The first cooking show on television hosted by James Beard in 1946 was called I Love to Eat. The live NBC program premiered on August 30, 1946, and ran until May 1947, establishing Beard as one of America’s earliest television chefs.
The show was broadcast during television’s experimental early network era, when programs were performed live and usually not preserved on film. It began as a 15-minute program, with Beard demonstrating recipes and discussing food for a home audience.
A common mix-up is calling it the first cooking program anywhere on television. Britain’s Philip Harben had presented televised cookery earlier in 1946, but I Love to Eat is widely credited as the first nationally televised American network cooking show. Beard later became a major cookbook author, teacher, and namesake of the James Beard Awards.