BIG COOK, LITTLE COOK RETURNS TO OUR SCREENS

BIG COOK, LITTLE COOK 

Are you ready for foody fun, mischief and mayhem?

Join BIG COOK, LITTLE COOK every day on CBeebies!

  The iconic series BIG COOK, LITTLE COOK is back after nearly 20 years! Dot To Dot Productions has been commissioned to make a re-vamped series for CBeebies with brand new talent.

BIG COOK LITTLE COOK is a cookery programme for pre-schoolers, presented by a Big Cook Jen (played by Ibinabo Jack) and a Little Cook Small (played by Courtney Bowman). It's a comical concoction of delicious delicacies taking the viewer on an educational journey of discovery. We see our friends making exciting and innovative recipes that our young audience will want to try for themselves at home.

Each show contains a 'make', animation and a location piece shot in fields and factories around the UK.

BIG COOK, LITTLE COOK run ‘the best cafe in the World’ it’s a cookery series with a difference. Big Cook Jen is the size of a human, but Little Cook Small is the size of a pepper pot! She spends her time running around the kitchen counter among the packets and bottles collecting bits and bobs needed for the various dishes.

At the start of each episode, Jen and Small are visited by a fictional character. Small tells us a short animated story featuring this famous customer, before they cook a recipe from Jen’s ‘Big Cooks Cookery Book’. If an ingredient is missing, Small flies outside on her magic spoon to visit where the food is made, bringing some back to the cafe for the recipe.

For example, in one of the shows Jen finds a message in a bottle in the washing up and Small believes it’s from Pirate Tiny Spoon. While on a treasure hunt in the kitchen, they are visited by Peanut the Parrot and they decide to make her a ‘Treasure Pie’. The only problem is that Jen has run out of golden sweetcorn. Small flies off on her magical spoon to find out how it’s grown.

Big Cook Jen and Little Cook Small then enjoy completing the recipe, so Jen can deliver the dish ready for the parrot to eat.

The end of the show sees the character leaving a clean plate, and a present as thanks. The gift usually helps the pair solve a problem they have been experiencing.

BIG COOK, LITTLE COOK combines slapstick humour, with an infectious enthusiasm for creative cooking. Its unique blend of mischief and know-how, a tasty treat for a modern pre-school audience.

Jo Killingley creator and Executive Producer says “We made the original iconic ‘Big Cook Little Cook’ nearly 20 years ago, it was the most fun series I’ve ever worked on. With brand new talent in 2022, it’s continuing to be a joy. We’re celebrating British ingredients and food producers, plus a host of World recipes. We’re hoping this will be a delicious treat for kids and their grown up helpers and encourage everyone to pick up a wooden spoon and create some magic in the kitchen (and maybe a little mess!)”

TALENT 

IBINABO JACK

Ibinabo trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. 

Television credits include: Vera(ITV), The Birth of Daniel F Harris (Channel 4), Big Fat Like (BBC), Hollyoaks (Lime Pictures),Doctors (BBC), Warren (BBC).

Theatre credits include: The High Table (Bush Theatre), Our Lady of Kibeho (Royal & Derngate Theatre), Dreamgirls (Savoy Theatre), The Bodyguard (Dominion Theatre and UK Tour), Hot Stuff (Oldham Coliseum), Little Shop of Horrors (Manchester Royal Exchange), Porgy and Bess (The Royal Danish Theatre), The Color Purple (The Menier Chocolate Factory), Legally Blonde (Savoy Theatre), Raindogs (Trafalgar Studios) The Lion King (Disneyland Paris).

 Film credits include: The Statistical Probability Of Love At First Sight, Two For Joy 

COURTNEY BOWMAN

Courtney has reigned both as Anne Boleyn in Six The Musical in the West End and now as Queen of the kitchen in Big Cook Little Cook. Previously, Courtney appeared as Fatimah in the original cast of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie at both the Sheffield Crucible and Apollo Theatre London as well as Martha in Blondel at the Union Theatre and as part of The Wind in the Willows UK tour cast. She loves Spaghetti Bolognese (with garlic bread of course!) and her go to dish is a hearty Sunday roast! Courtney can’t wait to share her secret ingredients and mischievous kitchen antics with you in the Big Cook Little Cook Cafe!

DOT TO DOT PRODUCTIONS

Dot To Dot is an award winning, multiple BAFTA nominated children’s television production company with commercial experience in devising, developing and delivering all genres of children’s programming, for British and International Broadcasters including; CBeebies, CBBC, CITV, Nick Jnr, Disney, S4C and ZDF.

Dot To Dot was set up in 2004 by children’s producer, Jo Killingley. Jo, a former primary school teacher, left teaching to pursue her first love, children’s television. Alan Robinson, Head of Development and Animation joined the company in  2010 and together they have devised and produced many hit series including: Bubble and Squeak, William Whiskerson, Get Squiggling! Get Squiggling Letters, Totally Rubbish, Footy Pups, School of Roars, Art Ninja and Makeaway Takeaway. Big Cook Little Cook is a series Jo devised and produced 18 years ago, it was a huge sucess and Dot To Dot are proud for it to be returning to CBeebies, revamped with a new female talent.

Dot To Dot makes much-loved, ratings-winning programmes for children. Their aim is to engage and fuel imaginations with humorous, enriching and above all entertaining content.