The 40 Best Food Network Shows Of All Time

Don't get us wrong: We love Giada and Ina to pieces, but there's something kind of thrilling about watching undiscovered talent turn into Food Network's next big thing. Not everyone makes it to the big time, but the ones who do (cough, Guy, cough) become instant favorites.

Hannah Hart got her start on YouTube with a show all about cooking drunk. She's totally sober on her Food Network show, but we love it all the same. Hart travels the country, learning about cities' iconic foods, then breaks them down in her own kitchen.

The Kitchen is sort of like the adult version of Saturday morning cartoons. It's on first thing in the morning, and is so predictable week-to-week (Jeff Mauro makes a dad joke! Katie Lee wears a great outfit!) that you can kind of zone out while watching. That said, there are still some pretty legit tips you can steal during the hour-long talk show.

Ina Garten's show is one of Food Network's most popular ever, despite the fact that you'd be overcome with envy by the end of every episode, thinking: I want to be invited to Garten's dinner parties, eating Garten's complex French foods, giggling through a conversation with Jeffrey.

After Paula Deen left the network, Ree Drummond — AKA the Pioneer Woman — led the charge of down-home comfort food. Her recipes are the ultimate guilty pleasures (think: pot pies, casseroles, and chicken-fried steak), and regularly call for multiple sticks of butter, but someone's gotta do it, right?

This show provided answers to "What's your favorite meal you've ever had?!" before it was possible to just DM chefs the question. All the Food Network strongholds appeared on an episode at one point — Guy Fieri, Tyler Florence, Curtis Stone, Giada De Laurentiis. Over the course of six seasons, they ended up creating an unofficial food travel guide.

Before every magazine cover and website slapped this slogan on recipe collections, Rachael Ray made it famous. The chef did nearly everything from prep to plating in real-time, so the dishes seemed legitimately possible to make in half an hour.

This was the show that gave everyone hope that they could eat pasta and still look like Giada De Laurentiis. That's because even with all the cheese and carbs Italian food's famous for, De Laurentiis kept her recipes light and refreshing — so you could actually eat them every day.

Jeff Mauro found his niche riffing off the crew of misfit chefs on The Kitchen, but before his talk show days, there was Sandwich King. He made us realize that you can make a case for stuffing anything between two slices of bread, and it would sorta-kinda always work.

Shopping in the Flavortown Market seems like a dream, honestly: Guy Fieri's there, the store's empty, and you're out in mere minutes. Unlike other shows, the challenges on this one are highly probable, like having a budget or being out of an ingredient. Plus, we have it on the DL that Fieri's a total softie behind the scenes.

David Rosengarten, host of Taste, was like the original Alton Brown, in that he took a deep dive into a different food every episode. If you ever wanted a 30-minute look into the perfect BLT or oysters, this was it. At times, Rosengarten's soothing-yet-unauthoritative voice seemed like it belonged to a member of Anchorman's news desk, but as part of the original Food Network line-up, viewers loved him.

The two chefs who headlined this show were longtime friends off the set, and it showed: They had more fun than most other stand-and-stir television cooks while making modern Mexican recipes. Until a year ago, they even ran a California restaurant that fans could visit after the show ended.

Food Network brought Iron Chef over to America from Japan, and it became an instant hit. The greatness came less from the food and more from the theatrics: awkward English dubbing and random bursts of music were pillars of the show. It lasted for an entire 90 minutes, before people complained of the length and format — and it was never the same after that.

For people obnoxiously full of questions, this was the one show that could shut you up for 30 minutes. By the end, you'd have the answer to things like, Where do the tiny marshmallows in breakfast cereals come from?, Why does Mr. Potato head exist?, and How do you carve the ultimate ice sculpture?

The tablescapes — oh, the tablescapes. That's how Sandra Lee referred to her table settings, themed to match the meal she just made. They looked like the result of a long, dark Pinterest binge — but before Pinterest was even a thing. The food was adored by soccer moms with no time, too: All of the recipes always include some pre-made ingredients that you could find at any grocery store.

This was Guy Fieri's second show, but first in the hearts of his fans. The catchphrases he spewed— crackalack, funkalicious, righteous — while visiting mom-and-pop restaurants across the country were almost as good as the down-home meals he'd spotlight weekly. Plus, he brought Smashmouth's lead singer (AKA his doppelganger) out of hiding for a cameo. Bless.

Any show that can nab a magician — and then a member of the Mean Girls cast — as host is special. The cupcake-making competition is an hour respite from the real world, all sugar, a little spice (the losing bakers' reactions are golden), and everything nice.