It began as a small Channel 4 show that the narrator, Dave Lamb, thought “would be snuck out in the daytime and no one would ever see it”.
But Come Dine With Me has become a worldwide hit, marking 20 years since launch with a spin-off featuring teenagers and launching its 50th version – a French-speaking edition in north Africa.
Over the past two decades, contestants on the dinner party competition serve up dishes ranging from sausage trifle to grasshopper cheesecake in their efforts to impress.
The contestants rate each other based on their enjoyment of the evening, including their cooking. Photograph: Channel 4
Worldwide there have been more than 20,000 episodes broadcast and more than 60,000 courses served. And during that time the show has charted society’s change in social, culinary and interior design tastes.
“It’s been a kind of historical snapshot,” said its editor, Henry Hainault.
Lamb said that in the UK, contestants have become, “more sophisticated in their approach”. Mike Beale, the managing director of ITV Studios Creative Network, which owns the production company Multistory Media, said they have moved from basic dishes such as spaghetti bolognese to more complicated meals with the advent of more cookery shows.
One of the reasons for its popularity, Hainault said, is families can watch it together, but also because “it’s one of very few shows that celebrates people in their own homes …[plus] fundamentally people are interested in people”.
Clips from the show have become immortalised on social media for their comedy value; for example, Kev and his whisk. Photograph: Channel 4
“It’s five people that wouldn’t necessarily be having dinner together, that’s how the show started and it still works today.”
Lamb likes that it shows different people can get on: “It’s a really diverse representation of the people of Britain … not only does it travel around the country, but you get a lot of different types of people within it and they sit very naturally alongside each other. It’s really reassuring that that Britishness is so multicultural and so tolerant … it feels like it can do a job unifying us a bit at the moment.”
Among the more adventurous dishes to feature on the show was the sausage trifle. Photograph: Channel 4
The UK show has created not only memorable moments – a pet snake once defecated on a table, one contestant did a rap in Thai and another was caught cheating using food from a restaurant – but also long-lasting friendships (some groups still meet once a month), romantic relationships and even a baby.
Another unforgettable moment was delivered by series seven’s Pete, who was put out that his fellow contestant Jane, won, uttering the line: ‘What a sad little life, Jane.’ Photograph: No credit
And it has also brought people with opposing viewpoints around the same table. Beale recounts that the Israeli version features Arabic and Hebrew contestants: “It does bring people together … from different backgrounds who wouldn’t necessarily get on.”
The most successful dish overall is tiramisu, but one of the least successful, Hainault recalled, was a UK contestant’s prosecco cheesecake. “One thing you could say about the British one, I think it’s probably low down the list in terms of the standard of cooking,” he said.
Beale said that, in France, the cooking is taken “very seriously”. Other culinary differences across the world include the eastern European series featuring a “lot of potatoes” and the Mexican version numerous bean-based dishes.
A nation’s culture also creates variations. Beale said: “It’s interesting how each territory localises [the show] or culturally adopts it.” He said that Germany likes trying new twists, basing the show in a castle one week, while in Turkey the most important thing is the entertainment the contestants put on to impress their fellow diners.
Contestants are judged on the quality of their entertainment as well as their cooking. Take series 45’s Jamie’s silent disco, for example. Photograph: Channel 4
The series has always been popular with students and from November, Channel 4 will air a teen spin-off. Hainault said he had admiration for the youngsters, as for “most of them, it’s the first time they’ve ever cooked for other people. And in some cases, the first time they’ve ever been around to other people’s houses to have a meal and of their own age.” Interestingly one couple had not even eaten soup before, “because it looked too liquidy”.
Globally, the series has adapted before, with celebrity versions and a couples’ spin-off – which enabled the format to travel to the Middle East, where previously it had not been aired due to the mixing of men and women.
The show’s editor, Henry Hainault, says comedy comes from the difference between people’s view of themselves and how they actually come across. Photograph: Channel 4
One of the universal truths that crosses borders, said Hainault, is “fundamentally, there is a vast chasm between people’s opinions of themselves and the person they actually present to the world. And the gap between who people think they are and who other people think they are is where a lot of the comedy happens.”
Lamb also said his voiceover had “become a little kinder over the years”, although he always makes sure “I shouldn’t say anything I wouldn’t be prepared to say if I was sat around the table with the people who are on it.”
