The 15 Best Cooking Competition Shows Of All Time, Ranked

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The best cooking competition shows include memorable contestants, fun rules, creative challenges, and hosts and judges who know what they're talking about and know how to talk about it. With recent cooking shows and movies like The Bear, Chef's Table, The Great British Baking Show, and more being so prevalent in pop culture in recent years, it might feel like cooking-related shows are having a moment. In truth, there's rarely been a time when cooking shows haven't been popular, most often represented by the many popular cooking competition shows that have aired for decades.

Cooking shows have been popular since television has been popular, with Cook's Night Out airing in the UK in 1937, Julia Child hosting her series, The French Chef in the 1960s, and many more series following close behind all across the globe. However, it wasn't until 1993 and the creation of the Food Network that cooking and reality TV combined for a perfectly blended genre of cooking competition shows. Now, there's a new cooking competition show every year, but only a few pass the audience test and become a show worth savoring.

15 Barbecue Showdown (2020-Present)

The Most American Competitive Cooking Show

Barbecue Showdown, formerly The American Barbecue Showdown, first premiered on Netflix in September 2020 with the first season taking place in Covington, Georgia and the third season moving to Gay, Georgia. The series brings in contestants from across America to face off and show off their best marinating, cooking, and BBQing skills for judges Kevin Bludso and Melissa Cookston. It's as American as a cooking competition show gets and the type of people who make barbecuing an art are as lovely and fun as one would imagine.

14 Best Home Cook (2018-2021)

Mary Berry's Post-British Baking Show Brainchild

There was quite a stir in the competitive cooking show world when Mary Berry announced she was leaving The Great British Baking Show after season 7. Fortunately, her replacement, Prue Leith, was more than up to the task, and even better, it allowed Berry the opportunity to do another show, Best Home Cook, previously known as, Britain's Best Home Cook. Something like a culinary version of The Apprentice with kinder contestants, Best Home Cook stuffs everyone in a house while they compete. It's a fairly standard series beyond that conceit, but Berry brings the energy and sweetness as always.

13 Beat Bobby Flay (2013-Present)

A Light-Hearted One Vs. One Cooking Competition

Taped in front of a live studio audience, Beat Bobby Flay is a 2013 Food Network cooking competition series that is still airing. As the title suggests, Beat Bobby Flays sees a group of 20 contestants competing in a first round of cooking to earn the right to face off against Flay in a 1 vs 1 competition. Flay is joined by two guests who help out the competitor and try to distract Flay. Framed like a boxing match with trash-talking and bell-ringing, Beat Bobby Flay is a quick-moving, light-hearted show where it feels like everyone is having a good time.

12 Holiday Baking Championship (2014-Present)

Bakers Make Showstopping Holiday Treats

The American cooking competition series, Holiday Baking Championship airs from November through December and has become a yearly tradition since 2014. Each episode is divided into two rounds with a preliminary heat followed by a main heat, where bakers are given more time for their impressive creations. Bobby Deen and Jesse Palmer have both hosted the series and Duff Goldman, Nancy Fuller, and Lorraine Pascale have all served as judges. The popularity of the competition has led to several spin-offs, including a Halloween Baking Championship.

11 MasterChef Goes Large (1990-2001, 2005-Present)

The Original And Less Dramatic MasterChef Series

Originally titled MasterChef UK before the 2005 revival, MasterChef Goes Large is the first incarnation of the MasterChef series that has since been spun off into international versions and specific niches like Junior MasterChef and MasterChef: The Professionals. This first series premiered in 1990 and follows a similar format to the better-known US version, but removes some of the drama for a better look at the actual cooking going on. Gregg Wallace and John Torode have judged the series since the start, providing sharp and witty observations every year.

10 Iron Chef (1993-1999)

Japanese Culture And Cuisine Come Together For This Cooking Show

The Iron Chef series that inspired it all, the Japanese version of Iron Chef, premiered in 1993 and featured guest chefs coming on to the show to challenge one of the resident "Iron Chefs" in a timed cook-off with themed ingredients. The overly dramatic Takeshi Kaga hosts the series as "Chairman Kaga", who leads a battalion of Iron Chefs; competitors cook against one another for the chance to cook against an Iron Chef. With its wacky kayfabe style storytelling and the unique and unusual Japanese dishes, the original Iron Chef stands out as a singular cooking show.

9 Guy's Grocery Games (2013-Present)

Chefs Race Through A Grocery Store To Cook Their Dishes

Guy's Grocery Games, sometimes just called Triple G, puts a spin on the classic cooking show format by setting itself in a grocery store. Chef contestants are given access to ten aisles of normal supermarket food and are required to do tasks set out by host Guy Fieri, who issues basic challenges like "fried feast" or "upscale dinner", sometimes limiting which aisles and shelves can be accessed. It's fast-paced, and Fieri is an incredibly energetic host. It feels like Supermarket Sweep meets MasterChef and the dishes always feel like something that could be made at home.

