7 Early TV Chefs Who Shaped Today’s Cooking Shows

Today, the idea that anyone can learn to cook seems obvious. It's easy to forget how central television was in proving that point decades ago. What came before today's endless variety of food-related content?

Here are seven trailblazers who helped bring cooking out of the kitchen and into our living rooms.

French chef Marcel Boulestin did not begin his career in the kitchen but in the world of design. In 1911, he opened the Décoration Moderne shop in central London, where he amassed a bevy of British clients. His refined eye for detail and presentation later shaped his culinary style.

Following World War I, he published Simple French Cooking for English Homes (1923). The book “was an immediate success with both the Press and the public," writes Denise Hooker in A Salute to Marcel Boulestin and Jean Émile Laboureur. Two years later, Boulestin opened his own restaurant, earning a new reputation as a world-class chef.

In 1937, Boulestin was offered the chance to host the first televised cooking show, “Cook’s Night Out,” on the BBC. Until that point, cooking instruction had been mostly confined to radio and print. Television offered something new: the chance to watch food being made in real time.

Across five episodes, Boulestin demonstrated dishes that combined to make a five-course meal. He appeared on other televised shows like “Dish of the Month” and “Foundations of Cookery” throughout the late 1930s.

A chef since the 1930s, Philip Harben trained by watching his family cook. “I could scramble eggs and make mayonnaise long before I could read Thucydides or solve a quadratic equation,” he once said. In 1945, he published The Way to Cook.

When British television resumed seven months after the end of World War II, Harben was offered the chance to host a TV series called “Cookery.” The first episode was just 10 minutes and demonstrated lobster vol-au-vents, an odd choice considering London was still in the midst of rationing (which would continue until 1954).

“Harben brought to broadcasting an unusual, characteristic vitality,” writes Caroline Brandenberg in The Telegraph. His quirky style included showcasing his screw-ups, like realizing he’d forgotten to turn on the oven. Harben worked with the BBC through the 1950s and continued publishing books until the early 1970s. His later TV series focused on offbeat themes like Elizabethan cooking.

James Beard became a food authority and host of the first network cooking show to air in the United States: NBC’s live “I Love to Eat” (1946-47). Although the original runtime for the show was 15 minutes, it expanded to 30 as Beard’s recipes became more complex and labor-intensive.

When Beard wasn’t on television, he ran the James Beard Cooking School throughout the 1950s, where he emphasized the use of fresh American ingredients. “It was in this decade that Beard made his name as James Beard, the brand name, the face and belly of American gastronomy,” writes David Kamp in The United States of Arugula.

In 1986, the James Beard Foundation was created one year after the chef’s death. Its goal is to provide scholarships and support for American culinary tradition. Today, the James Beard Awards are some of the most coveted honors in the culinary industry.

English chef Dione Lucas was the first woman featured on a cooking show. Lucas was host of "To the Queen's Taste" which aired on CBS from 1948-49. It was filmed at her restaurant The Egg Basket in New York City.

Above all, Lucas emphasized the artistry of cooking. She “was unconventional in her exhortations, adamantly advocating that the traditional female province of cooking be embraced as an art and an outlet for creative expression” writes historian Kathleen Collins. Lucas was even an influence on Julia Child, who once called her “the mother of French cooking in America." Lucas is also often credited with popularizing the omelet in the United States.

In 1955, Fanny Cradock became one of the first chefs to host a cooking show in front of a live studio audience with her BBC series "Kitchen Magic." Cradock championed French cuisine, presenting it in a way that felt accessible and practical for home cooks. She also focused on cost-effective ingredients with catchphrases like “This won’t stretch your purse.” At the end of every season, the BBC released a recipe guide so audiences could recreate the dishes at home.

“Fanny dominated the world of TV cookery until the end of the 1960s and her dishes became a tonic for the grey culinary scene of postwar Britain,” writes journalist William Sitwell. “Viewers lapped up her exotic dishes which famously once included a plate of dyed-green Duchess potatoes.” Cradock continued to host or participate in cooking specials until the 1980s.

Graham Kerr began his career as catering advisor for the Royal New Zealand Air Force before becoming a public figure through recipe segments on the radio. In 1964, he made the leap to TV as the host of "Entertaining With Kerr" in Australia. He developed his persona while writing his 1967 book The Galloping Gourmets—co-authored with wine expert Len Evans—which chronicled a 35-day journey in search of the world’s best restaurants.

Kerr then rose to international fame as the host of "The Galloping Gourmet" TV show in Canada from 1968-72. The series was filmed before a live audience and opened with Kerr leaping over a chair into a set dressed like a dining room. Regular segments included prerecorded travel footage from regions that inspired dishes and Kerr punctuated every commercial break with a sip of wine. At the end of each episode, he invited a member of the audience to eat the completed meal with him. Many of these elements were later adapted by subsequent generations of cooking shows.

Julia Child was one of the most gloriously outlandish and famous chefs and is widely credited with popularizing French cuisine in America. Child made her TV debut in 1962 on "I've Been Reading," where she was invited to talk about her 1961 cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Rather than just discuss her recipes, Child brought items to make an omelet and began to cook. It’s said that the show’s producer exclaimed: “Who is this madwoman cooking an omelet on a book-reviewing program?”

That "madwoman" became an overnight celebrity. Her cooking show "The French Chef" premiered on television in 1963 and ran for 10 years. Audiences were enthralled with Child’s irreverent cooking style, distinctive voice and passion for making French cooking accessible to the average person. “I fell in love with the public and the public fell in love with me,” Child later recalled.