Well-known Kiwi chef Jo Seagar trained as a cordon bleu chef in London and France, before returning home to promote a culinary style involving “maximum effect, minimum effort.” Her 1997 best-selling book You Shouldn't Have Gone To So Much Trouble, Darling caught TVNZ’s attention and Real Food marked her TV debut. The two series covered recipes from sushi to pecan pie. In a 2012 interview with Avenue, Seagar mentioned that the show rated highly, despite Television New Zealand initially telling her that a food show would never screen in primetime.

In this series Chef Peta Mathias (Taste New Zealand) sets off on a culinary journey around the globe - without even having to leave New Zealand. In A Taste of Home Peta meets up with fellow foodies who have settled in Godzone from overseas, and asks them to share their favourite tastes of home. Viewers get to choose from Moroccan stuffed dates, Russian cabaret, bean-filled Brazilian feijoada and 'Pokarekare Ana', sung in Korean. The series devotes one episode each to food from France, India, Russia, Korea, Brazil, North Africa, and the Middle East.

London-born Graham Kerr’s first appearance on NZ telly was in 1960 as an Air Force catering adviser. The RNZAF omelette demonstration was the beginning of a career that would see Kerr become an internationally pioneering TV chef, liberally mixing personality — a patient, slightly naughty uncle, always ready with a risqué quip — and butter, cream or wine-soaked recipes. The Graham Kerr Show was the last series he made in NZ before galloping off overseas, and his worldly sophistication introduced Kiwis to horizons beyond the confines of their own insular cuisine.

Kai Time on the Road premiered in Māori Television’s first year of 2003. It has become one of the channel’s longest running series. Presented largely in te reo and directed and presented for many years by chef Pete Peeti, the show celebrated food harvested from the land, rivers and sea. Kai Time traversed the length and breadth of New Zealand, and ventured into the Pacific. The people of the land have equal billing with the kai, and the korero with them is a major element of the show —  often over dishes cooked on location. Rewi Spraggon succeeded Peeti for the final two seasons.

Hunger for the Wild took Wellington chefs Al Brown and Steve Logan out of their fine dining restaurant and into the wilds of Aotearoa, on a fishing, foraging and hunting culinary adventure. Putting the local in 'locally sourced', each episode involves Al and Steve splitting up and collecting ingredients (and characters) for an end of episode meal. The homegrown and cooked dish is then toasted with a wine selected by Logan. Three series were produced for TVNZ by Peter Young's Fisheye films, winning a 2007 NZ Screen Award and Best Lifestyle Series at the 2009 Qantas Awards.

This series from Kiwi cooking legend Alison Holst is made up of six 15 minute episodes in which Holst cooks a selection of family favourite meals. Taking a relaxed pace, far removed from the typical energetic cooking show format, she talks through some simple recipes, to please even the pickiest eater. Alison Holst Cooks was made in association with Beckett Publishing, to support the release of the cookbook of the same name.

This Greenstone Pictures' series was a mixed plate of reality TV, cooking show and Stage One Anthropology. The (Kiwi) concept is simple: presenter Suzanne Paul invades a house with a camera crew and mystery dinner guest, while restauranteur Varick Neilson cooks the occupants dinner. Special guests included David McPhail, Temuera Morrison, Mike King and Kevin Smith. Two series were screened in 1998 and 1999, with a third screening in 2004.

Iwi Ngāi Tahu turns filmmaker in this web series about mahinga kai (food gathering) in Te Waipounamu (the South Island). The 12 short episodes feature tangata whenua talking about all aspects of traditional food gathering practises, from storage (pōhā), transport (mōkihi) and making traditional medicine (rongoā), to the actual kai — such as īnaka (whitebait), kōura (crayfish), pāua and pātiki (flounder). Ngāi Tahu Mahinga Kai travels far and wide from the bush in Kaikōura to rivers in Murihiku (Southland), and moana on the east and west coasts.

Jo Seagar’s Easy Peasy Xmas saw chef and author Jo Seagar offering advice on how to get Christmas cooking and hosting done right. In the first episode of three, Seagar plans for a Christmas drinks party, and provides advice on how to host the perfect festive get-together. Later episodes feature recipes for eggnog, Christmas pudding, and glazed ham. The following year saw one-off special Jo Seagar’s Easy Peasy Easter. Seagar made her television debut in 1998 with Real Food for Real People with Jo Seagar, shortly before her Easy Peasy shows. Jo Seagar Cooks followed in 2007.

In this show Kiwi-born chef Robert Oliver travels to resorts across the Pacific, where he meets chefs and encourages them to introduce more local ingredients and cuisine to resort menus. Each episode uses food as a starting point to explore culture and community. Locations included Fiji, Tonga, Tahiti, Vanuatu, Samoa and the Cook Islands. Based on Oliver’s award-winning cookbook Me’a Kai, the TVNZ series was developed by Anna Marbrook and Heather Lee from Zoomslide Productions. A second season followed in 2014. Real Pasifik screened in Australia on SBS and Foxtel.