The BEST episodes of A Cook's Tour
Every episode of A Cook's Tour ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of A Cook's Tour!
The #1 food writer and television host in the world, Anthony Bourdain reinvented the food travel genre. In his groundbreaking first series, Bourdain travels around the world indulging his taste for local cuisine and eccentric characters.
#1 - San Sebastian: A Food Lover's Town
Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 7/5/2002
In San Sebastian, Spain, Tony explores the food-crazed Basque culture. Tony's guide, Chef Luis Irizar, takes Tony into the exclusively male underworld of Basque gastronomic societies. Later, Tony explores the tapas bars that reflect the city's finest example of everyday Basque delights.
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#2 - A Taste of Tokyo
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/8/2002
Tony travels to Tokyo where he discovers a radically new cooking attitude with a delicate respect for ingredients. He begins in the Tsujiki market, Tokyo's largest fresh fish market. and then is introduced to the sophisticated techniques involved in preparing edomae sushi. Finally, Tony is introduced to the hefty, yes sophisticated, culinary diets of Sumo wrestlers.
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#3 - Stuffed Like a Pig
Season 1 - Episode 10 - Aired 7/8/2002
Visiting his boss's family farm in Portugal, Tony helps slaughter and feast on a pig the family has been fattening all year. Having had enough pork, Tony heads to France to experience the rich delights of a foie gras farm. Finally, Tony revisits Arcachon with his brother Chris, where he attempts to devour a veal's head.
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#4 - Wild Delicacies
Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 1/22/2002
With a friend along for the ride, Tony travels to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where he explores a food culture that is both pleasing to the palette and slightly frightening. Scouring the local outdoor market for delicacies, they experience a sensory overload, finding everything from deep-fried crickets to flourescent Jello-like substances and steaming containers of tripe and tongues.
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#5 - Eating on the Mekong
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/15/2002
Tony soaks up the intoxicating beauty upriver of Ho Chi Minh City as he samples the wares of the Cai Rang floating market. Further upriver, Tony shares laughs, sings, and drinks a lot of Mekong moonshine with the welcoming owners of a duck farm. Although thoroughly seduced by his Vietnam experience, Tony is not sure the royal dish "Bird's Nest Soup" is all it's cracked up to be.
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#6 - Dining with Geishas
Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/12/2002
Moving on from Tokyo, Tony decides to look for a more relaxing, traditional Japanese culinary experience in the countryside. Aboard the ultra fast Shinkansan bullet train, Tony travels to an old-style Japanese inn that specializes in kaiseki cuisine, ancient tea ceremony, and local ingredients served by women in traditional geisha attire.
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#8 - A Pleasing Palate
Season 1 - Episode 22 - Aired 4/20/2002
Tony lands in London on a mission to dispel the myth that all English food is disgusting and over-boiled. Trying Nose to Tail Eating, Tony enjoys a meal of kid liver salad, whole roasted pig head, grilled ox heart, and breaded pigtails. Tony also explores traditional fare at Pie and Mash Shoppes and then visits a predominantly Indian community and indulges in a home-cooked London Punjab meal.
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#9 - Childhood Flavors
Season 1 - Episode 9 - Aired 1/29/2002
Arcachon, the birthplace of Tony's father, is where Bourdain first learned to love food as a child. Returning for a trip down memory lane, Tony enjoys childhood staples, including steak frites, gaufres (waffles), soupe de pecheur (fisherman's soup) and fresh oysters. Tony's sentimental journey ends with French bread and garlic sausage-a simple tribute to his father.
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#10 - Traditional Tastes
Season 1 - Episode 12 - Aired 5/7/2002
Tony is invited to experience the culinary heart and distinct walled medinas (districts) of the Moroccan city Fes. Tony's meals revolve around the family's home kitchen, where the cooks show Tony the preparation of the region's most beloved dishes such as pigeon bastilla, cous-cous with steamed vegetables, and a variety of exquisite salads.
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#11 - MY Hometown Favorites
Season 1 - Episode 19 - Aired 4/23/2002
Passionate about his city, Tony gives us an intimate tour of the New York City foods he knows and loves-sturgeon and bagels, fluke ceviche, pan-seared foie gras, braised veal cheek, authentic cheese and, of course, a hotdog at Papaya King Frankfurters and Juices.
