The WORST episodes of The Mind of a Chef
Every episode of The Mind of a Chef ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst 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 - Mentor
Season 6 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/14/2017
Danny has been to China several times, but he’s visited Chengdu (the geographical and spiritual capital of Szechuan food) only once. He’s returning here to reconnect with the place, the food and the person – renowned chef Yu Bo – that have influenced him the most. Szechuan food has been the greatest source of inspiration for Danny, and consequently his life. This episode is about the dishes, cooking methods, unique flavors and stories (both his and Yu Bo’s) that have driven Danny on a quest to master this style of food.
#5 - Sea/Salt
Season 2 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/29/2013
Focus on April’s love of the sea, which is deep and fully realized.
#6 - Curry
Season 2 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/6/2013
Explore the origins of curry and England’s versions of this historic cuisine.
#7 - Italian
Season 2 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/6/2013
Explore April Bloomfield’s deep love for Italian cuisine and its influence on her cooking.
#8 - Leftovers
Season 2 - Episode 15 - Aired 12/20/2013
This episode aims to prove that nasty bits have been given a bad rap and deserve to be on the kitchen table along with meatloaf and mashed potatoes. In the kitchen, April cooks faggots, bubble and squeak and pig parts; Fergus Henderson works his offal magic on kidneys.
#9 - Prune
Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/5/2015
With every chipped plate and hand-written to-do list, Gabrielle Hamilton’s “presence” is all over her NYC restaurant, Prune.
#10 - Fire
Season 4 - Episode 9 - Aired 10/31/2015
Things can change in an instant, as David discovered in July of 2014, when he got a fateful call that his restaurant Manresa had burned nearly to the ground.
#11 - Ocean
Season 4 - Episode 11 - Aired 11/14/2015
Nothing is more calming or inspiring than the sea, and living in Santa Cruz, David is never far from one of his many muses.
#12 - Balance
Season 4 - Episode 13 - Aired 11/28/2015
For Chef David Kinch, balance in life is as important as balance in a dish. And seeking that balance means walking away form the bustle of the line and demands of running the restaurant.
#13 - Restrictions
Season 4 - Episode 14 - Aired 12/5/2015
Diners these days can be pickier than ever, and they seem to have no problem telling a chef how to do his or her job. Allergies, self-diagnosed sensitivities and customer “dislikes” have become the bane of several chefs’ existence.
#14 - LudoBird
Season 5 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/22/2016
How does a chef trained in the finest kitchens of France translate his haute cuisine to fast food? Ludo’s obsession with a perfectly cooked bird can be traced back to France, where he learned to roast chicken, and his love for the American classic was solidified when he ate at KFC for the first time.
#15 - Le Végétale
Season 5 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/12/2016
Today’s chef reveres his gardener as much as his butcher. Ludo explores the vegetables, gardens, and memories he uses to cook some of his dishes.
#16 - Joie De Vivre
Season 5 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/19/2016
The demands of a celebrity chef, especially one that runs three vibrant restaurants and a fried chicken franchise, are rigorous. When Ludo needs to escape the chaos, he heads to the lilting and poetic world of Paris in the spring, where the emphasis is placed on the joy and fun of life.
#17 - Tous Au Bistro
Season 5 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/26/2016
A bistro is typically defined by its modesty – they are relatively small, affordable and humble. With Petit Trois, Ludo’s has brought the spirit of the bistro to Los Angeles. In this episode, Ludo brings us back to Paris to introduce us to some of the people and places that first inspired him to begin a culinary career.
#18 - LudoBites
Season 5 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/11/2016
Ludo began his US career cooking at Los Angeles restaurant Bastide, but after it closed for renovations he opted not to return and instead chose to do things his way. Borrowing a friend’s bakery space, Ludo created a unique dining experience in the form of small, reservations-only, “chef’s choice” dinners that became known as LudoBites.
#19 - Genesis
Season 6 - Episode 1 - Aired 11/14/2017
Nobody gets a say in the life they’re born into. Thrust into a body, a family, a country and a history, the story of our lives are merely the sum of an endless combination of circumstantial factors determining who we will know, how we will fare, who we will become. But for those adopted, their origins are complicated as the where they were born fuses with the world in which they’re raised. Danny Bowien was born in Korea but only spent the first 3 months of his infant life there. He was adopted and raised by American parents in Oklahoma — religious, hard-working folks – and instead of a life in Seoul, Danny grows up in suburban middle-America. Adapting to this life was easy, for it was all he knew, but he constantly carried traces of his past with him, superficially and also buried deep below.
#20 - Threshold
Season 6 - Episode 2 - Aired 11/14/2017
Danny spends the bulk of his time obsessing over the future – there is urgency in him that needs to be on top of everything, ahead of every trend, aware of what lies beyond the curve. But it would be impossible to know where he’s going without first examining where he came from, and from where that drive was borne. Once he committed to leaving Oklahoma, Danny emerged in San Francisco as a human tabula rasa, open to all of the experiences the city laid before him. It was here that Danny formed who he was as a person and as a chef, and the grassroots movement of Mission Street Food blossomed into what is now his greatest success.
#21 - Strawberry
Season 4 - Episode 12 - Aired 11/21/2015
A dish is only as good as its ingredients, but an ingredient can also be manipulated in many ways. In this episode, David focuses his attention to the strawberry, at the height of its season during production, to celebrate the summer favorite.
#22 - Bourbon
Season 3 - Episode 8 - Aired 10/25/2014
What is bourbon? A whiskey, sure, but what makes bourbon the classic American spirit, and why is it so closely associated with Kentucky? Chef Ed Lee and his band of merry men and women, including whiskey patriarch Julian Van Winkle, Matt Jamie from Bourbon and Barrel Foods, chef Paul Qui, and special guest and bourbon-lover Aisha Tyler, set out to distill this prized and often misunderstood liquor down to its many parts and enjoy it both in the glass and on the plate.
#23 - Winter
Season 3 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/1/2014
Over generations, preservation techniques developed to help humans cope with the scarcity of the season. The adherence to seasonality at Fäviken means that these techniques are maintained and the restaurant can continue serving food throughout the barren months. This episode explores the ways that the Scandinavian people have survived winter through the practice of preservation and aging.
#24 - Legends
Season 5 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/8/2016
It takes a great chef to make a great chef. This episode is all about paying homage to the greatest culinary minds in the world. Fergus Henderson, Eric Ripert, Pascal Barbot and more spend some quality time cooking with our alumni.
Watch Now:Apple TV#25 - Multiverse
Season 6 - Episode 8 - Aired 12/18/2017
What would have happened if Danny never left Oklahoma, or was not adopted at all? Instead of looking at life as a series of “what ifs,” the lens of the multiverse allows us to see a reality with infinite possibilities and infinite selves. In this, Danny is still an orphan, and is not an orphan, he opens a Chinese bakery, he grows up in Korea, and he is even a puppet.