Ready, Steady, Cook

This programme is good at what it does. It combines cooking with a gameshow genre and creates an interesting hybrid. Viewers can see chefs attempting to make a decent meal, within a twenty minute time limit. The meals produced at the end are often of a high quality and the presenter, Ainsley Harriot, helps the action along with questions and quips.

The problem comes thanks to the time limit that the chefs are given. Fans of cooking shows will be disappointed to discover that it is impossible to follow all the action. The chefs are constantly rushing around in a feigned attempt to get things finished in the time limit. Because of this we hardly ever see the actual food cooking and also you are left not knowing how they actually created the meal.

It is an interesting and entertaining programme, but I would not recommend it for serious cookery fans.