Immigrant cuisine shines in ‘No Passport Required’
America’s melting pot: Explore the food and culture of the Ethopian community in Washington, D.C., in the finale episode of “No Passport Required” on Tuesday, Aug. 14, on PBS. Follow chef Marcus Samuelsson as he enjoys Ethiopian staples kifto, a steak tartare-like dish, and injera, a sourdough flatbread and the national dish of Ethiopia. Chef Samuelsson celebrates Ethiopian culture through dance and a traditional coffee ceremony, guided by members of the vibrant Ethiopian community in America’s capital.
Samuelsson traveled across America for “No Passport Required” to learn from the diverse immigrant communities that have woven their traditions and cuisine into American culture. An immigrant himself, Ethiopian-born Samuelsson was raised in Sweden and began his career in America with an apprenticeship with New York’s Restaurant Aquavit in 1994. The chef knows firsthand the impact that food can have in bridging barriers and bringing people together, and “No Passport Required” is a celebration of the best of America and its people, as well as a lesson in coming together and learning from each other. Samuelsson told “Food and Wine” that, for the show, “we went to Chicago for Mexican culture, Queens for Guyana, D.C. for Ethiopia and Arab in Detroit. Once you’ve eaten food from another culture, it’s not as strange, it’s not as far away.”
PBS is no stranger to food television, having been the home network of America’s first celebrity chef, Julia Child, in the 1960s. The iconic chef transformed the kitchens of a generation of home cooks with “The French Chef” with her charming, relatable demeanor and classic recipes, and ushered in a boom of cooking television that’s continued to this day. Bouncing off of the success of premiering “The Great British Baking Show” to American audiences, PBS is carving out a new space for its food-centric programming.
Beth Hoppe, former chief programming executive and general manager of general audience programming at PBS, told the Hollywood Reporter that the network is “trying to move food into prime time,” adding that it does “a lot in the how-to genre, but to get into prime time it has to be bigger than that. [’No Passport Required’] is a great way into culture and cultural identity.”
Catch the final episode of “No Passport Required” on Tuesday, Aug. 14, on PBS.
It’s a match: A new episode of MTV’s experimental dating show “Are You the One?” airs Wednesday, Aug. 15. The seventh season of the dating reality TV series sends 22 singles to Hawaii to meet their matches — with a twist. Matchmakers and psychologists have come together to create 11 perfect pairs, leaving contestants in the dark to determine who their match is once they get to paradise. If all of the couples find each other, they split a $1 million prize.
This season, subtitled “Season of Fate,” introduces a new challenge in the form of the Fat Button, a new addition to the show. It’s a device that determines who will be going on dates and who will have their perfect matches revealed to them in the Truth Booth.
Watch some romantic hopefuls search for love in the latest episode of “Are You the One?” on Wednesday, Aug. 15, on MTV.
Kids having kids: TLC’s exploration of the lives of teen parents continues with a new episode of “Unexpected” on Sunday, Aug. 12. The families and loved ones of teenagers who are initially unprepared for parenthood step in to help with the baby’s arrival.
The journeys of young mothers Lexus and McKayla continue from where they left off at the end of the first season of “Unexpected,” and three new soon-to-be parents join the show in season 2. Teen couples Laura and Tylor, Chloe and Max, and Emiley and Diego each have due dates on the horizon. The couples work on balancing their own young love, the stresses of their blending families and the responsibilities of being young adults with the new challenge of becoming young parents.
In addition to birthing plans, the teens of “Unexpected” have to make some tough decisions for their changing lives, including where they will live, whether they’ll stay in school and if they can stay together and consider marriage. In a sneak peek at the second season, TLC revealed that the fathers of the unborn babies will be instigating drama and disagreements with each of the pregnant mothers’ parents, adding even more tension to the trying time for the families.
“Unexpected” marks a resurgence in popularity of the reality TV teen parent genre, following the return of the original “Teen Mom” cast for MTV’s “Teen Mom OG,” with the addition of Bristol Palin, daughter of former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin, to its upcoming season. Fascination with young parenthood has evidently returned in full force.
See the young parents prepare for their new arrivals in the next episode of “Unexpected,” airing Sunday, Aug. 12, on TLC.