The BEST episodes of The Mind of a Chef
Every episode of The Mind of a Chef ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of The Mind of a Chef!
The Mind of a Chef combines travel, cooking, history, science, and humor into an unforgettable journey. Producer and narrator Anthony Bourdain explores the creative processes of international celebrity chefs to learn what fuels their culinary artistry.
#1 - Documentation
Season 3 - Episode 15 - Aired 12/13/2014
Outside of running the kitchen at Fäviken, Chef Magnus Nilsson researches Nordic traditions that are rarely documented. He travels throughout the region, meeting people whose lives are tied to the past. This episode examines Chef Nilsson’s motivation to document and preserve cultural heritage through the lens of photography as he visits the Faroe Islands.
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#2 - France
Season 3 - Episode 12 - Aired 11/22/2014
As a young cook, Magnus Nilsson found himself living in France and looking for a job. Undeterred by a lack of job offers, he eventually convinced Paris chef Pascal Barbot of l’Astrance to give him a shot. Once there, Magnus saw the possibilities of cooking open up in front of him. He was introduced to new techniques and flavors, but the most valuable lesson he learned was how to care for ingredients. This episode explores Magnus’s time in France and visits with the people and places that had a profound impact on his cooking philosophy.
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#3 - Fäviken
Season 3 - Episode 16 - Aired 12/20/2014
This episode explores a day in the life of Chef Magnus Nilsson as he and the staff at Fäviken prepare for a night of service. We follow Magnus from the early morning when he forages for spruce branches for his scallop dish, through the heat of service when every detail is timed-out. At the end of the night, we understand how and why the experience at Fäviken is meticulously choreographed and executed.
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#4 - Argentina
Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/20/2014
Fire is the most elemental part of a kitchen – without it, food would simply be eaten, never “cooked.” And yet in the post-Nouvelle-Cuisine age, food and fire have become distant from one another. Ed Lee travels to Argentina to visit Francis Mallmann, the country’s most esteemed chef and the godfather of open-flame cooking, on his private island nestled in the foothills of the Andes. While on La Isla for three days, Francis and Ed create a feast that reunites the simplest – and arguably the best – ingredients and cooking techniques. Armed with fire, smoke, meat and salt, Ed relishes in this once-in-a-lifetime experience.
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#5 - Traditions
Season 3 - Episode 13 - Aired 11/29/2014
Before moving to France to learn about cooking professionally, Chef Magnus Nilsson’s main culinary influences were his mother, aunt, and grandparents. They cooked traditional dishes for family dinners while Magnus observed. When he returned from France to begin working at Fäviken, the influence of traditional Swedish cooking remained. In this episode, we examine how the bonds of tradition help to forge the identities of families and individuals.
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#6 - Spring
Season 3 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/8/2014
After a long winter, the arrival of spring awakens the delicate flavors of young herbs. The sun remains perched in the sky until midnight, the temperature climbs, and life returns to the once snow-covered landscape. This episode takes advantage of this brief window of time to explore the ingredients of spring in Sweden.
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#7 - Locality
Season 3 - Episode 14 - Aired 12/6/2014
Chef Magnus Nilsson depends on his network of local purveyors to keep the restaurant supplied. Because everything is sourced in a 100-mile radius, the seasons play a big part in availability. As a result, the needs and supply constantly shift between the restaurant and purveyor, but their close relationship ensures that diners are never left hungry. This episode examines the connection to locality that Chef Nilsson views as a staple of his cooking philosophy.
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#8 - Creation
Season 3 - Episode 11 - Aired 11/15/2014
When Chef Nilsson develops a dish at Fäviken, he pays careful attention to the unique properties of an ingredient. Through research and recipe testing, the components of a dish are combined with the aim of preserving their natural quintessence. “The Creation of a Dish” follows the life cycle of an ingredient as it transforms from an idea into a dish at his restaurant.
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#9 - Impermanence
Season 3 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/18/2014
The more things change… the more they continue to change. So much of cooking, writing, art and music is based on what came before. First there was meat. Then there was fire. Then came sous-vide. Chef Ed Lee dissects the evolution of a dish and the public’s changing tastes. The ephemeral is explored in multiple disciplines, from graffiti to eel terrine, while Ed tries his hand at cooking alternative meats (like alligator); enjoys a recipe that has stood the test of time, Maw Maw’s Ravioli from Hog & Hominy’s Andrew Ticer and Michael Hudman; and creates a quickly-disappearing dim sum dish with Stuart Brioza, as he looks toward the future of the food chain.
