12 Best New Food Shows To Watch In 2023

We are just four months into the year and we've already been blessed with some incredible food shows. In January, season 25 of "Worst Cooks in America" pitted 12 TikTok stars against each other in a battle of culinary wits. In March, Netflix answered the eternal question, "Is It Cake?" with season two of the competition show where pastry chefs trick celebrities with cakes disguised as other objects. "Top Chef" also released a new season in March, celebrating its 20th anniversary with a special all-star season featuring competitors from 16 different "Top Chef" versions from around the world. This year has also given us new seasons of "America's Test Kitchen," "The Kitchen," and "The Bake Squad."

But if you've already binged all of your favorites and you're hangry for something new to watch, you're in luck. 2023 has also blessed us with some brand new food shows that premiered for the first time this year — or will premiere in a few months. Here are some of the best new food shows to watch this year.

1. NFL Tailgate Takedown

"NFL Tailgate Takedown" premiered on January 4. The Food Network show is hosted by Vince Wilfork, of New England Patriots fame, and Sunny Anderson, who you may have seen co-hosting "The Kitchen," "Home Made in America," or "Cooking for Real." In each episode, the hosts are joined by a rotating panel of judges as they visit a different NFL stadium on game day to sample the delicious tailgate dishes fans are cooking. Tailgating chefs are split into two teams of two, one representing the home football team and one representing the visiting team at the stadium that day.

The two teams compete in three rounds of themed cooking challenges. Round one, or The First Down, is all about appetizers and bite-sized snacks. Each team has to cook up a platter that represents the local flavors of their team's home city. Round two, or Between the Uprights, tasks each team with creating a handheld dish — think burgers, hot dogs, and other tailgating staples. In the final round, known as Hail Mary, both teams create a meat and two side platters, also representing their team's home city.

Wilfork and Anderson, along with the panel of judges, taste each dish and declare the best one in each round. The team that wins the competition gets a trophy and VIP seats at the 50-yard line to enjoy that day's game.

Watch "NFL Tailgate Takedown" on Hulu, Amazon Prime, YouTube TV, or whichever streaming service you use to watch Food Network shows.

2. Pressure Cooker

In "Pressure Cooker," Netflix's new series which premiered on January 6, 11 chefs move into one house and compete in a series of cooking contests and challenges while also having to live together. The Daily Beast described the premise as "Top Chef" meets "Big Brother" and honestly, they pretty much nailed it.

With no host and no judges, the 11 chefs must judge each other — and then go home to the same house and try to get along. The grand prize is $100,000 so, as you can probably guess, things get pretty tense as chefs must decide whether they vote for the best dish or strategize to eliminate their biggest threat.

As the series progresses, new twists and surprises are added to spice up the competition and ensure that no alliance that forms goes untested, and no chef starts to feel too confident that they'll be able to take home the grand prize.

When it comes to the food, the chefs represent a mix of backgrounds and styles so you'll get a smorgasbord of cuisines and plate presentations. Contestants rank the dishes and, in most cases, the chefs behind the lowest-ranked dishes in each round are up for elimination.

If you love the intense and ridiculous drama that can come from forcing a group of strangers to live together 24/7 and you also like cooking competitions, "Pressure Cooker" was made for you.

Watch "Pressure Cooker" exclusively on Netflix.

3. The Cupcake Guys

"The Cupcake Guys" is a reality show following NFL stars and former teammates Michael Griffin and Brian Orakpo as they open a Gigi's Cupcakes franchise with their friend Bryan Hynson. The six-episode series premiered on January 18, with each episode documenting the ups and downs as the football players pursue their dream of baking up delightful cupcakes for customers in the off-season. The audience gets an inside look at both the business in Austin, Texas and the NFL stars' personal lives. But for foodies, the best part has to be watching dozens of cupcakes, full-size cakes, and other treats get baked and decorated in every episode. You'll get inspired by the never-ending display of creative designs like the jalapeño cornbread cupcake, a root beer float cupcake, or an elaborate casket cake made especially for the Undertaker, the professional wrestler.

Watch "The Cupcake Guys" for free on the Roku Channel.

4. Superchef Grudge Match

In "Superchef Grudge Match," professional chefs who've been harboring personal or professional grudges against each other face off in a one-round battle of culinary wits to determine once and for all who gets the bragging rights — and the $10,000 cash prize. Each one-hour episode features two different grudge matches between two pairs of feuding chefs.

