Food and television go hand in hand. Why else would cooking shows be so unbelievably popular? There’s even an entire cable network devoted to food—the Food Network! So it was only a matter of time before cooking came to the reality television genre. As both a fan of food and reality t.v., this was a combination that left me drooling.

My favorite reality television shows include “Iron Chef America” and “Hell’s Kitchen.” “Iron Chef America” airs on Food Network, while “Hell’s Kitchen” airs on FOX.

“Iron Chef America” is a spin-off of the original “Iron Chef”, which first started airing in Japan. The show features top chefs (Mario Batali, Cat Cora, Bobby Flay, and Masaharu Morimoto) battling against lesser-known chefs from the U.S. Each chef has one or two assistants to help them produce a variety of entrees in a one hour time period with an ingredient that isn’t revealed until the start of the show.

“Hell’s Kitchen” stars Chef Gordon Ramsay, a Brit with a major case of potty mouth. Ramsay puts two teams of contestants through their paces, eventually doing full dinner services for actual diners. Ramsay is a perfectionist and has no problems cussing out the team members and shutting down service hours ahead of the scheduled close of the restaurant. In recent seasons, however, we’ve seen a more human side of Ramsay, though it’s usually when dinner service is not in session.

There are other reality food shows but we’ll get to those another day. For now, happy eating!