Jonathan Zhang

I was quite skeptical when watching the first episode, thinking it might just be another culinary show with tons of drama thrown in as I would hate to watch these established chefs being utterly unprofessional in their skills and behavior. Even worse if said drama was intentionally created as a 'feature' of the show. But instead, I was surprised to find the show has a great focus on the background and culture behind both the food and chefs, and drama is almost non-existent throughout the entire season. The respect between everyone involved in this show is heartwarming, the sheer amount of content focusing on both the cultural and technical aspect of the food and cooking is fantastic. Does it make the show 'bland'? Perhaps, but i'm sure you will find no shortage of shows featuring drama as a bonus out there, and this is a wholesome show i can recommend if you are watching a cooking show for the food around the world and a wholesome cast of competitors. While the chefs, food and culture side of the show is fantastic and i would love to see more, there are something i want to point out about the structure/rules of the competition itself if there is another season coming. I understand the respect for the judge's decision as they are all very well-regarded pioneers of the food industry, but as it stands, being awarded the best dish of the day does not give the competitor any real advantage other than not having to cook again in that round (but so does majority of the competitors), and they can very likely being asked to cook again and potentially go home all together in the next destination. I understand from a producer point of view this is done to give everyone the same amount/chance of screen time, ('losing' in the first round giving you more screen-time in that stop) but if there's anything the producer wish to do to spice up the 2nd season, i would go from here rather than other aspects like drama. I would also like to see the possibility of shifting the focus on fine dining/creative food to more common food that everyone have access to.