Ready Steady Cook

Host

Broadcast

Cheetah Television (formerly Endemol UK, originally Bazal) for BBC 2, 24 October 1994 to present

Bazal for BBC 1, 11 July 1997 - 3 January 2003 (Celebrity version, 102 episodes)

Synopsis

Is there anybody who doesn't like Ready Steady Cook? It has a huge following amongst students (predictably), housewives, kids and now Americans (who have their own version in the form of Ready Set Cook with, erm, Sissy Biggins - don't laugh, now).

One of the various RSC chefs, Kevin Woodford

So why is it so successful? First of all, it's completely unpretentious and doesn't try to be. The idea is incredibly simple: Two chefs and members of the audience attempt to make a meal within 20 minutes using ingredients "brought in" by the audience members (to a value of £5) and anything from the larder (just about anything a normal person would have). And at the end, the audience would vote as to who they liked best. And that's it. And it should be rubbish.

Yet it isn't.

Ainsley Harriott with Kate Winslet. Yes, really.

The fact is, the show is entertaining to watch. You don't have to concentrate a massive amount of brainpower towards it and you don't have to be able to cook, the premise of the show is that anybody can cook something good in a short space of time. And one of the reason's why it works is the laid back banter between host, chefs and contestants and there is a nice mixture of food and anecdote. The chefs usually have a big personality (and know what they're on about) and Fern Britton (or latterly, Ainsley Harriot) keeps the show rolling along.

The I-Spy guide to the RSC guest chefs - how many can you name?

And that's it. It isn't going to change the world, it's certainly not going to worry other game shows too much, but it's certainly worth a watch if there is nothing else on.

Original host Fern Britton (right) with two actors from Coronation Street, contestants on Celebrity Ready Steady Cook.

Update: Ready Steady Cook now occasionally plays under different rules on certain episodes. For example, in the "Lucky Dip" rules each contestant brings in ten items, five of which are picked out of the bag at random by the chef. They are then prepared, but with 10 minutes to go another ingredient is pulled at random out of the bag which the chef then has to incorporate, hoping it isn't a rack of lamb or something equally nasty. Other than that, the rules are as normal. This would be original, had it not been for Mixing It.

Key moments

The time when a chef's piping bag went wrong and the cream went all over Brian Turner and Fern:

Luckily, the cream wasn't piping hot (ha, ha)

Catchphrases

"Will it be green peppers or red tomatoes?"

Stop cooking!

Trivia

The contestants don't bring the food with them - it is bought for them by the production staff (to stop Marge from Solihull's salmon defrosting on the train down to the studio). However, the researchers do ask the contestants what sort of meal they'd like to cook with the chefs, and provide similar ingredients accordingly.