The Best Thing I Ever Ate
television series
The Best Thing I Ever Ate is a television series that originally aired on Food Network, debuting on June 22, 2009 (after a preview on June 20).
The program originally aired as a one-time special in late 2008. After being cancelled by The Food Network, it was brought back on the Cooking Channel in 2018. It ended in 2022 after an estimate of 150~ episodes. It consists of chefs picking out favorite dishes they have eaten in places throughout the United States, in specific categories.
Contributing chefs/hosts
Ted Allen - Food and wine connoisseur; host of Chopped
Sunny Anderson - Host of Cooking For Real; co-host of The Kitchen
Mario Batali - Former Iron Chef, Iron Chef America; chef/owner of Babbo Ristorante e Enoteca; host of Molto Mario and Ciao America; former co-host, ABC's The Chew
Valerie Bertinelli - Actress; host of Valerie's Home Cooking
John Besh - Competitor on The Next Iron Chef; chef and owner of August Restaurant (New Orleans, Louisiana)
Elena Besser - Chef/TV host; contributor to Food Network Kitchen
Richard Blais - Chef/Restaurateur; judge on many Food Network competition shows
Brian Boitano - Olympic figure skater and host of What Would Brian Boitano Make?
Stephanie Boswell - Executive Pastry Chef, Peninsula Beverly Hills; judge on Halloween Baking Championship and Halloween Wars
James Briscione - Culinary Director at Institute of Culinary Education; First ever two-time Chopped Champion
Alton Brown - Host of Good Eats, "Cutthroat Kitchen" and Iron Chef America, and author of Good Eats 2: The Middle Years
Kardea Brown - Chef and host of Delicious Miss Brown
Frank Bruni - Former restaurant critic for New York Times; author of Born Round
Justin Brunson - Chef/restaurateur; Owner at River Bear American Meats in Denver, CO
Anne Burrell - Sous chef on Iron Chef America; host of Secrets of a Restaurant Chef; co-host of Worst Cooks in America
Josh Capon - Executive chef at New York City's Lure Fishbar; guest judge on Chopped and Beat Bobby Flay
Monti Carlo - Chef instructor/recipe developer; food blogger at islandgirlcooks.com
Cody and Samantha Carroll - Louisiana Chefs; co-hosts of Food Network's Cajun Aces owners/operators of Hot Tails in New Roads, LA
Michael Chiarello - Entrepreneur/restaurateur, and host of Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiarello
Hannah Chloe- Host of Spoon University's SpoonProof
Scott Conant - Host of 24 Hour Restaurant Battle, and chef/owner of Scarpetta (New York/Miami/Toronto/Beverly Hills) and D.O.C.G. Enoteca (Las Vegas)
Cat Cora - Former Iron Chef, Iron Chef America
Melissa d'Arabian - The Next Food Network Star Season 5 winner, and host of Ten Dollar Dinners
Mark Dacascos - Martial artist/actor; "The Chairman" on Iron Chef America
Paula Deen - Host of Paula's Home Cooking, Paula's Best Dishes, and Paula's Party
Giada De Laurentiis - Host of Everyday Italian and Giada at Home; TV judge/mentor on The Next Food Network Star
Rocco DiSpirito - Chef/author of Now Eat This! Diet; winner of James Beard Award
Guy Fieri - Winner of Season 2 of Food Network Star; host of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and Guy's Big Bite, and chef/owner of Johnny Garlic's and Tex Wasabi's (California)
Bobby Flay - Former Iron Chef, Iron Chef America; co-host/mentor of The Next Food Network Star and Throwdown! with Bobby Flay, chef/owner of Mesa Grills in New York, Las Vegas and Bahamas
Tregaye Fraser - Winner of Season 12 of Food Network Star & host of Discovery+'s Tregaye's Way in the Kitchen
Tyler Florence - Host of The Great Food Truck Race and Tyler's Ultimate
Ina Garten - Host of Barefoot Contessa
Gabriella Gershenson - TV judge on 24 Hour Restaurant Battle, senior editor Saveur Magazine
Adam Gertler - Host of Kid in a Candy Store
Duff Goldman - Pastry chef/owner of Charm City Cakes, and host of Ace of Cakes and Sugar High
Alex Guarnaschelli - Chef/host on Alex's Day Off; Iron Chef on "Iron Chef America"; TV judge on Chopped; executive chef of Butter Restaurant (New York)
Carla Hall - Chef/TV personality/former model; former co-host of ABC's The Chew
Robert Irvine - Host of Dinner: Impossible and Restaurant: Impossible; co-host of seasons 2 & 14 of Worst Cooks in America
Eddie Jackson - Season 11 winner of Food Network Star; host of BBQ Blitz
Pati Jinich - Chef & Host of Pati's Mexican Table
Judy Joo - TV judge The Next Iron Chef, Iron Chef UK, executive chef Playboy Club (London)
Kristen Kish - Chef/TV Host; winner of Season 10 of Top Chef; host of 36 Hours on Travel Channel and co-host of Fast Foodies on TruTV
Ali Khan - Food blogger; host of Cheap Eats
Dan Kohler - Culinary Anthropologist/Food Nerd; contributor to Cooking Channel's Food: Fact or Fiction?
Ellie Krieger - Host of Healthy Appetite
Emeril Lagasse - Host on Essence of Emeril and Emeril Live
Dan Langan - Baker/Blogger; Host, Dan Can Bake on Food Network Digital
Nigella Lawson - Host on Nigella's Kitchen
Katie Lee - Cookbook author/food critic; co-host of The Kitchen
Sandra Lee - host on Semi-Homemade Cooking and Sandra's Money Saving Meals
Shinmin Li - Pastry Chef/Cake Artist; judge on Food Network's Cookie Wars and Halloween Wars
Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir - Champion Figure Skaters; co-hosts of Wedding Cake Championship
Antonia Lofaso - Chef/restaurateur; judge on Iron Chef America, Guy's Grocery Games et al.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “The Best Thing I Ever Ate” is television series. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Best, Thing and Ever, not as a finished interpretation.
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Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7716825. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2009, 2008, 2018 and 2022.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Best Thing I Ever Ate” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.