Cooking up a storm

In the show, Oliver puts his own money where his mouth is, takes 15 unemployed and under-privileged young people and gives them several years' worth of culinary training in under a year. They then have to work in the kitchen in his smart new London restaurant Fifteen.

Comedy comes to the channel for the first time with the BBC sitcom Chef! starring Lenny Henry as a Basil Fawlty-type master chef with an obsessive drive for culinary perfection and remarkable verbal talents used primarily to abuse his unfortunate staff and, occasionally, customers.

Get ready for the seaweed and giant eels to start flying in Iron Chefs America, a remake of the Japanese cult hit. After a surprise ingredient is revealed, the challenger and the Iron Chef face off in a frenetic culinary battle against each other and the clock. The guest panel judges the menus to determine who is victorious and who is vanquished.

Due to viewer demand BBC Food will now focus on healthy eating and lifestyle with shows such as The Return of The Chef which follows the return to Devon of John Burton Race, the chef who took his family to France in French Leave and You Are What You Eat, the latest UK hit show on healthy eating and nutrition presented by Dr Gillian McKeith.

September is also when BBC Food launches its My Favourite Chef competition. In June thousands of viewers voted for their top 20 favourite chefs. Now for 10 weeks viewers will be voting for their No1 chef. The winner will be announced in mid November.
Full programming details on www.bbcfood.com