NFriday wrote:Did anybody else see 24 Hours to Hell and Back? I was wondering how he was going to revamp a restaurant in 24 hours. It turns out that secret cameras were placed in the restaurant several weeks before Gordon showed up, and several people involved with the show, ate at the restaurant a few times, and so they kind of knew what they were dealing with. Gordon Ramsey then went in incognito to the restaurant, and tried the food himself. After being thoroughly disgusted with his meal, Gordon took off his disguise, and said why he was there, and then immediately closed the restaurant down for 24 hours. In 24 hours they completely rehabbed the place. They painted in the dining room, and replaced all of the ceiling lighting, and replaced all of the furniture. They also replaced all of the equipment in the kitchen, and threw out a ton of food, and scrubbed the kitchen down. I don't know how they were able to do all of that in 24 hours. Ramsey also updated the menu.

Vinny the guy who owned the restaurant had a real temper, and nobody got along with him. He also was not courteous when dealing with customers. The restaurant had lost $100,000 in the last year. They went back to the restaurant three months later, and business had picked up, and Vinny got along better with the employees and customers, but it was still a work in progress.

It is very much the format of Kitchen Nightmares with a more compressed timeline.

I will certainly be watching, because I really do hope these businesses can get their restaurant back on track. Often on Kitchen Nightmares, the intervention came too late with the restaurant closing eventually.

Regards,
Cathy2

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

Last year on PBS, 'I'll have what Phil has,' is now Netflix's, 'Somebody Feed Phil.'

That Phil, he really gets around. First episode, Phil is in Bangkok. What a lucky guy.

Regards,
Cathy2

There are new episodes of 'Somebody Feed Phil' on Netflix. From listening to the audio, and not watching, he seems more comfortable in his role.

On a human level, I really enjoy his interactions with his parents.

Regards,
Cathy2

Hi- There is going to be a new series hosted by Marcus Samuelsson called No Passport Required, that is going to premier on Tuesday 7/10 at 9:00pm, on Channel 11. The show on 7/24 is going to center on Chicago. The first show this Tuesday is going to focus on Middle Eastern restaurants in Detroit. He is also visiting New Orleans, Miami, DC, and Queens. It is a six part series. It looks interesting.

https://www.pbs.org/food/features/no-pa ... -1-cities/

I want to remind people that Marcus Samuelsson's new show No Passport Required is premiering tonight at 9:00pm on WTTW.

I've been enjoying 2 shows that appear on the Japanese news and information channel, NHK World (377 on my Comcast) . . .

Lunch ON! and Trails to Tsukiji

Lunch ON! focuses on workplaces and their lunch traditions. There's generally quite a bit of information about the work itself and also plenty of specific details about the lunches and how those lunch traditions came to be -- often they are intertwined with the work itself. The show provides a fascinating and informative cross-sectional view of everyday Japanese culture from an interesting and unique perspective. I've seen episodes that showcased garbage collectors and artisanal charcoal makers, just to name a couple.

Trails to Tsukiji dedicates its entire 30-minute episodes to single ingredients that can be found at Tokyo's famed Tsukiji market. Subjects range from specific kinds fish and seafood to all sorts of produce. The show focuses on how the item is typically found and sold at the market and then follows its trail to see how and where it is caught or grown, how it is often prepared, how specialty establishments serve it and more. I've seen episodes on everything from Monkfish to Wasabi and they're all compelling.

If you have access to this channel and you're into Japanese food and culture, I highly recommend these 2 programs. Some episodes are available to stream online, so you don't necessarily even need the channel to view them. In any event, it's some great, highly informative, detailed content that you won't find anywhere else.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:I've been enjoying 2 shows that appear on the Japanese news and information channel, NHK World (377 on my Comcast) . . .

Lunch ON! and Trails to Tsukiji

Lunch ON! focuses on workplaces and their lunch traditions. There's generally quite a bit of information about the work itself and also plenty of specific details about the lunches and how those lunch traditions came to be -- often they are intertwined with the work itself. The show provides a fascinating and informative cross-sectional view of everyday Japanese culture from an interesting and unique perspective. I've seen episodes that showcased garbage collectors and artisanal charcoal makers, just to name a couple.

Trails to Tsukiji dedicates its entire 30-minute episodes to single ingredients that can be found at Tokyo's famed Tsukiji market. Subjects range from specific kinds fish and seafood to all sorts of produce. The show focuses on how the item is typically found and sold at the market and then follows its trail to see how and where it is caught or grown, how it is often prepared, how specialty establishments serve it and more. I've seen episodes on everything from Monkfish to Wasabi and they're all compelling.

