Stay Hungry.
The Cooking Channel is a Warner Bros. Discovery channel (formerly known as Fine Living until 2010) that provides programming complementary to the Food Network. Although some Food Network personalities (including Rachael Ray, Bobby Flay, and Aida Mollenkamp) have shows on the new network, a very large portion of their programming consists of international programming, mostly British and Canadian shows as well as reruns of the original Iron Chef (including the 2012 Japanese reboot, seen for the first time in the US) and some older Food Network programming. As of 2012, they have started to amp up more original programming with a new cast of Cooking Channel hosts.
This network provides examples of:
- Action Girl: Bal Arneson of "Spice Goddess" fame is shown to be this in her new show "Spice of Life," and this element features quite prominently in the advertising, featuring Bal going on adventures such as hiking and fishing in addition to cooking projects, thus making it a lifestyle show in addition to cooking show.
- Big Applesauce:
- Baron Ambrosia looks and carries himself like a chivalrous Ambiguously Brown nobleman from a Central Asian country where he's revered as royalty and as a national hero...but then completely subverts it by casually mentioning that he's actually from the Bronx (and he's ethnically Dominican). It all adds to the show's zany charm.
- Seafood man Ben Sargent made a name for himself selling homemade lobster rolls in Brooklyn, and has lived there for a large chunk of his life, although he's originally from New England.
- British Stuffiness: Thoroughly averted with ex-model Lorraine Pascale and Ching-He Huang, who's been so popular that the Cooking Channel has hired her to do American-based shows. As of summer 2012, Lorraine has now also been tapped to do a new show as well, this time based on savory foods instead of just her usual baking.
- This trope is also very much averted by Nigella Lawson, who's known for her casual demeanor, playfulness, and rather sensuous way of talking about food.
- Clumsy Copyright Censorship: Their re-runs of the original Iron Chef have replaced the theme song, originally part of the Backdraft score.
- Dreadlock Rasta: Levi Roots.
- Genki Girl: Giada on Everyday Italian, Rachel Ray on Rachel Ray's Week in a Day, and of course, Nadia G of Bitchin'Kitchen. Ching-He Huang also leans towards this at times: when she's excited about something, she tends to get really excited. Kelsey Nixon isn't quite genki, but she's still very bubbly.
- Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Sandra Lee, as per her reputation on Food Network. She even has her own travelogue show revolving around cocktails.
- I Do Not Like Green Eggs and Ham: Ching-He Huang's MO on Chinese Food Made Easy.
- Insistent Terminology: "Food People." The Channel's ads constantly use this phrase, ad nauseum. "Food People are" this, "Food People like to do" that, "Food People are very passionate about..." etc., etc. They even came up with a commercial that not only lampshades this, but also gives their reasoning behind it, with the narrator saying "What I love about the term 'Food People' is it's inclusive, right? It's the people who make the food but also the people who love the food!"
- Knight in Shining Armor: Baron Ambrosia sees himself as this. He comes across a bit like Don Quixote, but he ends up successfully defending local restaurants from evil witches and other such threats.
- Large Ham: Nadia G (and her entire cast), but taken to ridiculous extremes by Baron Ambrosia.
- Ms. Fanservice:
- Laura Calder, so very, very much, and definitely Nigella Lawson.
- Giada De Laurentiis is absolutely another relevant example of this trope as well, now that reruns of Everyday Italian have started airing on Cooking Channel.
- Lorraine Pascale from Simply Baking, who used to be a swimsuit model before becoming a pastry chef.
- Bal Arneson on "Spice of Life."
- Purple Prose:
- Unique Eats and Unique Sweets are Cooking Channel equivalents of Food Network's The Best Thing I Ever Ate/Made.
- Some of the people featured on Eat St. fall into this.
- Nigella Lawson is also, unsurprisingly, known for this as well when her shows air on the network.
- Recycled In SPACE: Bobby Deen's Not My Mama's Meals, which in a nutshell is him reworking Paula's recipes to make them actually healthy.
- Travelogue Show: United Tastes of America, Eat St., Road Trip
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Played very much for laughs by Baron Ambrosia, who's basically a very flamboyant Jules Verne character by way of Guy Fieri in Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives.
