How did I subsist on the seven TV channels we had when I was a kid? When we said “There’s nothing on,” it was almost literally true. Now there are not only endless channels but the internet has brought an explosion of media on seemingly any subject. So it became a running joke in my family when our kids would say, “There’s nothing on.”
And yet I get it: A profusion of choices does not guarantee quality. Being selective can almost make the available options manageable.
I love food and cooking, so I tend to consume a lot in those areas. At Wine Spectator, we work on the assumption that wine and food go hand-in-hand, so we cover their intersection. For the more avid and curious food lovers among you, there is an excellent new show—something different within the crowded chef category.
Omnivore on Apple TV+ is produced by renowned Danish chef René Redzepi, of the celebrated destination restaurant Noma in Denmark, and Matt Goulding, who is primarily a cookbook author. Though Redzepi's fame provides the excuse for the series, Omnivore very thoughtfully puts ingredients ahead of the chef. The production is very indulgent, with segments in far-flung and sometimes obscure locations.
The subjects for the first series are chiles, salt, tuna, bananas, pigs, rice, coffee and corn. The structure of each of the eight episodes is basically the same, showing the thing at origin, then one or two segments on its production or processing, and then its end use, which is typically in a restaurant.
The first episode gives a brief history of chiles’ origin and how they were brought to new regions, then visits a town in Serbia where peppers are picked and strung up by hand to be dried and ground into paprika. Next comes Avery Island, La., where Tabasco is still made as it was in 1868, when it was first released. (This part may be especially fascinating to wine lovers since the hot sauce is barrel aged.) Then it’s off to Bangkok to ride along with a husband-and-wife chef team as they ride around in a tuk-tuk eating progressively hotter food.
Then it’s back to Noma, where Redzepi ruminates a bit on why chiles are so compelling. At staff meeting before service, he presents a bowl of chiles that he has grown in the greenhouse. He tells the staff that he wants to offer them to guests at dinner, and that they weigh in at around 800,000 Scoville units, the unit by which chile heat is measured. (A jalapeño runs 5,000 to 8,000 SU.) Then he reminds them that he likes them to taste everything served at the restaurant to improve diners’ experience, and offers them each a whole pepper. He and many servers then eat one, and the resulting weeping and sweating is just theater of cruelty.
I was watching on my laptop on the couch while wearing headphones, and my horrified reaction to this scene (hands to my face, half-shouting “Oh no, don’t do it—that is sick!”) made my wife think I was watching live footage from a war zone. Now in fairness, Redzepi did say they didn’t have to eat the peppers, and he ate one, but you know the dynamic. To have your world-famous boss offer you something that will likely cause you great pain and possibly illness on camera is manipulative and verging on sadistic.
That is the only really objectionable moment though.
The main thing to know is that the show is gorgeous and takes you to places you’ve probably never seen through a food lens. Redzepi is not front and center; this is not one of those shows driven by a personality. He generally introduces and closes each show and otherwise mostly is present in voiceover. In the post-Bourdain epoch, it is nice to see people not trying to copy him while still covering Bourdainish subjects and places. (Goulding was a partner with Bourdain in a website and published a few books under his imprint.) The style overall is elegant documentary: The establishing shot may be a gorgeous drone’s-eye view over a forest at dawn, but the show does not shy away from real people too.
And it is not all just good news and deliciousness. There are some deftly handled political stories here. History buffs will like the episode with a segment on the exploitive side of the banana trade. I especially liked the salt episode, showing how this primordial ingredient has been used through time and around the world. Occasionally, there's real levity: During the height of pain in the chile scene, they show a brief clip from the famous chile cookoff episode of the The Simpsons.
Omnivore is not comprehensive; it’s not a master class in each subject. It is a beautiful, evocative show where really knowledgeable, passionate people take cameras to interesting places and help the people there tell their story. I think that is very honorable.