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#12 - The Cook Who Came In From the Cold
Season 1 - Episode 13 - Aired 2/19/2002
Tony plays spy in Russia when he receives instructions to seek out a man holding a torn newspaper in front of St. Isaac's Cathedral. Once contact is made, Tony and his new partner (Zamir Gotta) set off to locate the best blinis and borscht St. Petersburg has to offer, but first the two spies enjoy a country lunch of pickled salads and braised reindeer. Tony concludes his mission with a trip to St. Petersburg Market and a hearty home cooked meal of borscht, meat filled dumplings and large amounts of vodka.
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#14 - Elements of a Great Bar
Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 3/21/2003
Join Tony on his quest to characterize the perfect bar. With him, discover the importance of a "maniacal bartender", the proper chemical makeup of drinks, the joys of seedy dive-bars and the need for late night snacks.
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#15 - Puebla, Where the Good Cooks Are From
Season 1 - Episode 16 - Aired 2/12/2002
According to Tony, the best line cooks in NYC come from Mexico, and with this in mind, he travels to the Puebla, the heartland of Mexican cuisine, and enjoys numerous mole sauces, toasted ant eggs, fried worms, and the legendary pulque (a slightly hallucinogenic drink made from cactus sap).
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#16 - Tamales and Iguana, Oaxacan Style
Season 1 - Episode 15 - Aired 4/2/2002
Chef Tony Bourdain explores the exotic and colorful indigenous zone of Mexico's Oaxaca region. Here he tastes toasted grasshoppers, tripe soup and a local red-oil sausage, while observing the making of the regional variation on tamales. His adventure ends with dinner on the street, mariachi music and, of course, lost of tequila.
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#17 - Highland Grub
Season 1 - Episode 21 - Aired 7/12/2002
Adventuring to the outer reaches of the United Kingdom, Tony insists that Scotland is a place of extraordinary cuisine. Beginning in Glasgow, Tony experiences the heart-clogging glory of a deep fried pizza, deep fried mars bars, deep fried pickled eggs, and deed fried everything! Moving on to more traditional fare, Tony tastes a classic haggis and learns to hunt and fish for his food.
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#18 - Cod Crazy
Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 6/17/2002
Portuguese cuisine holds a dear place in Tony's culinary heart. Not only is it the first type of food he learned to love as a young chef, but his boss, Jose Meirelles, hails from Portugal. With Jose, Tony travels to Porto, home of the famous Port wine, where he is immediately exposed to the codfish and the almost mythical place it holds in Portuguese cuisine and culture.
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#19 - Eating on the Edge of Nowhere
Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 3/26/2002
Taking his obsession with the film Apocalypse Now a little too seriously, Tony sets out of Pailin-reputed to be one of the most dangerous towns on earth. On his journey, Tony experiences nameless waterways, landmine infested roads, unwelcomed guests, and road side delicacies. Arriving in Pailin, Tony realizes the city may be much different than he imagines. After completing his journey in Cambodia, Tony returns to Japan to reacquaint himself with civilization.
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#20 - So Much Vodka, So Little Time
Season 1 - Episode 14 - Aired 4/16/2002
Tony continues his mission in Russia with a tour of local working class specialities. The first stop is the frozen Neva River, where he tries his hand at ice-fishing-an exercise in stamina and vodka drinking. Following the workout, Tony feasts on Russian foods, including the rare koulibiak, a baked fish pie formerly eaten by the Czars. After so much food and vodka, Tony takes a break at a Russian bath. He steams, eats smoked fish and ends the outing with a dip in the outdoor cold pool.
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#21 - The Struggle for the Soul of America
Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 3/28/2003
Tony travels to the grain belt capitol, Minneapolis, to inspect the conflict between creative independent operators and generic franchises. Beginning in the food nightmare within the Mall of America, Tony vows to find good cuisine within the city.
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#23 - Cobra Heart-Food That Makes You Manly
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 3/19/2002
After taking a cyclo ride through Ho Chi Minh City and trying various foods from roadside vendors and markets, Tony enjoys a unique dining atmosphere where sizzling hot rice cakes fly overhead. Later, Tony tests his might with a few shots of snake wine and a live cobra heart.
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#24 - Desert Feast
Season 1 - Episode 11 - Aired 3/5/2002
Chef Tony Bourdain arrives in Morocco with a mission: to eat a roasted sheep in the desert. As Tony journeys through the Sahara, he observes the slaughtering of a sheep, eats meat pies with blue-robed Berber men, rides a camel and, finally, experiences the flavors of mud-oven-roasted sheep.
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