If you have access to this channel and you're into Japanese food and culture, I highly recommend these 2 programs. Some episodes are available to stream online, so you don't necessarily even need the channel to view them. In any event, it's some great, highly informative, detailed content that you won't find anywhere else.

=R=

Before my Tokyo trip a couple years back, I started watching trails to tsukiji as I digested any sort of Japanese food media. Really enjoyed the show and provided a ton of detail on each ingredient!

I'm sorry that I made a mistake. The link that I gave to No Passport Required said the program was on at 8:00pm, but it was on at 9:00pm on WTTW tonight. Did anybody else see it? I thought it was good. Marcus Samuelsson visited Detroit and Dearborn tonight and looked into Arab culture and food in those two cities. There are tons of Arab people in Dearborn, and there are quite a few in Detroit too. He visited Arab restaurants and homes in both Detroit and Dearborn. They are going to rebroadcast the show several times this week on Prime.

NFriday wrote:I'm sorry that I made a mistake. The link that I gave to No Reservations Needed said the program was on at 8:00pm, but it was on at 9:00pm on WTTW tonight.

Please note the name of the program is No Passport Required.
Samuelsson's focus seems to be on immigrant cuisine within the U.S. I like the concept of an immigrant chef celebrating immigrant culture.
I enjoyed the Detroit episode and the way it looked at the similarities and differences among Iraqi, Syrian, and Lebanese cuisines. I did get a chuckle out of how Marcus likes to show off his fashion sense.

Hi,

This week's episode of No Passport Required on the Vietnamese community in New Orleans was quite exciting with new information to chew on.

They compared Vietnam with New Orleans as both having tropical climates and French influences on their culture and cuisine.

One vignette was a gas station where they offered Poor Boys and Bahm Mi. Over time, the customers want fried shrimp in their Bahn Mi and Vietnamese fixings on their Poor Boys. Now it is a mashup they offer.

In these two episodes, he ends up at a family dinner eating food not necessarily offered in their restaurants. Home cooked food is revered every time.

They go to Chicago next week for Mexican food.

Regards,
Cathy2

I got turned onto the web series The Katering Show and it's funny as hell

http://thekateringshow.com/episodes/
WARNING: LOTS of swearing

The Samuelsson episode on Chicago last night was okay. It was nice to see that he latched on to Mi Tocaya (which has been a favorite of mine for a while) and featured its beverage director in addition to Diana Davila, and later Carlos Gaytan of the now-closed Mexique. Food bits were the best, but superficial. The social commentary was uneven and Samuelsson's 5 or 6 costume changes were distracting. I really wanted to like it more but it doesn't break any new ground and does what's already out there - just a little more awkwardly. Bourdain and Zimmern did it better and even Phil Rosenthal is hitting his (shticky "Idiot Abroad") stride in his new round of shows.

I agree the Chicago episode was not as engaging as the Detroit and NOLA entries. Might be because we are more familiar with the territory and less likely to be impressed by his choices and insights. Looking forward to the next episode featuring Indian food in Queens.

Buddy

I did not care as much for the Chicago episode. I am surprised he did not talk much about Pilsen. I also thought he spent too much time talking about the problems the dreamers are experiencing, and gang problems, and not enough time talking about food.

"Chickenwatch"

Amazon Prime. I can't even explain what these people are doing. Apparently, it's about different cultures' fried chicken preps, and two guys essentially vlogging about each place they visit and cutting to scenes with them rapping about it - one of the guys has a look reminiscent of Flight Of The Concords...ISH, which is making me draw a comparison to that show in the way they are doing it - just with less production value. I'm not sure they are funny, but it's making me laugh - if that makes any sense. They are definitely trying to be funny.

Two white guys rapping about fried chicken styles. I think I'ma watch this whole series.

Didn't see it mentioned, but I just finished the Netflix Original four part series Salt Fat Acid Heat. The series is adapted from the #1 best selling, James Beard award winning book written by Samin Nosrat.
In the series Nostrat brings her book to life traveling to Italy, Japan, and the Yucatan to show different sources and types of these elements and how each of them can be used to enhance the culinary experience. I learned much from the series and thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful scenery.
I would highly recommend this series to those of you who have not seen it.

Watched a few episodes of Final Table on Netflix last week with Andrew Knowlton from Bon Appetit. Has a bit of the schticky TV competition tropes (especially the "I'm going to put my own cultural spin on someone else's cultural dish"), but the last part of each episode, where the bottom three teams compete and are judged by a chef, is pretty good.

There is a new season of 24 Hours to Hell and Back on Fox right now on Wednesday evenings at 7:00. So far Gordon has helped out another restaurant in New Orleans and one in Allentown Pennsylvania. At the Allentown restaurant he actually dealt with a chef who swore more than he did, and he had to tell her to lay off the swearing.