The Best TV Shows on Food Network

Pairs of professional bakers compete to create spellbinding edible showpieces on the actual sets where the Harry Potter films were made.

The search to find the greatest holiday baker begins as amateur bakers enter the kitchen, where they show off their family traditions and superb baking skills. To survive the challenges from week to week, they must prove their abilities in front of our tough-love judges.

Iron Chef is a Japanese television cooking show produced by Fuji Television. The series, which premiered on October 10, 1993, is a stylized cook-off featuring guest chefs challenging one of the show's resident "Iron Chefs" in a timed cooking battle built around a specific theme ingredient. The series ended on September 24, 1999, although occasional specials were produced until 2002. The series aired 309 episodes. Repeats are regularly aired on the Cooking Channel in the United States and on Special Broadcasting Service in Australia. Fuji TV will air a new version of the show, titled Iron Chef, beginning in October 26, 2012.

Cake decorators, sugar artists and pumpkin carving experts battle it out as they create Halloween-themed edible displays. The last team to scare off the competition will take home a $50,000 grand prize.

Chef Robert Irvine tries to turn around restaurants across America that are facing an impending demise if things don't improve. With a $10,000 budget and two days to work, Irvine uses his creativity and resourcefulness to turn the eatery's fortunes around.

Host Guy Fieri gathers the world's greatest chefs for the most-intense culinary competition ever held. Emotions run high in the single-elimination, sudden-death bracket tournament as the competitors face off in head-to-head battles to stay alive. As the pressure mounts, shocking surprises unfold both inside and outside the arena. All the chefs have the talent and skill to walk away with the ultimate championship title in food, but only one will win the Tournament of Champions.

Host Guy Fieri takes a cross-country road trip to visit some of America's classic "greasy spoon" restaurants — diners, drive-ins and dives — that have been doing it right for decades.

Iron Chef America: The Series is an American cooking show based on Fuji Television's Iron Chef, and is the second American adaptation of the series, following the failed Iron Chef USA. The show is produced by Food Network, which also carried a dubbed version of the original Iron Chef. Like the original Japanese program, the program is a culinary game show. In each episode, a new challenger chef competes against one of the resident "Iron Chefs" in a one-hour cooking competition based on a secret ingredient or ingredients, and sometimes theme. The show is presented as a successor to the original Iron Chef, as opposed to being a remake. The Chairman is portrayed by actor and martial artist Mark Dacascos, who is introduced as the nephew of the original Japanese chairman Takeshi Kaga. The commentary is provided solely by Alton Brown, & Kevin Brauch is the floor reporter. The music is written by composer Craig Marks, who released the soundtrack titled "Iron Chef America & The Next Iron Chef" by the end of 2010. In addition, regular ICA judge and Chopped host Ted Allen provided additional floor commentary for two special battles: Battle First Thanksgiving and Battle White House Produce.

Two talented chefs go head-to-head for the chance to Beat Bobby Flay. To get to Bobby the chefs must first face off against each other, creating a spectacular dish with a secret ingredient of Bobby's choice. Judges Alex Guarnaschelli and Jeff Mauro know Bobby's strengths and his weaknesses. Their goal: Pick the chef who has the skills to take down Bobby Flay in his own arena. The winning chef gets to challenge Bobby with his or her surprise signature dish. If Bobby goes down, the winner can tell the world, "I beat Bobby Flay!"

A high energy, fast paced cooking competition that challenges four up-and-coming chefs to turn a selection of everyday ingredients into an extraordinary three-course meal. After each course, a contestant gets “chopped” by our panel of esteemed culinary luminaries until the last man or woman left standing claims victory.

12 to 16 contestants with poor cooking skills are taken through an eight-week culinary boot camp, to earn a cash prize of $25,000. The recruits are trained on the various basic cooking techniques including: baking, knife skills, temperature, seasoning and preparation. The final challenge is to cook a restaurant quality three-course meal for three food critics.

Holiday cookies are more than mere sweets: they are gifts, mementos of childhood, and most certainly made with pride. In this Christmas Cookie Challenge hosted by Jonathan Bennett, five confident and daring bakers compete to prove their holiday cookie-making skills. Tough-love judges Duff Goldman, Damaris Phillips, and Sherry Yard are on hand to crown the holiday cookie master, who will go home with a $10,000 prize!

Teams compete to create holiday themed displays out of cake and sugar.

Essence of Emeril is a Food Network show hosted by chef Emeril Lagasse. In each episode, Emeril shares with his viewers some of his 'kicked-up' recipes, similar to those on Emeril Live, but with a far calmer demeanor and quieter tone, and usually without the trademark apron that has become his Emeril Live uniform starting with the 2000 season. On some of the episodes, some of Emeril's friends/workers make an appearance. An example was when he invited three of his workers from his Homebase in Louisiana to cook up some healthy recipes. His "Essence of Emeril" set has a wine cabinet, a built-in deep fryer, and other appliances. When he cooks with a specific ingredient he explains what it is and how it is made.

30 Minute Meals is a Food Network show hosted by Rachael Ray. Her first of four shows on Food Network debuted in the fall of 2001. The show specializes in convenience cooking for those with little time to cook. The show is recorded live-to-tape, with Ray doing almost all preparation in real time. The show was awarded an Emmy for Best Daytime Service Show in 2006. A common feature on the program is the creation of new versions of classic dishes, some of which are traditionally slow to cook. Ray focuses on creating meals in less than 30 minutes. Ray has also done two specials with the title Thanksgiving in 60, based around the idea of a one-hour Thanksgiving dinner. Each episode Ray opens the show by saying "Hi there, I'm Rachael Ray and I make 30-minute meals. Now that means in the time it takes you to watch this program, I will have made a delicious and healthy meal from start to finish."

Guy Fieri sends four talented chefs running through the aisles in a high stakes, high skills, grocery store cooking competition. The chefs are hit by real-world challenges like finding workarounds when all the essential ingredients are suddenly "out-of-stock" or having to create a masterpiece when you can only cook with "5 items or less" or on a $10 budget. In the end, the food does the talking, as the last chef standing has the chance to make some serious dough!

The best cupcake bakers in the country are competing to see who has the best cupcakes. In this war of frosting and sugar, there is only one winner.

Kick it up to notches unknown with Emeril Live. In front of a live audience, Emeril Lagasse--a master chef and owner of New Orleans' most talked-about restaurants--demonstrates gourmet cooking, with a bam!

Spend a fun and food-filled morning in The Kitchen with hosts Sunny Anderson, Katie Lee, Jeff Mauro, Marcela Valladolid, and Geoffrey Zakarian. From simple supper ideas, food trend discussions, and family meal tips to trivia games and viewer questions, they'll cover all things fun in food.

Molly Yeh is a popular blogger and best-selling cookbook author who shares her perspective on food, family traditions and farmhouse life. She lives on a farm on the North Dakota-Minnesota border with her fifth-generation farmer husband and their little flock of chickens.