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A Cook's Tour (TV series)

A Cook's Tour
StarringAnthony Bourdain (host)
Country of originUnited States
No. of episodes35
Production
Running timehalf hour (approx. 0:22 per episode)
Original release
NetworkFood Network
Release2002 (2002) –
2003 (2003)

A Cook's Tour is a travel and food show that aired on Food Network. Host Anthony Bourdain visits various countries and cities worldwide where hosts treat him to local culture and cuisine. Two seasons of episodes were produced in 2000 and 2001 and aired first-run in January 2002 through 2003 in the U.S. on the Food Network. As of 2023, the series is formally available across multiple online platforms such as YouTube[1], Tubi[2] and Local Now[3] through distributor Questar Entertainment under the GoTraveler brand.

Production

NYU film program graduate Lydia Tenaglia,[4] working at New York Times Television,[5] picked up the book Kitchen Confidential, and, learning that Bourdain was proposing an Innocents Abroad-style travel journal as a follow-up project, picked up the phone and made a cold call.[6][7]

The show was filmed with two Sony PD100 DV camcorders.[8]

Reception

In Variety, Phil Gallo says, "For once, Food Network is putting on display food you can’t do at home — and they show that acquiring the ingredients isn’t all pretty before the meal hits the dining room table."[9] Bourdain's account of his trip to Cambodia in Episodes 5 and 6 of Season 1 has been criticised by professor of French and Film Studies at Clemson University Joseph Mai as "filled with tawdry stereotypes" and largely ignoring Cambodian cuisine.[10]

Episodes

Season 1

# Prod Num DVD[1] Title Place Visited
1 TB1A01 Disk 5 A Taste of Tokyo Tokyo
2 TB1A02 Disk 5 Dining with Geishas Atami and Tokyo, Japan
3 TB1A03 Disk 6 Cobra Heart - Foods That Make You Manly Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
4 TB1A04 Disk 6[2] Eating on the Mekong Mekong River, Vietnam
5 TB1A05 Disk 6 Wild Delicacies Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, Cambodia
6 TB1A06 Disk 5 Eating on the Edge of Nowhere Pailin, Cambodia and Tokyo, Japan
7 TB1A07 Disk 3 Cod Crazy Porto and Douro Valley, Portugal
8 TB1A08 Disk 3 San Sebastian: A Food Lover's Town San Sebastián, Spain
9 TB1A09 Disk 3 Childhood Flavors Arcachon, France
10 TB1A10 Disk 3 Stuffed Like a Pig Portugal, south-western France
11 TB1A11 Disk 4 A Desert Feast Morocco (Sahara)
12 TB1A12 Disk 4 Traditional Tastes Morocco (cities)
13 TB1A13 Disk 4 The Cook Who Came in From the Cold Saint Petersburg
14 TB1A14 Disk 4 So Much Vodka, So Little Time Saint Petersburg
15 TB1A15 Disk 2 Tamales and Iguana, Oaxacan Style Oaxaca, Mexico
16 TB1A16 Disk 2 Puebla, Where the Good Cooks Are From Puebla, Mexico
17 TB1A17 Disk 1 Los Angeles, My Own Heart of Darkness Los Angeles
18 TB1A18 Disk 1 The French Laundry Experience[11] Napa Valley and San Francisco
19 TB1A19 Disk 1 My Hometown Favorites New York City
20 TB1A20 Disk 1 My Life as a Cook New York City and Provincetown, MA
21 TB1A21 Disk 3 Highland Grub Scotland
22 TB1A22 Disk 3 A Pleasing Palate London

Season 2

# Prod Num DVD Title Place Visited
1 TB1B01 Disk 2 Food Tastes Better with Sand Between Your Toes St. Martin
2 TB1B02 Disk 1 No Beads, No Babes, No Bourbon Street New Orleans
3 TB1B03 Disk 2 A Mystical World Salvador
4 TB1B04 Disk 2 How to Be a Carioca Rio de Janeiro and Niterói, Brazil
5 TB1B05 Disk 1 Elements of a Great Bar New York City
6 TB1B06 Disk 1 The Struggle for the Soul of America Minneapolis, MN
7 TB1B07 Disk 1 The BBQ Triangle Kansas City, Houston, and North Carolina
8 TB1B08 Disk 5 Mad Tony: The Food Warrior Sydney
9 TB1B09 Disk 5 Down Under: The Wild West of Cooking Melbourne
10 TB1B10 Disk 6 Singapore: New York in Twenty Years Singapore
11 TB1B11 Disk 6 Let's Get Lost Chiang Mai, Thailand
12 TB1B12 Disk 6 My Friend Linh Hanoi, Vietnam
13 TB1B13 Disk 6 Thailand: One Night in Bangkok Bangkok, Thailand and Singapore

Notes

  1. ^ Episodes are categorized by region in the DVD box set; one or two regions per disk. Disk 1: The United States; Disk 2: Mexico and the Americas; Disk 3: Europe; Disk 4: Morocco and Russia; Disk 5: Australia and Japan; Disk 6: Asia
  2. ^ Early versions of the DVD box set were shipped mistakenly missing episode TB1A04, Eating on the Mekong. Replacements were made available by Questar.

References

  1. ^ "Anthony Bourdain's A Cook's Tour on YouTube". GoTraveler. Retrieved 19 November 2024.
  2. ^ "Anthony Bourdain's A Cook's Tour". Tubi. GoTraveler. Retrieved 19 November 2024.
  3. ^ "Anthony Bourdain's A Cook's Tour". LocalNow. GoTraveler. Retrieved 19 November 2024.
  4. ^ "Lydia Tenaglia". IMDb. Retrieved 23 August 2018.
  5. ^ "New York Times Television". IMDb. Retrieved 23 August 2018.
  6. ^ Chris Green (25 October 2017). "Lydia Tenaglia - Interview". Producers Guild of America. Retrieved 23 August 2018 – via producersguild.org.
  7. ^ "A Q&A with ZPZ's Lydia Tenaglia-Collins". explorepartsunknown.com. 22 November 2017. Retrieved 23 August 2018.
  8. ^ O'Falt, Chris (21 August 2019). "How Anthony Bourdain found his on-screen voice and changed television".
  9. ^ Gallo, Phil (7 January 2002). "A Cook's Tour". variety.com. Retrieved 23 August 2018.
  10. ^ Mai, Joseph (August 2018). "Humble pies". Mekong Review (12). Retrieved 23 August 2018. Unfortunately, his account of his trip to Cambodia in 2000 is filled with tawdry stereotypes: abject poverty in the city, comparisons to the Stone Age in the countryside, dirty hovels for hotels, reminders to keep clean condoms, news stories from the Phnom Penh Post about acid attacks and child rape. ... Cambodian cuisine? Barely mentioned.
  11. ^ "A COOK'S TOUR – Episode Descriptions". Entertainment in Motion. Archived from the original on 2018-08-22. Retrieved 2018-08-22. 18. San Francisco: "The French Laundry Experience"; Country: USA; Chef Tony Bourdain makes a pilgrimage to meet the man he considers to be the finest chef in the western world: Thomas Keller, chef and owner of The French Laundry in Yountville, California, located in the Napa Valley outside of San Francisco. … Tony has also invited several chef friends, including Scott Bryan of NYC's Veritas and Eric Ripert of NYC's Le Bernardin, to join him for a special menu prepared by Keller himself. The high point in the meal comes when Keller sends Tony a specially-crafted custard made from tobacco leaves and coffee.