Saturday Kitchen Live is a British cookery programme, that is broadcast live on BBC One every Saturday between 10.00am and 11.30am produced by Cactus TV.
History
2002–2003
After a pilot hosted by Ainsley Harriott on 14 April 2001, the show was launched on 26 January 2002 and was originally broadcast as a BBC production for the Open University under an educational remit. It was hosted by Gregg Wallace, then a relatively unknown presenter. He was joined by a celebrity chef each week in a pre-recorded format and with a low budget, using archived content from the likes of Keith Floyd and Rick Stein to fill the show. After the first series, the second series was broadcast live.
2003–2006
After the success of the first two series, the programme was relaunched with established celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson as the host, initially guest hosting from May before taking over on 13 September. The format was tweaked, moving away from the educational remit and simple meals to more aspirational food with an increase in chefs, a number of whom had Michelin stars, and celebrity guests. The BBC archive was retained for the revamped format, with Worrall Thompson and the guest chefs preparing dishes, with the clips used to allow clean-up and "resetting" of the studio kitchen.
During the summer of 2004, the programme temporarily moved to BBC One and aired as Saturday Brunch, live from Worrall Thompson's home. Subsequently, in January 2006, the show moved from BBC Two to BBC One on a three-month trial that became permanent, a decision which drew controversy after the moving of children's programming from its regular slot on the channel for the first time since the 1970s.
2006–2016
After Worrall Thompson left the network to present Saturday Cooks! in June 2006, James Martin took over as host from 24 June. During Martin's tenure, the audience increased from 1.2 million to around 2.5 million, peaking at 2.7 million on 9 January 2010.
On 8 September 2012, the first episode was broadcast from a new studio set, which saw a new design and the addition of mains gas and running water.
On 23 February 2016, Martin announced that he would be leaving the show to concentrate on other commitments, and "to have a lie in" on a Saturday. His last show was on 26 March 2016.
Among those to cover in Martin's absence were Matt Tebbutt and John Torode.
2016- Present
Presenters
Matt Tebbutt is the predominant presenter, with Angela Hartnett and Anna Haugh among those to have deputised for Tebbutt.
Drinks experts
Each week, a drinks expert pairs various drinks to go with the studio dishes. Helen McGinn and Olly Smith are the predominant experts.
Featured chefs
Among the featured chefs in 2022, were: Paul Ainsworth, Ravinder Bhogal, Niklas Ekstedt, Sabrina Ghayour, Ravneet Gill, and Nathan Outlaw.
Celebrity guests
In 2022, the Saturday Kitchen team were joined by a variety of celebrity guests, including: James Bay, Paloma Faith, Jane Horrocks, Iain Stirling, and Stanley Tucci.
Features
Each show typically includes a host chef and two guest chefs, each cooking in the studio. They are joined by a celebrity guest, usually on to promote a forthcoming or current project.
Each guest chef's dish is paired with a drink chosen by an expert.
In between each studio dish, excerpts are shown from the BBC Archives. The footage almost always includes Rick Stein and Keith Floyd, but have also featured Nigella Lawson, The Hairy Bikers, and Nigel Slater in the past.
Before the introduction of the Heaven and Hell feature, the programme previously featured Worrall Thompson and guest chefs pitching a dish to be cooked, which the public voted on and a running total of wins were recorded by using fridge magnets.
Heaven or Hell
Each show concludes with the host and guest chefs cooking the celebrity guest a dish containing their favourite or least-favourite ingredient/s.
Which dish is cooked depends on an online vote for viewers at home to choose heaven or hell. Formerly, only the viewers who phoned in to the show were able to vote, along with the guest chefs.
Saturday Kitchen Best Bites
In-addition to the main episode shown on Saturday mornings, there is a compilation episode called Saturday Kitchen Best Bites, which features clips from previous episodes and is hosted by the same presenter(s).