5 new food TV shows you should be watching, from Netflix’s The Great British Baking Show season 14 to Apple TV+’s Lessons in Chemistry with Brie Larson

When your male colleagues aren’t calling you “sweetie” or mistaking you for a secretary, they’re suggesting you drop your life’s work to enter a beauty pageant.

But scientist Elizabeth Zott has another future in store – one in which she’ll use her knowledge of amino acids and the Maillard reaction to helm a TV-cooking show, in this adaptation of Bonnie Garmus’ popular 2022 novel.

Let’s just say Brie Larson nails her character of a quirky savant fighting the patriarchy, one who at home puts 70-plus experimental trials into baking the perfect lasagne.

Oh, and there’s also a tear-jerker episode told from the perspective of the family dog, played by B.J. Novak. (You read that right.)

2. The Great British Baking Show

Netflix

Now in its 14th season, The Great British Baking Show isn’t new. But it does have a new host this season – Alison Hammond. A presenter on the UK’s This Morning, Hammond is the first person of colour to host or judge the show. She replaces former host and comedian Matt Lucas.

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Judging by the first several episodes of the season aired so far, Hammond is a supportive and calming presence in the notoriously stressful bakers’ tent.

She appears to have restored the show’s hallmark friendliness and warmth, which was noticeably absent in recent seasons.

Last season drew widespread criticism on points that ranged from non-baking challenges to tone-deaf episodes such as last year’s controversial “Mexico Week”. Showrunners have announced they’re dropping nation-themed episodes and going back to basics.

3. Five Star Chef

Netflix

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He’s a stickler for classical technique and prone to ding a bad dish by lamenting: “It pains me.”

Sometimes, he’s right to be pained. Each chef has their own vision for the restaurant, whether it be Caribbean, Nordic or “theatrical dining experience”.

The latter chef serves things like Bondage Lobster (with tied-up claws and seaweed blindfolds) accompanied by gesticulating circus performers, mortifying every judge at the table.

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The show’s a bit like Top Chef, but the focus is luxury food. Viewers will learn a lot about British food and dining traditions.

4. Restaurants at the End of the World

National Geographic/Disney+

Want to learn more about Kristen Kish, the new Top Chef judge? Check out Restaurants at the End of the World, a four-part series hosted by Kish that’s part adventure travel and part culinary spotlight with all the gorgeous visuals you expect from NatGeo.

Each episode highlights a different restaurant and the remarkable lengths their chefs must go to as they source local ingredients in very remote locations.

How remote? The restaurants include Panama’s Hacienda Mamecillo, a hike-up restaurant which sits high atop a mountain in a cloud forest.

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Svalbard’s Isfjord Radio is perched on an island in the Arctic reaches northwest of Norway. Maine’s Turner Farm sits in the middle of Penobscot Bay, reachable only by boat. And Brazil’s Sem Pressa is a boat.

Kish rappels down a waterfall in Panama to source fresh watercress and digs in Brazilian mangrove muck for sururu, a bivalve mollusc, to make the perfect seafood meal.

In Svalbard, she snorkels in freezing water for sea urchins and snags fresh ice from a glacier, before getting to work in the chefs’ kitchen making reindeer tongue and melon appetisers and passion fruit-kimchi sorbet.

5. José Andrés and Family in Spain

Discovery+, HBO Max and weekly on CNN

You may know José Andrés as the visionary chef who popularised Spanish cuisine in the US through restaurants like Zaytinya, or perhaps as the philanthropist whose non-profit World Central Kitchen provides meals to people amid global disasters.

What the six-part José Andrés in Spain with Family shows is that he’s also a pretty goofy dad, whose knowledge and enthusiasm for Spain and its food is infectious even to his toughest critics: his daughters.

As he gushes over each bite at the world-class restaurants the trio visits – many at establishments operated by his friends – Andrés’ adult daughters, Inés and Carlota, respond with the occasional good-natured eye roll or “OK, Dad,” although they’re clearly having fun, too.

Seeing how this family travels together is almost as inspirational as the meals themselves. The Andres family seems to float seamlessly from one stop to the next, powered by tapas and Cava.

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Father and daughters also explore local non-food traditions on their travels, from human-tower-building in Catalonia to flamenco dancing in Andalusia.

This show might just make you want to eat your way through Spain alongside family, too.