Great Chefs

Great Chefs is a franchise of cooking shows and cookbooks that began with thirteen half hour programs produced for the American Public Broadcasting Service entitled Great Chefs of New Orleans. Later series include Great Chefs of San Francisco, Great Chefs of the West, Great Chefs: The Louisiana New Garde, Great Chefs of the East, Great Chefs Great Cities, Great Chefs of Hawaii, Great Chefs of the Caribbean, and Great Chefs of the South, many with their own companion cookbooks. During the late 1980s, the Great Chefs franchise moved to the Discovery Channel, which began the production of Great Chefs of America and Great Chefs of the World. Unlike other cooking shows, the Great Chefs programs are recorded entirely in professional kitchens rather than production studios. The Great Chefs website says "Great Chefs is the only cooking technique television series". The program usually consists of the preparation of three dishes, prepared by professional chefs with little or no showmanship and with clear, precise instructions. Similar in this respect was the Discovery Channel program World Class Cuisine, which began production after the Great Chefs series. The program was produced by John Beyer & John Shoup in New Orleans, Louisiana, and taped on location around the world. The television series boasts 700 episodes and 3,000 dishes and featured chefs such as Alain Passard, Bobby Flay, Susan Spicer, Daniel Boulud, Hubert Keller, Michael Lomonaco, Patrick O'Connel, Emeril Lagasse, Jacques Torres, Jean-Philippe Maury, Eric Ripert, Mark Miller, Raymond Blanc, Rick Tramonto, and Takashi Yagihashi.