Street Food
Asia
The first installment of Chef's Table creators' sidewalk counterpart, trading white linen for plastic stools in Bangkok, Osaka, Delhi, Yogyakarta, Seoul and Ho Chi Minh City. Each half-hour episode finds a vendor whose life's work distills a neighborhood, a family and a country into a single unforgettable dish.
Press
“Netflix’s Street Food is even better than its sibling Chef’s Table…it manages to retain the best qualities of its predecessor while also breaking new ground. Each episode focuses on one chef who rose to culinary stardom by cooking highly personal cuisine, while also zooming out to show how they fit into a greater food scene along with other local vendors. Some moments of the show are heartbreaking, while others are so uplifting, you might find yourself hovering a few inches above the ground.”
“The spirit of Anthony Bourdain is alive and well in these episodes…all that’s missing is the late, great host himself. But it takes nothing away from the subjects featured, whose long-overdue close-up will make you laugh, cry, and appreciate your local street vendor that much more.”
“Food shows will never be the same again anyway, thanks to exemplary nine-part Netflix documentary series Street Food, which celebrates – you guessed it – some of the most evocative and irresistible dishes available on Asian road, avenue and byway.”
“Street Food makes often invisible lives more visible…It celebrates these chefs’ work and their skill, and it doesn’t pretend that their lives have been easy or that their pain has somehow made their food better…Watch Street Food for all the usual reasons you watch travel food shows. Watch to learn about cuisines you don’t know, and to have some escapist food fantasies, and to appreciate the craft of unbelievably skilled chefs. But don’t be surprised if you come away from the show with a sense that, more than many food documentaries, this one is about things other than food — income inequality, desperation, demonstrations of will, and making food because you love it, but also because you need to work to survive.”
“When I jotted my initial 5-star review in my notes for this show, I hesitated. Am I really going to give a food show five stars? After I thought about it more, I realized the problem was with this reviewer and not the show. If a television show moves you to tears with its artistry, it deserves praise…this series adds a sharp sociopolitical sensibility that makes for one of the most compelling food shows ever made. Street Food avoids feeling touristy, or worse, engaging in poverty porn, by allowing chefs to tell their stories in their own words. The camera never condescends to the chefs, but instead empowers them.”