8 MasterChef USA (2010-Present)

Chefs Compete To Impress Three Angry Judges

Not to be confused with the three-season competition cooking show on PBS also called MasterChef USA, the better-known MasterChef USA TV series first premiered on Fox in 2010 and stars a current judge lineup of Gordon Ramsay, Joe Bastianich, and Aarón Sánchez. Like the original British series, contestants first try out in front of the judges, X Factor-style, before being selected to continue in the challenge. Very dramatized and emotionally charged, it's hard not to get invested thanks to the judges and talented chefs who create some incredible dishes.

7 The Final Table (2018)

International Cuisines Are Explored And Expertly Made

In The Final Table, a Netflix cooking competition series that premiered in 2018 and only lasted for one season, twelve international teams of two professional chefs compete to create restaurant-quality dishes in each episode. Hosted by food writer and critic Andrew Knowlton, each episode of The Final Table is centered on the cuisine of one country. The competition segments are interrupted by the biographies of the contestants, which goes along the way to helping the audience figure out who is best suited to each challenge, making for a more participatory viewing experience.

6 Tournament Of Champions (2020-Present)

Former Food Network Victors Cook Head-To-Head

Guy Fieri's Tournament of Champions is an ongoing cooking competition series hosted by none other than Guy Fieri himself. Each season, 16 or more chefs who have won on other Food Network shows go head-to-head, March Madness bracket-style for a first-round cook-off, followed by quarterfinals, semifinals, and then the championships. The dishes are blind-judged and the challenges usually require specific, unusual ingredients and rare equipment. The talent level in each bracket means every head-to-head is close, and no matter when a viewer tunes in, they're bound to see some impressive cooking.

5 Chopped (2009-Present)

Ted Allen Offers Chefs Unusual Ingredients

Chopped is a 2009 reality series hosted by Ted Allen since its inception. The game show pits four chefs against one another for the chance to win $10,000 and a not-insignificant amount of bragging rights. Each episode consists of three rounds where the chefs have to incorporate unusual ingredients into three dishes: "Appetizer", "Entrée", and "Dessert". Like any good cooking competition show, Chopped includes plenty of backstory for the contestants. This is also the series where the trope of a judge acting mean, only to compliment a dish, comes from.

4 Hell's Kitchen (2005-Present)

Gordon Ramsay Berates Chefs And Customers Alike

Hell's Kitchen may be the show that got most Americans of a certain age interested in cooking shows in the first place. The Gordon Ramsay-hosted series feels much more like "reality TV" than similar cooking shows, with drama between chefs and Ramsay as much a feature as the actual cooking. The pitting of teams against one another is a great Survivor-mechanic that works surprisingly well for a cooking show and some of the best moments of the series have come from a team either finding a way to work together or completely falling apart as the dinner bell rings.

3 Iron Chef America (2004-2018)

Guests Compete Against Food Network's Best

The biggest spin-off of the original Japanese Iron Chef series, Iron Chef America has a similar format where challenger chefs compete against one of the resident "Iron Chefs" in an hour-long cooking competition with secret ingredients and themes. Mark Dacascos now takes on the role of the Chairman, said to be the nephew of the original Takeshi Kaga. Iron Chefs have included notable Food Network stars like Mario Batali, Bobby Flay, and Wolfgang Puck. The American version is filled with interesting personalities and curveball recipes that ensure even newbie chefs have a chance against the pros.

2 The Great British Baking Show (2010-Present)

Simple Baking And Lovely Contestants

The Great British Baking Show, or The Great British Bake Off as it is known in Britain, combines amateur baking with a cozy and friendly style that makes for the perfect comfort viewing. The show features amateur bakers and, notably, winners earn nothing but a trophy. It lowers the stakes, which not only makes for a less hectic viewing but also allows bakers to try out things they might never have before just for the fun of it. There's a simplicity and beauty to the series and the baking techniques themselves are surprisingly impressive considering the lack of professionals.

1 Top Chef (2006-Present)

Professional Chefs Compete In Varied And Exciting Challenges

Top Chef is the quintessential cooking competition show and there's a reason that it's been on for nearly two decades. Each season of the show begins with 12-19 professional chefs who live in provided housing for the duration of the competition and are given limited access to the outside world. This is a show about cooking and cooking alone, but the intense nature of the competition brings out some fantastic drama. A variety of challenges and tests keeps things fresh, and each season takes place in a different US city, introducing a new flavor every year.