It’s Chicken Soup for the Soul – and more foodie content for you
The new Crackle streaming service may be called Chicken Soup for the Soul, but its cooking content goes far beyond broths, bisques, chowders and consommes.
That’s because among of its thousands of hours of programming (which also include various TV shows, movies and women’s lifestyle content) are some original culinary entries featuring some of the most respected names in foodie TV.
Chief among them is Mary Berry, host of the recently premiered “Mary Berry at Home.” In four 30-minute episodes, the author of more than 75 books on cooking and baking, including the 2009 best-seller “Baking Bible,” gives viewers a crash course in cooking, walking them step by step through the preparation of meals she regularly makes for her own family and showing them how to make gourmet-quality dishes certain to impress guests at their next dinner party.
Another high-profile recent addition to the Chicken Soup roster is “Simply Raymond Blanc.” Here in the 10 hourlong episodes Blanc, the Michelin-starred patron chef at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons in Oxfordshire, England, shares the secrets of a new collection of achievable yet delicious recipes that can be put together easily and quickly and are guaranteed to bring your guests back for more.
If celebrities in the kitchen are your thing, then “Tia Mowry’s Comfort Kitchen” might be for you. As the title implies, comfort food is on the menu in the six 30-minute episodes as the former star of “The Game” and “Sister, Sister” makes her favorite home-cooked recipes, joined by actors Pooch Hall, Wendy Raquel Robinson, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Paige Hurd, Lilly Singh and Coco Jones, as well as her children Cree and Cairo.
Those who like a little travel knowledge with their foodie content might want to check out “Rachel Khoo’s Kitchen Notebook: London,” which finds the acclaimed chef and food writer back in her hometown and getting reacquainted with the U.K. capital and its formidable culinary scene. So in the 10 half-hour episodes, she’ll visit an ice cream lab in North London, attend a supper club in a subway train car and go for a champagne afternoon tea in Mayfair, among other adventures. Oh, and there’s plenty of cooking instruction as well.
Also on the other side of the pond is Rachel Allen, host of “Rachel’s Coastal Cooking.” Here, the celebrity chef travels the coasts of Ireland to participate in the harvesting of such bounties of the sea as lobsters, mussels, oysters, crabs, scallops and all manner of fish and watch as the locals make them into delicious meals. A must for any seafood lover.