10 Most Watched Cooking Shows Slideshow

It’s hard to believe that this beloved show, which spawned countless copycats, got on air by chance. When a cooking demo to promote her seminal cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking wowed the audience of a Boston TV station, it encouraged Julia Child to develop a cooking show. With that, The French Chef was born in 1963.

Her unaffected style and obvious passion for food and cooking soon won a loyal following and captivated an audience that during the series run was estimated at around 50 million people. As beloved as she was, apparently her charms didn’t travel across the pond. The BBC allegedly stopped airing her show because viewers complained she was drunk or crazy.

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