A cooking show or cooking programme is a television genre that presents food preparation in a kitchen, located in a restaurant or a studio set. Typically the show's host, often a celebrity chef, prepares one or more dishes over the course of an episode, taking the viewing audience through the food's inspiration, preparation, and stages of cooking.
There are different types of cooking shows. Some portray an educational component, with the host teaching the viewers how to prepare different meals. Others are talk shows, with the host and guest celebrities enjoying the meal while talking. Also there are cooking competitions, such as Chopped, Iron Chef or Junior MasterChef, where cookers must prepare the best food according to judges.
While rarely achieving top ratings, cooking shows have been a popular staple of daytime TV programming since the earliest days of television. They are generally very inexpensive to produce, making them an economically easy way for a TV station to fill a half-hour (or sometimes 60-minute) time slot.
A number of cooking shows have run for many seasons, especially when they are sponsored by local TV stations or by public broadcasting. Many of the more popular cooking shows have had flamboyant hosts whose unique personalities have made them into celebrities.
The cable TV channel Food Network has showcased many cooking shows.