TV's best travel cooking shows

This series is a staple in the food and cooking genre. It premiered in December 2008 with Adam Richman as the host. After the fourth season concluded in 2012, the show went on a five-year hiatus before returning in 2017 on the Travel Channel. Each episode features the host traveling to a different city to taste their “big food” while chatting with locals and visiting iconic landmarks. 

Follow along as host Ali Khan goes on a quest to find the best breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack in a given city for only $35. Will he stick to his budget? You can stream Seasons 1 and 2 on Discovery+. 

This show has been loved by many since 2007. Throughout its 37 seasons, hosts have taken viewers on a trip around the world to taste the best barbecue, burgers, pizza, and even traditional breakfast.  

Even though this is supposed to be about the best travel cooking shows, it’s hard to exclude some of reality TV’s most dramatic cooking series. Hell’s Kitchen, hosted by Chef Gordon Ramsay, features 20 contestants participating in a series of cooking competitions. By the end of the season, one contestant will win the role of head chef at a high-profile restaurant. In addition to yummy eats, this series features drama like no other. 

Another Gordon Ramsay series is Fox’s MasterChef. Its thirteenth season, United Tastes of America, hit the air in May 2023 and features four teams representing the regions of the US — West, Northeast, Midwest, and South. 

Searching for Soul Food follows celebrity chef Alisa Reynolds visiting places like Mississippi, Appalachia, Italy, and Peru in search of what soul food looks like in different locations around the world. The first season is available to stream on Hulu.

Unlike some of the shows above, Netflix’s Pressure Cooker doesn’t travel around the world, but it’s drama-filled, strategic, and features tons of delicious food. It’s been described as Big Brother meets TopChef, and the season finale will surely blow you away. 

TopChef is one of Bravo’s most popular reality shows. It’s another competition series that ends with one contestant being declared “Top Chef.” It first premiered in 2006 and has since aired 20 seasons and 300+ episodes. The series' success has resulted in several spin-offs, including Top Chef Masters, Top Chef Juniors, and Top Chef Family Style, among many others. 

Who says you can’t have your cake and eat it, too? The NFL and Food Network have partnered to bring viewers one of their newest shows, NFL Tailgate Takedown. In each episode, hosts travel to different stadiums, searching for the best tailgate food of all time. The winners will trade in their nosebleed tickets to VIP 50-yard line seats. 

You’ve seen that popular meme of actor Idris Elba choking on the spice of a hot chicken wing all over social media, but what if we told you there are even more hilarious moments available to stream on Hulu? That’s right. You can watch celebrities and athletes like Justin Timberlake, Michael B. Jordan, and Shaq on Hot Ones, “the show with hot questions and even hotter wings.” 

Hungry for Answers is described as a Black food show that promises to serve good food with a side of history. Produced by EGOT winner Viola Davis, this series follows host Caroline Randall Williams on a journey to uncover “fascinating, essential, and often untold Black stories behind some of America’s classic and emblematic food and spirits.”  

Like some of the other shows on this list, The Food That Built America takes on the challenge to inform watchers of the true stories of the trailblazers responsible for the world’s most popular foods like peanut butter, buffalo wings, and one of the US’ staples, beer. 

The Great Soul Food Cook-off is available to stream on Max and features a handful of contestants competing on teams to create the best soul food dishes, from chicken and biscuits to homemade mac and cheese and potato salad. 

Comedian Matt Richards travels to the world’s biggest state fairs to find the “wildest foods” and best judges to declare whose street food is the best of the best. 

Street Food: USA is a Netflix docuseries that follows creators David Gelb and Brian McGinn around the streets of California, Oregon, New York City, Louisiana, Hawaii, and Florida as they search for the “heart and soul” of America’s best street meat and the people who make it so good. 

The Mind of a Chef follows a chef or pair of chefs as they travel the world while explaining their beliefs and ideologies around cooking. Six seasons have aired from 2012 to 2017, and the series won a Daytime Emmy Award in 2014 for Outstanding Culinary Program.

The current season of BBQ Crawl features celebrity chef Bobby Flay alongside his competitors Anne Burrell and Sunny Anderson in a cutthroat competition featuring high-stakes rewards and irresistible barbecue bites. The series features eight barbecue chefs, all competing for the title “Master of the ‘Cue.” 

Hulu’s Eater’s Guide to the World takes watchers on an adventure as host Maya Rudolph ( Saturday Night Live) stops in Morocco, Mexico, Costa Rica, and many other locations to see where she can find a tasty meal and a good history lesson, too. 

Sit down for Breakfast, Lunch, & Dinner with chef David Chang and celebrities Chrissy Teigen and Lena Waithe in large cities as they discuss the best local eateries and their favorite go-to spots. The Netflix docuseries features four episodes; however, the most entertaining has to be the pilot, featuring Seth Rogen. The pair travel around Vancouver, Canada (while stoned, legally) like two hometown friends eating donuts and the traditional Chinese dish, dim sum.   

Hey, the title says it all, right? This series, which is available to stream on Hulu, follows American rapper Action Bronson stopping to try the cream of the crop at the best restaurants in DC, Atlanta, Queens, Paris, and so many other legendary locations while touring the world.