Inside the Lightbox is a sponsored post where we mine their extensive catalogue for shows that you might want to watch. This week we plate up some cooking shows full of tips and tricks to have you cooking like a celebrity chef in just one long weekend.
How to Cook like Heston
What’s the vibe?
Heston Blumenthal is a self-taught kitchen wizard, half chef and half mad scientist. He’s all about the precise science of cooking, and how these conditions can be experimented with to change the DNA of a dish. It’s basically the first Jurassic Park movie, but with cheese. “Come and share my inner most secrets,” Heston teases, flourishing his blow torch, ironing board and dry ice like it’s the most normal thing in the world. You laugh now but, after a few episodes, you will be reaching for the blow torch too.
Signature dish
How about this snazzy number where he takes some macaroni cheese, adds more cheese, and puts it inside a cheese wheel? Take that SCIENCE.
Luke Nguyen’s Greater Mekong
What’s vibe?
Luke Nguyen is part chef, part travel guide as he takes you on a journey down the Mekong River. Stopping along the way in Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Burma and China, he chats to locals and shows you how to cook some of the finest delicacies of the East. It’s particularly good when he gets in trouble with local matriarchs for doing everything wrong.
Signature dish
Why not try out cooking a dish called Thousand Layer Pork Belly, because that sounds completely achievable and not complicated in the slightest.
Raymond Blanc: How to Cook Well
What’s the vibe?
The Michelin star maverick is in the house! Raymond is all about mastering the basics of cooking. He’s self-taught just like Heston and boy is he French! Blanc is crazy about baking, barbecuing, roasting and saying “ooh la la” as much as humanly possible. In his kitchen, you know you are going to get something truly magnifique. Plus he loves to scribble on the kitchen bench in whiteboard marker which seems like a rogue, yet achievable cooking hack.
Signature dish
Forget summery pineapple as we know it, how about take it out of your cocktail and shove it in the oven. What you will have 45 minutes later is a roast pineapple, unlike anything you’ve ever tried. Now that, is ooh la la.
The Garden Pantry
What’s the vibe?
If the sun’s out this weekend, spend some time flexing your green thumbs with The Garden Pantry. Join host Kiri as she becomes better acquainted with the techniques that generations of New Zealanders have honed in order to live off the delicious land. Whether it’s planting yourself some healthy peas, making marmalade or pickling every vegetable under the sun: The Garden Pantry is a sun-soaked crash course in things Grandma never taught you.
Signature dish
There’s nothing quite like a homemade batch of classic Kiwi tomato sauce made with homegrown tomatoes and onions (or store bought – you’re busy, we understand).
Cool Kids Cooking
What’s the vibe?
A kid friendly show that teaches young ones how to deal with a piece of broccoli without crumpling to the floor, Cool Kids Cooking is a 5+ a Day dream. Join the friendly host T.K. (New Zealand’s second best T.K.) as he chops, slices and dices his way through the good green part of the food pyramid. Joining him in the kitchen is the slightly terrifying Head Chef, who appears to have a debilitating peanut butter addiction
Signature dish:
Why not use your lazy Sunday to make your own delicious, healthy, fat free sundae? There’s one tiny twist though… IT’S 100% MADE OF VEGETABLES. A great prank with a healthy dose of vitamins.
Click below to explore the well-stocked pantry of cooking shows on Lightbox (just don’t do it on an empty stomach).
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