Once upon a time, if you wanted to get inspired by fine foods and finer chefs you would have to hope that the BBC had sent Rick Stein on holiday to some far-flung country, or that Jamie Oliver had taken a break from saving schools, to catch any good culinary content.
Thankfully, with the advent of streaming companies and multi-million dollar documentary budgets, the days of squinting at a standard definition vol au vent are over. Now, you can find hundreds of hours of food shows and documentaries to stream instantly on Netflix alone.
From the stunning Chef's Table to the comforting Somebody Feed Phil, these big-budget productions with their high-resolution cameras capture and explore every element of food culture in incredible detail. It has never been a better time to fall in love with food and its visual storytellers.
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In a former life as a pastry chef, I would return home from long shifts and plonk myself down in front of one of these shows to forget my day job and dream of cuisine. The list below is not exhaustive, but after conferring with a few others in the food industry, we agreed these were the best five cooking shows on Netflix.
Jiro Dreams of Sushi
The documentary that launched one of the most successful recent food documentarians. David Gelb's 2011 Jiro Dreams of Sushi, which has received an appropriate 99 per cent approval rating from the website Rotten Tomatoes, simply explores the artisanal perfectionist mindset behind one of Japan's greatest sushi restaurants - Sukiyabashi Jiro.
Gelb brings the viewer into the life of the titular sushi chef 85-year-old Jiro as he and his eldest son pursue perfection, from the perfect amount of time to massage an octopus before cutting it (45 minutes), to noticing which hand a diner eats with before serving them the next dish.
Despite being over an hour in length, the documentary holds its pace as the viewer is brought further and further into Jiro's pursuit of the perfect sushi, and his son's anxiety as he looks to fill his famous father's shoes. A must-watch for any lover of Japanese food.
The Chef Show
While many top-flight cooking shows will champion the most skilful and most daring chefs or flavour combinations, 'The Chef Show' is all about the process of learning new skills and discovering new ways of cooking or eating. With this much more laid-back vibe, the series uses the co-host Jon Favreau's many showbiz connections to showcase excellent food - and then make Spiderman actor Tom Holland eat it.
Favreau's previous stints as both an actor and producer in the Marvel series take a back seat to his real passion in the show, delicious food. Alongside chef Roy Choi, Favreau functions as the perfect stand-in for the novice home cook as some of the world's top chefs show him the secret to making the perfect pizza, or meticulous meatballs.
If you want a good-looking but not overly taxing thing to watch while curled up on the settee, this show makes for comfy, light-hearted viewing.
Somebody Feed Phil
How it took so long for Phil Rosenthal, the creator of the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, to be put in front of a camera and made to interact with passionate people, beggars belief. The surprisingly sweet and earnest comedian is so enthused by people who love food that all six seasons of this show make for delicious viewing.
As a wide-eyed stand-in for the viewer, Phil takes us on a tour of cities around the world and their most tempting dishes, while never forgetting to ground each episode in how people live, work and struggle in each city. Each episode doesn't just make you want to visit, they make you want to consume each city whole.
The show's emphasis on positivity, as well as Phil's goofy but warm and unpretentious approach to the people and food he encounters, are uplifting and refreshing - the perfect antidote after any long day.
Chef's Table
When I was learning to cook in a fine dining restaurant, I felt as though I was surrounded by a world full of a million arbitrary rules, where everything I produced seemed a poor imitation of a once fine dish. After shouting a bunch of expletives at a particularly ugly-looking plate of food, another chef pulled me aside and gave me some valuable advice - watch Chef's Table.
At first, I thought it was to imitate the flair and style that the world's greatest chefs breathe into every dish, but, as each episode developed, I realised that it was to understand the eye of a culinary maestro. Each episode gives you insight into how great restauranteurs will look at a plate as a blank canvas for their creativity, and apply with confidence the skills they have learned over many years to create an edible work of beauty.
If you enjoyed Jiro Dreams of Sushi, you will love this. After the success of his first major documentary, David Gelb applies the same principles here as he does in 'Jiro', delicious camerawork and insightful interviewing, but this time with every interesting or influential chef alive today.
The stand-out episodes that will get you hooked are Grant Achatz's Alinea restaurant, where every element of the diner's experience is subverted over the course of the meal; or the inimitable Massimo Bottura's Osteria Francescana restaurant where abstract art meets quintessential Italian classics.
That is without mentioning the perfect slow-mo camera shots of food cooking or chefs plating, a visual feast for your inner foodie. This is the place to start when it comes to Netflix's food content.
Cooked
Though an anthropological documentary about how and why humans eat the way we do might seem rather dry, 'Cooked' is perhaps the most mind-blowing entry on this list. Rather than heading to a Michelin-starred restaurant, in the show's very first episode celebrated food writer Michael Pollan takes the audience to the Aboriginal outback, where humans today still practice what separated man from beast - cooking.
Over four episodes, Pollan seductively draws you through each of the four elements to evidence how our relationship to food has revolutionised our species over the millennia - from the discovery of fire and its continued relationship with barbecuing, to how bread and beer created the world's first civilisations.
Not only is Pollan one of the most renowned food writers of our time, 'Cooked' is perhaps one of the best documentaries on food and human civilisation ever made. As human diets become ever more unique, with no-meat or gluten-free diets becoming ever more popular, this series attempts to explore the hows and whys of how we got to where we are today.
