Omnivore

[DanaK]

Quote

Today, Apple TV+ announced the premiere date of the highly anticipated new documentary series "Omnivore" and provided a first look at the series, which is set to debut globally on July 19, 2024. Created and narrated by René Redzepi, the esteemed chef and co-owner of world-renowned restaurant Noma, "Omnivore" takes viewers on an immersive journey into the world of food, exploring the profound beauty and intricate complexities of the human experience through the lens of the key ingredients that connect us all.

Each episode of "Omnivore" celebrates the cultivation, transformation and consumption of eight of the world's most essential ingredients, including bananas, chilies, coffee, corn, pork, rice, salt and tuna, revealing how they serve as the cornerstones of global cultural heritage.

Full press release http://thefutoncritic.com/news/2024/06/06/apple-tvplus-announces-omnivore-created-and-narrated-by-chef-rene-redzepi-729113/20240606apple01/

[DanaK]

Trailer

 

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Besides Rene Redzipi, this show was created by Cary Fukunaga, who directed the first season of True Detective,and Matt Goulding, who was one of the producers of Bourdain’s Pars Unknown.

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Just based on the first episode on the pepper, it seems more like each episode will be a mini doc on ingredients which changed the world.

I didn't know peppers originated in the Amazon or that birds were immune to the spicy flavor, which is a defense mechanism to keep animals from eating them.

Humans took it over to other parts of the world.

The segment on the Serbian farmers growing peppers for paprika was interesting, these small farmers are a vanishing breed and it's doubtful that this kind of small-scale farming is sustainable, even if the kids want to do something other with their lives than continuing to farm them.

Only restaurants like Noma might spend the money to buy peppers and have them flown to them but a lot of high end restaurants grow their own vegetables and for such small volume use, it's okay to harvest by hand and prepare them.

I wouldn't have guessed that tabasco sauce production was so involved, plus 3 years of fermentation.  I think of hot sauce more as a condiment that you put on prepared foods, not something used by chefs for creation but then again, I'm not much of a cook.  It's true the hot sauces seem to have proliferated, see them at the stores, brands you never heard of.

Last segment, the staff at Noma suffering from having eaten peppers and then serving customers, offering them peppers and everyone is tearing and grimacing.

I like peppers but they're tough to digest and after a certain level of spiciness, I no longer taste them, just feel the burn.

This first episode looked great.  In addition to the usual food porn, they showed a lot of panoramic shots, like over the Amazon or over Bangkok.

 

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Second episode on tuna is an interesting insight into the global trade for tuna.

I'd never heard of Almadraba tuna until I visited Spain last year.  I've been on a poke kick because I figure it's more healthy than the jamon and various salumi that you find all over Europe.

Great stuff with loads of history and they're very popular, at wine bars to get a charcuterie plate with cheese and local wines.  But they're loaded with salt and it's not clear that the preservation techniques are any safer than the cold cuts you can get in the US, which are all full of nitrates.

I would never have guessed that poke would be competitive in Europe but I've seen them all over.  In the Spanish cities many poke places touted Almadraba tuna as the finest when it's actually the fishing technique of herding bluefin tuna into nets and then killing them and keeping them cold for transport to the other side of the world.

Very interesting to learn that the Phonicians first used almadraba nets near what is now Spain and then shipped them to the other end of the Mediterranean, in Greek tavernas.  Not exactly the same as air freighting them to Japan (with one goal to establish a lucrative air freight business for Japan Air Lines), but still surprising to learn that you had commercial fishing back then, shipping the catch hundreds of miles from where they were caught.

But we're talking about an ancient civilization which flourished between 1200 BC to about 332 BC according to Wikipedia.

In any event, tuna wasn't even in great demand until economic forces turned it into an international delicacy, starting in Japan and spreading through much of the West.

It was also interesting to see that the fishermen in Southern Spain just roast it in open fires rather than serve it crudo or raw as in sushi or in poke.

I didn't like canned tuna growing up, even though there were commercials all the time for "chicken of the sea."  Quite a bit difference in taste between sushi or poke tuna on the one hand and the tuna salad used for sandwiches.

Liked the underwater footage.  Guess they'll find a way to keep enough of the species alive to keep this international food ecosystem going.

 

He could have told an equally interesting story about salmon, another popular fish, also with a huge international market, about farm-raised vs. wild caught, etc.

 

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Finished it.  Each episode is about a globally-traded food commodity or ingredient as Rene calls it.

Really interesting that in the race to make a global food commodity, things like the pigs, corn and banana become monocultures, losing biodiversity as companies choose specific species and methods to grow certain species of crops or livestock like the pig.

So going against this tide of globalization are small farmers who try  to keep alive different species of rice, bananas or grow corn in the old ways, not behind some giant combine in Iowa.

Recurring theme is small farmers or producers trying to maintain the old ways of hand-grown crops and next generation who are well-educated and looked at some point in doing something else with their lives than to continue the family farm business.

But fathers often have big medical setbacks and their sons who trained to be doctors or engineers come back to take care of the father but also to continue growing bananas or producing jamon Iberico.

These agricultural traditions are dying and children often want to do something else with their lives but they're featured on this show because presumably, some high end restaurants like Noma use them as suppliers.

I don't know if I would visit Mexico to try authentic corn tortillas made by hand using customs passed down for generations but I might order some Rwandan specialty coffee, which they showed was entirely harvested and processed by hand.  Price are higher but the show and the roasters shown in the coffee episode assures us that they're giving the Rwandan coffee growers a much fairer deal.