slater, he does occasionally make a nice veggie dish and he comes across as a lovely person. I wouldn't watch Jamie Oliver if you paid me.

They do make more complex dishes but I guess it wouldn't really be interesting to sit and watch someone making beans on toast or spag bol .

[ComposHatComesBack]

I'm not a good cook at all and the programmes on TV make it look complex, unaffordably expensive and if i am not sweating blood sweat and tears over it i am doing something wrong. Master chef in particular gets my goat, ten minutes in I end up thinking "fuck it, I'll go to the chippy"

I don't understand why there's so many cookery shows on TV, it seems a poor fit for TV you can't taste the food or smell it.

[namechange0dq8]

Master chef in particular gets my goat, ten minutes in I end up thinking "fuck it, I'll go to the chippy"

You do realise that they don't cook like that at home or anywhere else don't you?

[DoraGora]

I'd imagine that they're relatively cheap to make, no planning involved! And, they're interesting, if you like that sort of thing, same with gardening, visiting houses and antiques roadshow.

[OnIlkleyMoorBahTwat]

But what they do on Masterchef isn't actually normal home cooking is it?

It's like watching the Olympics and thinking there's no point going for a run because you'll never be able to run a mile in less than 4 minutes.

[balletnotlacrosse]

I love cooking but I'm getting bored with a lot of the cookery programmes on tv. Most of them are very gimmicky nowadays and teach you very little about technique. And definitely if I wasn't already a keen cook I would find some of the programmes quite intimidating.
If you look at old re-runs of Delia Smith programmes they are way superior and I can see how a generation of people learnt to cook from her.

[MrsGrimes]

I love cooking and I love cooking programmes but much of it is entertainment and aspirational. You're not just watching Jamie Oliver cooking. You're watching his lovely house, his massive garden, his wood fired oven in said garden, his family, the beautiful crockery. It makes you want to cook.

Then you remember that your kitchen is the size of a closet, it's pissing down outside and you barely have room in your garden for a swing set, nevermind an oven. And being able to afford a wood fired oven would mean selling a kidney. And you only have your Tesco Value set of white plates to serve the food on anyway. The wooden board is for chopping and your family would think you'd gone mad if you served them a salad on it.

BBC Good Food mag and the website is what taught me to cook. Watching cooking programmes is just for fun.

[samG76]

Im my view cookery programmes are substitute for actually cooking. Ie "shall we make a nice soup, salad and roast? No let's heat up a pizza and watch Jamie Oliver".

[loveareadingthanks]

The only cooking programmes I like are those that are tied into travelling around, meeting people, looking at local foods etc. It's not like I'm ever going to do those things but it's a damn sight more interesting than watching someone standing in a kitchen cooking something.

[namechange0dq8]

The only cooking programmes I like are those that are tied into travelling around, meeting people, looking at local foods etc.

Floyd on France, in other words.

[OnIlkleyMoorBahTwat]

I never watch 'cooking' programmes (Masterchef, Bake Off etc). I've only ever seen clips on the news. People who know me and my enthusiasm for cooking and food find this very strange.

I do like the food/travel programmes though (Hairy Bikers, Rick Stein, the Thomasina Miers in Spain one a few years ago).

[OneFlewOverTheDodosNest]

I love cooking programmes - I taught myself to cook by watching ready, steady, cook and Saturday morning kitchen and making notes.

I love Jamie Oliver's recipes although he winds me up and I think Nigella is usually quite easy to follow even if I'll never quite match the glamour! Masterchef and the like are just food porn but it's quite entertaining none the less.