A Feast for the Senses
watch this: fall deeper in love with food
From the moment I saw the trailer for Antoni Porowski’s new NatGeo food-inspired docu-series, No Taste Like Home, I knew in my bones I would love it.
Before sharing my passion for film & TV in this Substack newsletter, what I wrote about the most was food. My former food blog, After the Harvest, was a place for me to share recipes and wine pairings, publish interviews with chefs, write about sustainable food choices, and publish stories about how food is a common thread that connects us all. In more recent years, I wrote for a Toronto-based food and wine website, where I contributed a column called “Food is Everything”. P.S. — I plan to continue writing about food, so if you’re interested in food-related content, stay tuned and follow me on Instagram for updates!
No Taste Like Home invites viewers to join host Antoni Porowski (otherwise known as the food and wine expert from Queer Eye) as he guides his celebrity guests through their countries of origin to help them understand and connect to their culinary roots. It’s a fantastic show for anyone who loves food and travel, and it has an added element of interest with the exploration of the guests’ genealogy. This feel-good series might inspire you to ask yourself what you truly love to eat, and to wonder if there’s a deeper meaning behind why you love it that goes back generations and is tied to the terroir where your family began.
Because of my mom’s passion for geneaology and her work researching and writing our family’s stories, I’ve been lucky to learn more about my own roots and think about my own culinary DNA. So, with that, the food and travel aspect, and Antoni as host, it was an easy decision to watch No Taste Like Home.
I’ll admit, since the pandemic (and in this economy), I’ve been less creative in the kitchen and rarely dining out. But, I’m happy to report that recently, my passion for food has reignited, and to help this along, I decided to watch more food-inspired series and films.
So, please enjoy this week’s recommendations for when you’re ready to fall deeper in love with food and reawaken your senses.
NO TASTE LIKE HOME
I’ve never met Antoni Porowski, but from everything I’ve seen and read about him, it’s pretty clear he’s a romantic. I mean this in the Romantic Era way — I love how he freely shares his appreciation for art, design, travel, languages, fashion, beauty, and most of all, food.
If you’ve seen him as the culinary expert on an episode of Queer Eye, you’ve likely noticed that his eyes light up and his smile goes wide when he’s talking about food. His passion for food is palpable, and I can’t help but laugh each time he pulls something out of a hero’s fridge and inhales deeply to smell it, regardless of whether it’s pleasant or pungent.
I was a fan of the first iteration of Queer Eye (Bravo’s Queer Eye for the Straight Guy), so I was excited for the reboot, and it took no time for me to fall in love with the show, and with Antoni — a handsome, sensitive, fellow Canadian who loves food? Say no more.
In his new series, No Taste Like Home (2025), Porowski takes his passion for food global, traveling with six celebrity guests to trace their culinary roots and connect their favourite family recipes to dishes and ingredients that are indigenous to their ancestral lands. The series is a feast for the eyes, with wide shots of gorgeous vistas and close-ups of soul-satisfying food. Each episode celebrates the power of food and its ability to go beyond borders, languages, and connect us with our families, past and present. It will make you laugh, cry, and feel curious about your family’s connection to food.
Porowski is a friendly, knowledgeable, and respectful guide as he allows each guest’s story to unfold. The celebrities featured in Season 1 are all actors: Florence Pugh, Awkwafina, Justin Theroux, James Marsden, Issa Rae, and Henry Golding. The chemistry between Antoni and his real-life friend, actor Justin Theroux, is charming as they travel through Italy in search of the origin of Theroux’s family recipe, tortellini en brodo. I wanted to jump through my screen to slurp oysters with Antoni and Florence Pugh in the seaside town of Whitby, England, and I couldn’t contain my tears when Awkwafina connected to her late mother and her Korean roots through food. This series is full of food and feelings.
It’s also entertaining, and true to its NatGeo form, educational. No Taste Like Home had me thinking of where I might go first if I took a food trip guided by my ancestry. With Italy in my DNA, I can’t think of a better place to start, but I would also look forward to delicious Irish cheeses and a spot of Devonshire cream tea in England.
