Have you ever wonder how does a chef think? How a certain dish is made? I highly suggest tuning into The Mind of a Chef featured on PBS or you can just watch on Netflix. The show is hosted by various chefs such as David Chang and Sean Brock with the baritone voice of Anthony Bourdain helping guide viewers follow the storyline of each chef’s point of view that is featured. They include not only cooking methods, personal anecdotes, but the science behind the unique food reactions and why we like it.

I feel like whether a season is enjoyable or not is based on who is featured for the season. When David Chang was featured on Season 1, I tended to speed over parts of his personal anecdotes because his story telling skills are not very engaging to me. However, I do love his innovation that he displays on the show such as the pork-bushi which was his take on katsubushi. He even took time to display a ton of different chefs vs. just his own food. I also probably enjoyed his season because the feature of ramen was strong and I am a self-diagnosed ramen addict. He also visited San Sebastian in Spain which is a town that I remember from my high school days as I studied in one of the international schools in that city and lived near the old district.

The only bad side to this show is that the recipes listed in the show sometimes do not have exact measurements so it is difficult to recreate and the food can be too complicated to recreate for the normal home chef. This is more of an educational show about how chef’s approach food than a cooking show for those to learn cooking. Despite the negatives listed, I still think this is a good show to watch.

The variety of chefs featured allows for an analysis of different food types and how different chefs from such various backgrounds see food. For example, Sean Brock loves focusing on his low country roots that are ingrained in the South and his favorite pet project is Seed Saver that projects dying variety of agricultural products. David Chang likes to focus on bringing his roots to the main stream and innovating how we approach our favorite foods like Ramen. April Bloomfield focuses on changing the perspective of British cuisine Every chef featured has an amazing passion that they are trying to convey in their food. The food featured is a true homage to their past, present, future, and passions.

Tune in to The Mind of a Chef and tell me what you think. Who was your favorite chef featured? What do you think about the themes presented in the food?

Photo credit: http://www.pbs.org/food/features/mind-chef-about-show/