Yet another British import, Anand has been cooking Indian food professionally for years. Her main goal is to banish the stereotype that Indian food is hard to prepare. She says as much in the opening credits to her show: "For most people, [Indian food] is more likely to be a takeaway than homemade. In this series, I want to show you how easy it is to cook it for yourself." She also emphasizes making health-conscious dishes that can appeal to all audiences. More

If you were ever curious what The BFG author Roald Dahl's granddaughter is up to, she's got a cooking show on BBC2 called The Delicious Miss Dahl. In this episode, 32-year-old former model Sophie Dahl makes an omelette Arnold Bennett inspired by the late English novelist who was apparently a big fan of the fish-and-cheese breakfast. Sophie may have the accent, but she's definitely no Nigella Lawson. More

Cooking to Get Lucky is a new web show for guys who are spatula clueless, hosted by ex-Bachelorette contestant Bob Guiney and All My Children actress Eden Riegel. The goal: minimum input from guys in the kitchen, maximum output from ladies after. The debut episode involves one pretty helpless-looking caller, "Josh from Ohio," who's dating a healthy chick. "She eats grass...I eat hamburgers and stuff." The two hosts whip up a halibut dish and dark chocolate-covered strawberries for dessert. The episode, after the jump.... More

Samak Sundaravej on his show "Tasting, Complaining." Photographs from importfood.com Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej was forced to resign today after violating the Constitution. But he didn't traffic drugs or get messy with other high crimes. He performed on two cooking shows (and more importantly, accepted money for them) while in office. "I did it because I liked doing it," Sundaravej told the Constitutional Court Monday. Samak has been involved in Thai politics for over 30 years, and has been exploring Thai cuisine on both TV and radio since the 1990s. His cookbook Chimpai Bonpai (meaning "Tasting, Complaining") is in its ninth edition. After Sundaravej's election victory in February, he even invited Thai reporters over to his home to sample... More

Betty Hallock of the LA Times discusses the future of quirky smart cooking series imported from Japan, like the New Dotch Cooking Show: The series — part cooking show, part game show, part reality show, part documentary — airs Saturday nights on Asian-language cable station KSCI (the program, with English subtitles, is listed as "Cooking Showdown"). With its frenetic pace, glistening food close-ups, slapstick humor, a soundtrack that might include a Debbie Harry hit or a heavy metal ballad, and some of the general quirkiness that catapulted the original "Iron Chef" to cult fandom, it has gained an enthusiastic following of Japanese and non-Japanese viewers. The LAT has a short clip from the show, completely in Japanese and without... More