I have learned very little from watching food shows. But occasionally I’ll get inspired to try cooking something from them. Be it cooking, or entertainment, here are the top five:

1. Chopped – four potential celebrity chefs pull random food out of a basket, cook it and get Simon Cowelled by three judges. Also known As Iron Chef with a lower production budget.
    
2. Best Thing I Ever Ate – one camera man, a motion graphics artist and a series of C list celebrity chefs talking about their favorite food. Brilliant! I wish I would have though of it. I could film the entire series on my mobile phone.
    
3. Iron Chef (the Original) – poorly dubbed pageantry at its finest. Glammed out chefs cook strange ingredients for giggling Japanese ingenues to taste and judge.
    
4. Worst Cooks in America – train wreck rubbernecking at its finest. A bunch of top-ramen burning contestants are coached to culinary mediocrity. Flames, broken glass, and tears are guaranteed.
    
5. No Reservations – Anthony Bourdain is definitely on the short list of coolest men in America. I have actually been in close proximity to him on a few occasions, but each time I approached he mysteriously disappeared into a blue haze of cigarette smoke.