TASTE TAKES OFF
Presenter: Peta Mathias
Episode 1: Northern Thailand
Host Peta Mathias takes off to Chiangmai, the hub of northern Thailand and then north to the mountainous area which borders Burma and China. There’s much more to Thai cuisine than those red and green coconut cream curries. We tell the story of how cooking techniques were adapted form the countries that surround Thailand, and of the hot chillies which have become the hallmark of Thai cuisine.
At the Kao Hom Cook School we learn about chilies and the balancing act of flavours - spicy, mild, sweet and salty. There’s traditionally farmed sticky rice, northern sausage specialities and noodle cooking with Thailand’s witty television chef, McDang. In the mountains there’s hill tribe cooking at Lisu Lodge and Peta prepares a green papaya salad.
Episode 2: North East Victoria, Australia
Peta Mathias takes a gastronomic tour through this less well known but exceptionally scenic, historic and wine drenched area of Australia. She visits Beechworth and the tiny town’s very famous ‘Beechworth Bakery’; samples chestnuts in Alpine Valleys and cod from the Murray River; and explores Brown Brothers, the family dynasty, their history and their passion for unusual varieties of wine.
Epsiode 3: Vietnam.
Peta travels to Vietnam, to Hanoi, a city of lakes, shaded boulevards and a bustling, vibrant old quarter and also to Hoi An, a picturesque old fishing town mid way along the country’s coast. Vietnam is a country that is verdant and fertile, and where French traditions mingle with Chinese. Its dishes are fresh and green and its national dish, pho, is a beef broth soup overflowing with clean tasty ingredients. Peta visits Hanoi Street Food, the Dec 19th Market, and Lang Market Garden. He attends Hanoi Sofitel Metropole Cooking School, discovers the ubiquitous fish sauce Nuoc Mam. Peta’s guest chef is Chef Hai who cooks at his very stylish Red Bridge Restaurant.
Episode 4: Napa Valley, California
Peta Mathias heads for the world’s most famous wine tourism destination, Napa Valley, just north of San Francisco. We find in the valley there’s much more to sample than the wine. She visits St Helena Farmers Market, the classiest and probably the most expensive farmers market in the world. At Copia, the American Centre for Food, Wine & the Arts, there’s a garden filled with the scents of wine and exhibitions of food art.
Napa Valley is overrun with fine dining restaurants and among the best chefs is Ken Frank at La Toque. Be prepared to spend a fortune when you shop at Dean & Deluca. It’s a not-to-be-missed destination for food lovers with probably the world’s best selection of fine cheeses, state of the art kitchenware and wine. Schramsberg Winery is one of the original vineyards in the Valley. It dates back to 1862. Their method champenoise is world class and the wine is matured in two miles of caves housing up to 2 million bottles.
Episode 5: Chile
Chile is a four thousand kilometer string-bean of a country that follows the Andes from the deserts of the north to the glaciers of the south. In between there are thousands of valleys where life revolves around cattle, fruit and growing grapes. Chile’s culinary tradition has come about largely as a result of the encounters between two opposing cultures, the native Indians and the Spanish conquistadors.
Host Peta Mathias discovers Empanadas, the national dish that exemplifies the country’s Spanish foundation, explores the colourful restaurants of Santiago, and samples Café con Piernas, literally translated, coffee with legs at Santiago’s risqué coffee bars with their micro skirted (and less) coffee makers. At La Vega market he finds the staples of Chile, beans, corn and unusual fruits, prickly pears, pepinos and lucuma. Peta tries unusual seafood and cooking with chef Coco Pacheco. Kiwi winemaker Peter Mackey talks about the vast Chilean wine industry and hosts an asados, a Chilean style barbeque where a kilo of meat per person is the rule.
Episode 6: Hawaii
Hawaii was one of the first places in the world where Asian food fused with western. The Asian styles, particularly Japanese, blended with an American culinary heritage to produce the world’s first Asian/Western fusion style cuisine. Celebrated American chef Alan Wong tells the story of the Japanese, Portuguese, Chinese and Hawaiian roots of ‘Hawaiian Regional Food.’ Peta discovers seaweed farming, Kona Coffee, vanilla and a most unusual salad vegetable, the core of a palm tree, palm hearts.
