Even Victoria Derbyshire hasn't done this in Studio B:
...
Quite a makeshift cooking set. I take it there's no place in NBH where a cooking segment be hosted or perhaps a piece of furniture that's designed for cooking segments? I'm thinking of a unit on rollers that has a built in cooktop and maybe an oven along with ample counter space.
There are no general TV cooking shows made in NBH - it's a news building in TV studio terms (with the exception of The One Show). There are cooking segments on Woman's Hour (a radio show) sometimes, but they don't need 'TV friendly' cooking facilities. Cookery isn't news. (I know some US local news shows are quite soft and might include a cooking segment - but these days that really isn't what the BBC does in news programmes. Though in the '80s on - the very soft in places - BBC Breakfast Time there was a resident chef - Glynn Christian)
The One Show have done cooking occasionally in the past - and I assumed just hired in suitable facilities (it's relatively easy to hire a cooking set from a props company in West London) - though as ever with studio cookery you have to be aware of limitations (4 ring electric hobs are high current items, gas cookers require a very safe gas supply to be properly tested - even if from a gas bottle - and you need to risk assess how bottled gas is stored and moved - you certainly don't leave pressurised bottle of propane or butane hanging around in corridors... This is often why you see self-contained cartridge gas stoves or 'portable' twin electric hobs used)
The near total lack of set storage facilities in W1 (it wasn't designed for set-strike but for set-standing) mean that things like a cookery set that would be used once or twice a year make no sense to store locally, and it is far more cost effective to hire.
Of course you also have to ensure the right fire protection systems are inhibited and the inhibition is mitigated). There are a LOT of continuous news services on air 24/7 in the BBC W1 buildings, you really don't want to take them off-air because someone forgot to arrange for smoke detection to be disabled...
Last edited by noggin on 18 May 2016 12:09pm