Recipes for success

New chef on the block: Sean Connolly. Photo / Supplied

Don't expect the TV networks to lose their appetite for food shows. The free-to-air networks' schedules are packed with cooking programmes - and there's more to come.

On Tuesday, TV3 debuts its new series Under The Grill, about Aussie chef Sean Connolly creating a new restaurant in Auckland in the lead-up to Rugby World Cup. It joins the channel's other culinary shows Cafe Secrets (hosted by Julie Le Clerc) and World Kitchen (with Nici Wickes) on Sunday afternoons, as well as the long-running Rachael Ray weekdays at 4pm.

TV One's Saturday line-up practically bulges at the seams. There, your choice ranges from Food Safari, Come Dine With Me Australia, The F Word, World's Best Diets, and Annabel Langbein: The Free Range Cook (often not for the first time). The MasterChef brand is also prevalent. The weekdays MasterChef Australia shows have proved to be an effective lead-in for One News and MasterChef UK screens 8.30pm on Fridays.

Prime TV takes up the slack with MasterChef USA (Mondays at 8.30pm) and has just concluded repeats of Junior MasterChef Australia and Kiwi MasterChef season one runner-up Kelly Young hosts The Chef's Apprentice on Saturdays.

Prime also has repeats of Tom's Kitchen (Sundays at 2.30pm) and yet more recipes from Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall, most lately in The View From River Cottage (Tuesdays at 8pm).

"Blame it on the recession but viewers are increasingly responding to ideas about how they can create flavoursome meals at home," says TV One's Tony Manson, commissioner for factual entertainment. "There is a feeling they're getting back to cooking more for themselves and their families."

The Food Truck was a huge hit for TV One and the channel has hinted that we will be seeing more of its chef Michael Van De Elzen.

TV One is no doubt hoping a similar recipe will also go down well when it debuts food critic and MasterChef judge Simon Gault's new series Chef On A Mission on Tuesday August 23 in which Gault goes into heartland New Zealand demonstrating healthy meals and cooking techniques on a budget.

Another Al Brown series is also in the pipeline and NZ MasterChef 3 has begun production, to air next year.