Episode 7: Malaysia
We focus on the Chinese, Indian and Malay mix of cuisines. Peta catches up with an old friend, famous local TV and media chef, Chef Wan, friend of the royal family. She also samples tropical fruits, durian and others, and explores cooking with cloves
Episode 8: Vancouver and Vancouver Island
Vancouver is surrounded by water and mountains and is ‘breathtaking beautiful’. It’s also a glorious place to eat. Vancouver Island has seen dramatic resurgence in artisan producers and organic produce. In fact Vancouver is rated and one of the top ten cities of the world. Peta Mathias sets out to find out why.
Food journalist Nathan Fong guides Peta around Vancouver’s exceptional seafood and Asian styled cuisine. Vancouver has the 3rd biggest Chinatown in North America and its sushi is reputed to be the best in the world. Top chef is Tojo. His BC Roll, a smoked salmon California roll, has become famous along the western seaboard.
Granville Island Market is an oasis in the middle of downtown Vancouver. Centrepiece is the Public Market, an emporium of green grocers, butchers, bakers, fishmongers, importers, ethnic food sellers, sweet stands and eateries.
On Vancouver Island we visit Sooke Harbour House, a boutique lodge and one of America’s top ten restaurants. It’s become a centre for growers who supply superb artisan indigenous food. A lot of what is on the menu is foraged straight from the forest, the shore, or grown in the garden. There’s seaweed, edible garden flowers, and local shellfish.
Episode 9: Fiji
Fiji is the multicultural hub of the South Pacific and its food is a blend of ‘local’ or Fijian, Indian, Chinese and Western influences.
The Old Mill Restaurant Suva, is one of Suva’s long standing institutions where owner Mary Nelson’s been bringing Fiji’s races together to eat each other’s food. Peta discovers traditional highland Navuki style cooking on a bamboo wrapped open fire.
She visits Wainadoi Spice Gardens, the base for a nationwide network of small village farmers who grow organic spices.
Episode 10: Mexico - Festival in Oaxaca
It might be only an hour’s flight from Mexico City but the stunning old city of Oaxaca is a world away. Oaxaca is the gastronomic capital of Mexico and we visit when the town is in riotous festival mood . Little has changed foodwise for thousands of years. Chiles and squashes were grown as far back as 6500BC, corn as far back at 3500BC – these all remain key elements in the modern Mexican diet.
Peta Mathias visits Abastos Market, Mexico’s best market; tastes Oaxacan Cheese which looks a bit like a big ball of string; and Mezcal, a spirit that is distilled from the Agave plant.
Episode 11: Delhi and Rajasthan, India.
Peta Mathias travels to Delhi where she finds a spice market that nearly chokes you to death and in Rajasthan she discovers two very different cuisines, the simple food of the desert villages, camel milk yogurt and rotis, and in the magnificent palaces, the rich and elaborate food of the maharajas.
Episode 12: North Yorkshire, UK
Peta travels to Yorkshire where the simple act of serving Yorkshire pudding with gravy is a proud symbol of a distinct culinary heritage. Peta finds pork pies to die for, oak smoked kippers, Wensleydale Cheese and Swaledale heather fed lamb. Yorkshire folk are proud of their famous son, Captain James Cook, who, on his voyages around the world, never lost a man to the vitamin deficient disease, scurvy.
Episode 13: Western Australia
Peta travels to Western Australia’s Swan Valley and Margaret River where she finds traditional dessert grapes to die for, very classy wine, fruit wine vinegars, and heads up the Margaret River by canoe in search of bush tucker. Australian TV celebrity chef Ian Parmenter is her host.
Episode 14: North Western Crete, Greece.
Peta Mathias travels to Rythymno, North Western Crete where, if you make the effort, it’s easy to escape the burgers and souvlaki of rampant tourism and discover a world where the trilogy of Greece’s culinary tradition, -olive oil, wine and bread - remains intact.
Episode 15: Beijing, China
Peta travels to Beijing where she finds much more than Peking duck. There’s imperial cuisine, Mongolian hotpots, traditional dumplings and a restaurant that celebrates the revolutionary cuisine of Mao Zedung. Peta teams up with Kiwi Jade Gray who takes her to the traditional villages of the Great Wall to sample and cook traditional village fare.
Episode 16: New Orleans, USA
New Orleans has now picked up the pieces and started to rebuild its life of music, Mardi Gras and its culinary mix of French and black African soul food! Recorded just before the disastrous hurricane, this is a slice of New Orleans’s life that can never be quite the same again.