A few weeks ago, El Gourmet was added to the wide range of content related to cooking available on television and on payment platforms. It is presented as the first and only streaming service in Spain dedicated to haute cuisine and for less than 20 euros a year —a little more if the subscription is paid month by month— it promises hours of entertainment for gourmets with documentaries and series about chefs. , products, wine, cocktails… We have taken a look at your grill to see if it is worth it.
Although it is impossible not to be tempted to call it a Netflix for foodies, in reality it has nothing to do with this platform. It is owned by AMC Networks and can be seen through the Prime Video pay channel system, Amazon's streaming service. It is also available on its own website or with dedicated applications for iPhone and Android.
Perhaps judging the catalog available with such a recent premiere is not fair, but if the accounts do not fail us, right now only a total of 25 programs are offered. It sounds like little for a specialized platform, although it is true that the way of presenting the content on the website itself makes the assortment seem broader and more appealing than through Prime Video.
Actually, El Gourmet already existed before, and there was even a channel with that name on the aforementioned Amazon platform. As explained by AMC Networks, "this new streaming service replaces the previous channel of the same name on Prime Video, dedicated to Latin American gastronomy."
And it is that, recently released in Spain, in reality the history of El Gourmet goes back no less than 20 years. It began its journey in Argentina, from where it began broadcasting throughout the continent in the summer of 2000. A specialized channel that defines itself as a pioneer in the creation of 100% gastronomic content in Spanish.
A project that seems logical to think that it was inspired by the Food Network, the American cable channel that back in 1993 opted for this type of content. But going back to El Gourmet, the South American version boasts 90% of its own original programming and 250 hours of premieres that are added to the catalog every year.
Figures that seem distant for the recently released version in Spain and where there is more content on French gastronomy and wines. For example, Wine as a Legacy has a single season with 10 chapters dedicated to different French wineries and another of the outstanding programs is Masters of Champagne or Flavors of France.
Los secretos del vino, for its part, proposes an oenological journey through Chile, Argentina and Uruguay, and there are also four programs available starring Argentine chef Francis Mallmann that tour various parts of the country. It can be assumed that they are contents inherited from the aforementioned version of El Gourmet for South America.
And Spain? The truth is that for now the offer is very limited for those looking for something related to cooking or national chefs. In fact, Star Producers seems to be the only truly dedicated content on this Spanish version of the platform, although it is actually a 2021 production by Canal Cocina.
In any case, the good news is that this series with half a dozen chapters is very interesting and will allow us to discover the yogurts that Pako Goenaga produces and that Martín Berasategui uses, the Picón cheese by Javier Campo that is served in the Cenador de Amós or the story of Francesc Subirats, a fisherman who bets on gear that respects the environment to get the prawns from Palamós that end up on the plate at El Celler de Can Roca.
Added to the lack of content dedicated to Spain is the age of some of them. The best restaurants in the world is from 2018, Happiness is on the plate -again, focused on France- is a series from 2016, and the documentary Caviar, the treasure of Iran, from 2008, to cite three varied examples. All of this gives a certain sensation of content rehashing without, for now, an identity of its own for this national version of the platform.
Yes, we liked the Royal Recipes series, presented by Michael Duncan Buerk, a BBC historian. Although, of course, it has been somewhat outdated when they talk about the coronation because, again, the program is from 2016. Also entertaining Million Dollar Buffet, a small and fun tour of several unique buffets in the world.
For the next few months, AMC has already announced the premiere of The Chefs Universe: Mauro Colagreco, dedicated to the chef from Mirazur, and the series El queso, a love story, starring Afrim Pristine, the Canadian who passes through to be the youngest cheese master in the world.
The truth is that we don't miss cooking contests at all, but we do, for example, some documentaries of a certain level related to gastronomy and that are or have gone through other platforms.
We will have to be attentive to see if in a few months the catalog is gaining in content, closer topics and news. At the moment, those who want to try it can do so for free for 7 days through Prime Video and you can also watch, without paying anything, the first chapter of some of the platform's series.
