Our top TV food moments of all time

The foodiest TV show that wasn’t an outright food show, and it spawned its own cookbook. Mealtimes were central to the epic, televisual behemoth that is The Sopranos, widely considered to be one of the best shows of all time, and Italian-American menus and congregations around dinner tables were regular fixtures of the mobster drama. Lead character Tony Soprano’s (James Gandolfini) wife Carmela (Edie Falco) was the show’s cook-in-chief, producing dishes like baked ziti, braciole and pasta with marinara sauce, plus desserts like ricotta pie and cannoli. Artie Bucco (John Ventimiglia) deserves an honourable mention too. A recurring character and Tony’s childhood friend, Artie’s restaurant, Vesuvio, is the meeting point for many a mafia conflab.

Los Pollos Hermanos in Breaking Bad

A New Mexico fast food joint known for its fried chicken, convivial service and role in a cross-nation methamphetamine operation – it can only be Los Pollos Hermanos. The fictional southern fried chicken restaurant was central to the ongoing plotline of Breaking Bad, the AMC crime drama about Walter White (Bryan Cranston), a high-school chemistry teacher who turns to selling drugs when diagnosed with cancer. Chillingly sinister Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) is the drug lord who founded Los Pollos Hermanos to front up the distribution and production of his meth empire, with its trucks and food tubs used to smuggle drugs made by the cartel. The restaurant was so iconic there is now a real-life version in London.

Succession’s bodega sushi

Food was not exactly central to Succession, the sublime HBO satire about the dysfunctional Roy family and their global media empire, Waystar Royco. But there was one food moment that launched many a meme – the bodega sushi of season 4’s election night episode, America Decides. Staff at cable news network ATN are pulling an all-nighter to cover the US presidential election, headed up by the brilliantly-awful Tom Wambsgans (Matthew MacFadyen). His oft-humiliated underling and fellow ‘Disgusting Brother’ Gregory Hirsch has the audacity to buy in bodega sushi as the team provision. Cue an outraged tirade from Tom followed by wasabi ending up in the eye of pollster Darwin Perry (Adam Godley). When Greg the Egg uses lemon soda to try and wash it out, the scene becomes a slapstick masterpiece.

Mr Bean gets his head stuck in a turkey

If you didn’t watch Mr Bean, did you even live through the 90s? Rowan Atkinson’s legendary character got into multiple bumps and scrapes during every episode of this comedy series, but a standout moment was the turkey-on-the-head of Christmas 1992. The hapless protagonist is attempting to prepare a giant bird for his Christmas dinner, and while grappling with the enormous cavity, ends up losing his watch among the stuffing. As he mounts the search he ends up getting his head stuck and staggering around his flat with the turkey on his head. Not quite as appetising as some of the other food moments on our list.

Stapler in the jelly on The Office

Whether you’re a fan of the UK or US version, the stapler in the jelly/jello scene neatly captured everything that’s great about this slow-burning mockumentary. The iconic comedy about the mundanity of life at a mediocre paper merchant is interwoven with nuanced relationships that manifest in brilliantly absurd ways. One of the show’s best dynamics is between wise-cracking wit Tim (Martin Freeman) and cheerless jobsworth Gareth (Mackenzie Crook). Tim’s unrelenting campaign of practical jokes included glueing Gareth’s phone, prank calls to boss David Brent (Ricky Gervais) and endless quotable jokes, but one of his finest hours was setting Gareth’s stapler in jelly (for the third time no less). Tim’s response? “Gareth, it’s only a trifling matter” (said while munching on a block of jelly).

Magnolia Bakery cupcakes in Sex and the City

The 90s classic Sex and the City was famously filmed on location in New York and often featured cameos from real-life restaurants. A short scene in which Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) ate charming, frosting-topped cupcakes outside Magnolia Bakery was responsible for propelling the bakery to global fame. A short time later, a cupcake craze took over the food world that didn’t loosen its grip for several years. Carrie was also partial to a Cosmopolitan cocktail, meaning the show introduced many uninitiated viewers to the drink for the first time. Its popularity is enduring – in 2023, it’s the seventh most popular cocktail recipe on bbcgoodfood.com.

Fawlty Towers waldorf salad episode

So much of Fawlty Towers revolved around the trouble-prone Torquay hotel’s kitchen. In the Waldorf Salad episode, always-wired owner Basil Fawlty (John Cleese) is forced to deal with a difficult American guest who is asking for off-the-menu items that bamboozle the hotel staff, including screwdriver cocktail and Waldorf salad. Cue shouting, slapping and Basil storming out of the hotel (only to realise it’s raining outside). Two other classic Fawlty Tower food moments are 'duck a l'orange on the foot' and 'rat in the biscuit tin' – if you know, you know.

Coffee and pie in Twin Peaks

Suave and eccentric Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) is officially stationed in Twin Peaks – the eponymous fictional town in David Lynch’s cult masterpiece – to solve the murder of Laura Palmer, but he manages to spend a lot an awful lot of time exploring the area’s coffee and baked goods scene. He finds a “damn fine cup of coffee” in the The Great Northern Hotel, while the Double R Diner serves up a slice of cherry pie that bowls him over. The diner is “where pies go when they die” according to Dale.

The Bear’s potato crisp omelette

The show that sparked our misty-eyed wave of foodie TV nostalgia. FX’s dizzyingly absorbing show is wholeheartedly centred on food, with it being about a family-run sandwich shop in Chicago that’s transformed into a fine-dining restaurant by lead character Carmy (Jeremy Allen White). But of all the dishes depicted in the show, it’s the crisp omelette made by chef Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) that went viral. Following the release of the second season, the omelette made waves on social media, with people comparing it to Ferran Adrià’s famous crisp tortilla. The dish in the show was actually piped with cheese and topped with ridged potato chips, and inspired by a recipe from French chef Ludo Lefebvre. See the BBC Good Food take on the crisp and egg combo by watching our cheat’s tortilla video, where we use salted crisps in the mix, Ferran-style.

Negroni sbagliato… with prosecco

Not strictly a TV moment, but it gets an honourable mention for its cultural significance. In summer 2022, House of the Dragon actors Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke did a routine interview that went viral when the topic of favourite drinks came up. D’Arcy’s voice deepens a notch, and with a raise of the eyebrow and shimmy of the shoulder they announce that “negroni”, “sbagliato”, “with prosecco in it” is their chosen drink. “Ooh stunnin!’” Cooke responds. The innocuous moment was responsible for the negroni sbagliato being plastered across social channels all summer – it also trended on bbcgoodfood.com for several weeks. Cheers to that.

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