Premiering on February 7 on the Food Network, the first episode saw Carlos Anthony face off against his mentor, Brian Malarkey. Then Antonia Lofaso challenged her former "Tournament of Champions" competitor, Jet Tila, to a rematch.

Each episode features a new set of feuding pairs, and the winner from each grudge match not only gets to take home the cash prize, but also the satisfaction of knowing that their victory over their rival will be aired on national television. And just to add another dash of salt to the wound, the winner also gets to take a knife of their choice from the losing chef's knife roll.

Watch "Superchef Grudge Match" on Hulu, Amazon Prime, Discovery Plus, or wherever you catch your favorite Food Network shows.

5. Kitchen Commando

"Kitchen Commando" premiered on February 12 on Tubi. The reality show follows Chef Andre Rush, the retired Master Sergeant-turned-celebrity chef who served as the White House's chef for four administrations, from Clinton through to Trump.

In this nine-episode series, he leverages his military discipline and culinary expertise to whip struggling restauranteurs into shape in the form of a two-day boot camp. Think Gordon Ramsay's "Kitchen Nightmares," except maybe a little less yelling and a little more bicep. In fact, the first episode even features an introduction from Chef Ramsay himself.

Chef Rush delivers the tough feedback restaurant owners need to hear, but also acts as a motivator and life coach to help owners and employees rediscover their passion for the business and identify the obstacles that have been holding them back.

While you might expect a military veteran to act like a drill sergeant, Chef Rush is surprisingly down-to-earth. In the first episode, for example, a screaming match erupts in the kitchen after the chef accidentally calls one of the cooks by the wrong name. Rush pulls the cook aside to have a one-on-one where he apologizes for the mistake and deescalates the tension. It's a great balance of confrontation and compassion that helps these teams air out their disputes and misunderstandings and work together to revive a struggling restaurant.

Watch "Kitchen Commando" for free on Tubi.

6. Secret Sauce with Todd Graves

Todd Graves is the founder and CEO of Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers, a Louisiana-based fast-food franchise. His new reality series, "Secret Sauce with Todd Graves," premiered on A&E on March 4 to inspire viewers to pursue their dreams the way he and his rotating series of guest stars did.

Before founding the now 700-location chicken franchise, Todd Graves worked as a fry cook, cashier, oil refinery worker, and Alaskan fisher to save up enough seed money to open Raising Cane's.

It was that tough road to success that helped inspire the concept for this show, which aims to encourage viewers to dedicate themselves to their dreams as relentlessly as he did. In each episode of "Secret Sauce," Graves talks with other restaurant owners and entrepreneurs about their own journeys and what they see as the secret to their success.

The catch: These aren't just any entrepreneurs. They are celebrities like Shaquille O'Neal, Snoop Dogg, and Danny Trejo. While the guest stars of each episode span all industries, the show's core is centered on food — whether it's Danny Trejo's taco shops, Snoop Dogg's cooking shows, or Shaquille O'Neal's fast food franchise empire.

Watch "Secret Sauce with Todd Graves" for free on AETV, or catch it on Hulu, Sling TV, or Philo.

7. Restaurants at the End of the World

In "Restaurants at the End of the World," Kristen Kish visits the world's most remote restaurants to meet the people and explore the cultures behind these hidden gems. Kish may be best known as the winner of "Top Chef" season 10, but the celebrity chef has also co-hosted multiple food shows, including "Fast Foodies," "Iron Chef," and "36 Hours."

In her latest series, which premiered on March 21 on National Geographic, Kish wanted to learn new skills and techniques from the resilient chefs preparing exceptional dishes under some of the most challenging circumstances.

It's a food show for travel junkies, with the sense of adventure and deep human connections that any fan of Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations" will love. Each episode features unique local ingredients and cooking techniques along with an exploration of the regional food culture and history. After finishing this four-part series, you'll feel like you learned something new and like you're ready to head into the wilderness to forage your next meal.

Watch "Restaurants at the End of the World" for free on ABC or National Geographic. It's also streaming on Hulu, Disney+, and YouTube TV.

8. Eva Longoria: Searching for Mexico

In this CNN Original series that premiered on March 26, Eva Longoria travels across Mexico to discover the stories of the country's popular but often misunderstood cuisine. The actress is both the executive producer and host of the travel and food show, which served as a way for her to connect with her Mexican roots and share with viewers how diverse and delicious Mexico's varied food scene is.