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#10 - Kentucky
Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/4/2014
The Bluegrass State offers so much more than just mint juleps and the Kentucky Derby, with a rich culinary history that rivals that of America’s more well-known food destinations. A few ingredients come to Chef Ed Lee’s mind when he thinks about his adopted state: country ham, sorghum and smoke. Ed visits Nancy Newsom, still making her family’s ham with their century-old recipe, with Southern food historian and Atlanta chef Linton Hopkins. Then it’s off to Owensboro with homegrown chef (and local celebrity) Ouita Michel, to make a dish featuring two more local ingredients: smoke and spoonbill caviar. Yes, caviar from Kentucky. And finally, Ed places Kentucky’s most prized crop – sorghum – on a pedestal and creates a decadent ice cream with the viscous, sweet, earthy amber syrup.
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#11 - Latitude
Season 3 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/11/2014
Chef Ed Lee has always fought with the idea of fusion, instead viewing it as combining the food of different cultures and letting the borders disappear. In many ways, cooking with southern ingredients feels like second nature to Ed, and for good reason–South Korea and Kentucky both lay along the same latitudinal line. The 38th parallel also spans Southern Spain and Italy, San Francisco, and generous portions of the American South. A similar terroir translates into some interesting crossing of cultures for chefs like Ed, as well as State Bird Provisions’ Stuart Brioza, who prepares a salad inspired by San Francisco and the Mediterranean, and Hog & Hominy’s Andrew Ticer and Michael Hudman, who cook Memphis favorites imbued with Calabrian family traditions.Ed collaborates with Andy Ricker on a pancake that ties together the influences of China, Korea and Kentucky.
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#12 - Louisville
Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired 9/27/2014
Chef Ed Lee got his start in NYC but now calls Louisville home, and home is where the heart is. Ed discusses how living and working in Louisville has inspired, influenced, and changed him over the past decade–Louisville is where he gently placed aside his classic French technique and decided to do something all his own. Working with chef Kevin Ashworth from Ed’s restaurant Milkwood, the chefs experiment with farmers market finds and we get a view into how a new dish is created. Ed then delves into Louisville’s fried chicken scene and cooks up his own version along with North Carolina chef Ashley Christensen. Finally, honoring the woman who kept him in Louisville in the first place, Ed uses the city’s German heritage as inspiration to cook hasenpfeffer for his wife, Dianne.
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#13 - American
Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/13/2014
American cuisine has come to be known as much more than just burgers and hot dogs. Ed Lee and Pok Pok’s Andy Ricker head to Sunset Park – Brooklyn’s Chinatown – for some exotic ingredients, then head to the kitchen to make Jop Chai, a Thai stew. Ed plays with some local by-catch in that most American of cities, Houston, Texas, with chefs Chris Shepherd and Paul Qui, making a crispy fish fresh from the gulf and Filipino kinilaw. A sweat-inducing crawfish dinner in a Vietnamese joint exemplifies how Creole, Cajun, Mexican, and Asian flavors blend together with the gulf’s bounty, effectively creating an entirely new American Cuisine.
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#14 - NYC Origin
Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/6/2014
Chef Ed Lee returns to his roots in East Brooklyn, where as a Korean kid in New York, he was surrounded by an eclectic mix of cultures and cuisines that inspired how he cooks today. Spending time with other chefs that have roots in one cuisine but have veered away from their assumed culinary paths, Ed explores the meaning of origin in the city where his life and career began. Ed and Ivan Orkin stop by one of the city’s oldest “appetizing” stores and head back to the kitchen to cook their versions of American cuisine (Japanese-Jewish and Korean-Southern). Alex Stupak shows why a white kid from Boston should be cooking Mexican, and Ed pays a visit to his mom in New Jersey for a lesson on how to cook Korean comfort food.
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#15 - Low Country BBQ
Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/17/2013
Host Sean Brock prepares an outdoor feast on a friend's farm, where he's joined by barbecue pitmaster Rodney Scott, who roasts a whole pig; and Steven Satterfield, who makes Savannah red rice. Brock also prepares frogmore stew
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#17 - Strip Malls
Season 5 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/29/2016
Trois Mec and Petit Trois can be found side-by-side in a Hollywood strip mall, nestled between a dry cleaners and a Yum Yum donut. Ludo’s restaurants and the dishes he creates for them embody the cultural mash-up and high/low flair that is the strip mall philosophy.
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#18 - Rice
Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/19/2013
The resurrection of Carolina gold rice, which disappeared following the Civil War era, is examined. Included: making pilaf and Hoppin' John fritters. Also: Louisiana chef Donald Link makes jambalaya; and Senegalese chef Fati Ly makes pilau.
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#19 - Noodlin'
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 11/9/2012
Author and Chef David Chang visits a noodle factory in Japan; eats the best bowl of ramen in his life; and, cooks two incredible dishes with the instant ramen variety. Food scientist Harold McGee explains how alkaline salts make ramen noodles unique.
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