Why guidebooks are still a thing
Star of You Gotta Eat Here! takes readers on a tour of Canada in new travel book
John Catucci wants you to know just how gigantic Canada is.
Known for his on-camera restaurant visits as host of the Food Network’s You Gotta Eat Here!, Catucci also directs readers to some non-food-related stops in his new travel guide, You Gotta Go Here! (Harper Collins).
The book was co-written with Canmore, Alta.-based Michael Vlessides and points readers toward almost 400 places to explore in Canada (mostly) and around the world.
In his hometown of Toronto, Catucci met with the Star near the Toronto Music Garden, a spots he calls a “harmonious collaboration between nature and music,” which he thinks everyone should probably check out. Early in the book you make an apology to Canada. Tell me about that.
I guess you always think about travel abroad, right? You don’t think of really going across this beautiful country of ours. Our country is so big, and it’s kind of expensive to travel across. So when you have a chance to fly to Europe for the same price as it would cost you to fly to Vancouver, you have to decide, what’s your goal there?
For the longest time I had never been out of Ontario, the occasional going to Quebec, going to Montreal. But just how huge Ontario is, you don’t really grasp that. You can drive for a day and change and still be in the province. You do that in Europe and you are in six different countries. So that’s pretty cool, seeing that.
So, it’s just that idea of apologizing to the nation as a whole that I should have been travelling a lot sooner across it. So, if I see a flight to Paris that’s a couple hundred bucks and is cheaper than flying to Vancouver, what’s your pitch to stay here?
Well, the dollar. You don’t need a passport. I think there is such diversity in the country itself, just the way that it looks and the way that it feels that it would be a shame if you didn’t see that for yourself. This is a guidebook, essentially. How do you see that fitting into people’s lives in 2017?
I think there is still something about holding a book in your hands and flipping through it, and maybe you’ve marked it or put little notes on each page and stuff like that. There’s something unique and something that’s yours that is kind of special about it.
Yeah, you can look at your phone, I do it as well when I’m in a new town, but I guess there is something more intimate about the book. Plus, all the stories I’m telling you about myself and the trips and stuff like that. And it’s good looking, I think they did a really nice job on it. With restaurants, and with food, when you are picking a place that will be in this book — how much are you thinking about food, the experience, the service?
For me, restaurants are never just about food. It is the whole experience, it is the vibe, it’s the ambience.
And service is always important. I think I realized how important service was from doing the show. And how a great meal can be ruined by s----y service and how a mediocre meal can be saved by great service. That changes everything. Is there a guidebook you travel with?
My last time in Italy with my wife, I think it was a Lonely Planet guidebook that we used. There was something exciting about spending those couple of weeks prior to the trip flipping through the book and going, “OK, this is a place I want to go.”
I think that’s why I like having ( You Gotta Go Here!) in my hands. It just reminded me of that excitement of the prior trip and being in the airport and flipping through it, going “OK, did we get this?” “I have to have this specific sandwich at this place, and it’s only open from 12 to 12:30 and you can’t look at the guy in eyes.” That’s what I love. Who do you think is going to be picking up this book?
I think it’s for everybody. I think it’s for people who really love the show and want to go to the restaurants we covered on the show. I think it’s for people who want to take road trips across this beautiful country. What about for people who haven’t seen your show?
I think it’ll be interesting, because I think they’re going to see it and think, “Ah, it’s just going to be a travel book.” But, really a mix of both, it’s like a hybrid of both of those — the restaurant review books and travel books. But just suggestions of where to go smash food into your face . . . if anything, it helps draw them to show as well.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.