Streaming offers a feast of Italian food knowledge
As winter drags on, getting away to a gastronomic paradise like Italy has a lot of appeal. And for those who want to and can’t, a number of upcoming and current offerings can show what it’s all about.
Few know the territory as well as Giada De Laurentiis. As host of her discovery+ series “Giada in Italy,” the Rome-born chef and author brings her family on the vacation of a lifetime in Florence, where she prepares authentic recipes in an outdoor kitchen overlooking the city. It also serves as a base from which to embark on culinary adventures in places such as Sorrento, Milan, Positano and the island of Capri.
In “Bobby and Giada in Italy,” also streaming on discovery+, De Laurentiis serves as a local guide for fellow chef and Food Network personality Bobby Flay for foodie adventures in the “Bel Paese.” The show follows the pair as they spend a month in
Rome and Tuscany, getting inspired by the history and traditions of Italian cuisine and enjoying la dolce vita. If this doesn’t make you want to book a flight across the Atlantic, nothing will.
But those are merely appetizers for the volume of Italian food knowledge that can be had on streaming. So consider the following the main course, dessert and after-dinner aperitif.
“Gino’s Italian Escape” (Tubi): Italian chef and TV personality Gino D’Acampo (“Gordon, Gino & Fred’s Road Trip”) is your host for this culinary odyssey through his home country, in which he discovers the secrets of Italian cuisine in places ranging from coastal villages to major cities like Rome and Naples.
“A Taste of Italy” (Acorn TV, Spectrum): British chef Nisha Katona takes viewers to locations throughout the country to discover the culinary gems hidden there. Among the locales she visits are Orvieto, the Umbrian village where she tries her hand at drunk chicken; Livorno, the Tuscan port town where she makes fish stew with white wine and fennel; and Catania, where she samples tuna sausage and swordfish parmigiana.
“Finding Little Italy” (Pluto): Similarly, this British series eschews the big cities like Rome and Venice for what it calls “the real Italy,” the little towns and villages that have a long history of culinary mastery. So climb aboard host Luke Darracott’s Vespa for a trek to places like Liguria, Toscana, Lazio, Umbria and Emilia.