Where to Stream: Disney+
Fun Facts:
Porowski is multi-lingual. A child of Polish immigrants who spent part of his upbringing in Montreal, he’s fluent in English, Polish, and French; the latter came in handy when he met Issa Rae’s relatives in Senegal.
When asked who he would like to travel with if the series is renewed, Antoni told Variety that he’d love to take Martha Stewart to their shared motherland, Poland.
THE TASTE OF THINGS
If you’ve ever cried from happiness after tasting food, this movie is for you.
I first learned about The Taste of Things (2023) when one of my favourite internet boyfriends actors, Andrew Garfield, brought it up in a press interview for a movie in which his costar, Florence Pugh, plays a chef —We Live in Time. He described it as “heavenly and sumptuous”. I added it to my watchlist immediately.
Directed by Anh Hung Tran and loosely based on Marcel Rouff’s 1961 novel The Passionate Epicure, this French film stars Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel, and tells the story of a 19th Century gourmand named Dodin and his talented in-house chef Eugénie. The two live together in the French countryside, and they spend their days cooking elaborate meals for Dodin and his gentlemen friends.
The first thing you’ll notice about this film is that for the first 30 minutes or so, not a word is spoken. What you hear instead are the sounds of cooking: the fire being lit, butter sizzling in a pan, eggs being whisked, etc., as you watch Dodin and Eugénie move through the kitchen, perfectly in sync.
The Taste of Things is about so much more than food, but the cooking and dining scenes may inspire you to dream up your next dinner party menu, research French wines, or even plan a trip to the South of France. The natural colour palette and the warm, dramatic lighting in the film are both gorgeous, and the costumes, interiors, and farm-to-table ingredients bring you right into Dodin and Eugénie’s world, which was the same era in which the famous, highly influential chef Georges Auguste Escoffier lived.
Perhaps one of the most beautiful food films I’ve ever seen, The Taste of Things is worth watching, and it will deepen your love of food, or spark your culinary curiosity if you’re not already obsessed.
I have to share a tiny spoiler in the form of a question that is asked in the film, which is perhaps one of the most romantic questions that a food lover could be asked: “May I watch you eat?” (Swoon!)
Where to Stream: Crave
Fun Facts:
You may have noticed that the two lead actors in the film (Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel) have great chemistry. Of course, they’re both great actors, but it might also be because they were married to each other from 1998-2003.
Director Anh Hung Tran previously made another food-inspired film, The Scent of the Green Papaya (1993).
MORE FOOD LOVE
If you’re looking for more films and TV series that will make you fall in love with food or reignite your passion for all things culinary, here’s a list of recommendations, which, incidentally, features many episodes of the beautifully shot series Chef’s Table:
Chef’s Table (Netflix) — I haven’t watched every season yet, but so far, my favourite episodes are: Season 1, Episode 3 (Francis Mallmann); Season 2, Episode 3 (Dominique Crenn); Season 2, Episode 5 (Ana Ros).
Chef’s Table: Pizza (Netflix) — Pizza is life. It’s impossible to pick a favourite episode of this season of Chef’s Table — they are all so amazing.
Chef’s Table: Legends (Netflix) — I loved the Jamie Oliver and José Andrés episodes the most. Each of these chefs’ stories is proof that one person can use their creativity and their passion for food to inspire others and make a huge impact on the world.
The Final Table (Netflix) — If food competition shows are your thing, this is a very good one that features chefs from all over the world.
Ratatouille (Disney+) — Honestly, one of my favourite food movies.
Chef (Amazon Prime) — A feel-good film about food and family.
EVEN MORE FOOD LOVE:
BEFORE YOU GO…A QUESTION:
If you could take a culinary trip to a place where your ancestors came from, where would you go and what would you eat? I’d love to hear your answers! Please share in the comments — or if you’re using the app, restack this post with a quote to share your answer!
Happy watching, cooking, and eating!
~Heather
Internet boyfriend lol. I hate to disagree but I was underwhelmed by a few of Antoni’s episodes. Maybe I need to re-watch but only Florence and James interested me. And as we have the same DNA/genealogy my answers about food in Italy, Ireland and England is the same. I think we should plan a sister foodie tour!