Each episode of "Eva Longoria: Searching for Mexico" stars a different region of the country, from Mexico City to the Yucatán, and showcases the restaurants and people cooking up the dishes unique to that region. In addition to a mouthwatering survey of the regional variety of Mexican cuisine, Longoria digs into the history and traditions behind the food. That includes the traditional way to prepare Oaxaca's classic mole sauce, the ancient Aztec's agave harvesting techniques to make tequila, and the Mayan tradition of preparing tamales for the dead.

Watch "Eva Longoria: Searching for Mexico" on Hulu or YouTube TV.

9. Ciao House

"Ciao House" premieres on April 16 on the Food Network and features 10 chefs in a competition to find the next master of Italian cooking. Like "Pressure Cooker," these chefs will have to live together as well as compete against each other. Unlike "Pressure Cooker," they get to do that in a gorgeous villa in Tuscan countryside. The competitors are all rising stars in the culinary world, and the winner of the competition will get to train with renowned Italian master chefs across Italy. To win, they'll first need to master the elements of Italian cuisine, including crafting pasta from scratch and making cheese the traditional way.

If a free stay at a Tuscan villa and the chance to make pasta from scratch with Italian nonnas sounds like the chefs are getting it easy, rest assured that there's plenty of drama. Each week, chefs split up into teams for that week's challenge. The losing team is tasked with voting off one of their own teammates. That means you'll undoubtedly get plenty of rivalries, betrayal, and alliances to keep things spicy.

Watch "Ciao House" on Hulu, Amazon Prime, YouTube TV or whichever streaming service you use to watch Food Network shows.

10. Gordon Ramsay's Food Stars

Premiering on Fox on May 24, "Food Stars" is the latest cooking competition dreamed up by one of television's favorite celebrity chefs, Gordon Ramsay. The British chef made his television debut with "Hell's Kitchen" and "Kitchen Nightmares," both of which firmly established his reputation as a blunt, profanity-wielding master chef.

In "Food Stars," Ramsay has picked 15 executives from the food and drink industry to compete for one of the most exciting grand prizes they could ask for: financial backing in their culinary venture from Gordon Ramsay himself. Ramsay will invest $250,000 in the winner's culinary brand and partner with them to take their business to the next level.

The contestants include up-and-coming entrepreneurs like Vegan AF chef Chanel Goodson, Tony B's Steak Chips chef and pitmaster Tony Balestreri, Snow Cone King founder Aaron Valentine, and Confetti Cakes owner and cake designer Elisa Strauss. The challenges are all designed to test the range of skills these entrepreneurs need to succeed in the food business, including creating the product, marketing it, and managing the business.

Watch "Gordon Ramsay's Food Stars" on Fox.

11. Deliciously Twisted Classics

Premiering on July 9, "Deliciously Twisted Classics" will present the most extravagant spins on some of the most classic dishes to a panel of culinary influencers and chefs. That panel will include celebrities and well-known personalities like Gina Neely, the celebrity chef and former host of Food Network's tragically-canceled series "Down Home with the Neelys." Joining her is Rocco DiSpirito, the celebrity chef of "The Restaurant" fame, chef Leah Cohen, and veteran cooking competition star Aarti Sequeria.

Those are all the details we have so far about the upcoming show. But we also know "Deliciously Twisted Classics" is just one part of A&E's larger push into the food show space, which the network says will include many other original series along with a few renewed classics. We'll keep an ear out for the other new food programming it has in store.

Watch "Deliciously Twisted Classics" on AETV.

12. Best in Chow

Another new offering from A&E as it expands its food-related programming, "Best in Chow" will also premiere on July 9, airing right before "Deliciously Twisted Classics" on the A&E channel. Not to be confused with "Best in Chow," the Canadian food competition show hosted by Chris Nannarone, A&E's "Best in Chow" is hosted by Matt Richards, a comedian who's previously worked as a writer for hit shows like "That Damn Michael Che" and "Singled Out."

The A&E show also follows a different premise than its Canadian counterpart. Rather than scouring the U.S. and Canada for the best of the best in different food categories, Matt will be scouring the United States for the wildest foods the country has to offer. The comedian will hit state fairs, street food scenes, and other lesser-known food hot spots to find the most creative cooks in America.

Watch "Best in Chow" on AETV.