CONFUCIUS WAS A FOODIE Season 2


#201 "Salt"

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Salty is one of the Chinese five flavors and Chef Cushing gains a new appreciation as she not only cooks with it, but harvests it from the sea in a setting of stunning beauty in Thailand.

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Most salt in Asia is produced through the evaporation of seawater in coastal areas. This episode sees Christine learning firsthand the very challenging ‘how to’ of harvesting sea salt in Thailand’s dramatically beautiful salt fields. Cushing visits the area’s most unusual market that is regularly disrupted by the Maeklong Railway going right through its center! She cooks alongside chefs preserving traditional Chinese cuisine in Bangkok, and at Singapore’s oldest Chinese restaurant, Spring Court, Christine discovers Singapore Chinese cuisine and meets with culinary legend; Madam Soon.

#202 "Tea:​ Culture, Celebration, Commerce and Cuisine"

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Chef Christine starts her tea adventure in London, England, where she learns why Westerners think of England when they think of tea, even though it’s one of the most important Chinese exports and essential to all Chinese celebrations.

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The story of tea starts in China, where legend has it that tea was discovered through leaves accidently falling into boiling water, and continues all the way to the traditional Chinese wedding tea ceremony and the political intrigues of the American Revolution.

Christine brings along celebrity chef Anna Olson​ as they climb to the mountain tea farms of
Taiwan and learn the ropes of tea wrangling. Then the chefs visit the home of the original bubble tea, where they get insider tricks and tips for creating the perfect concoction.

In Hong Kong, with tea expert ​Vivian Mak,​ Christine is taken through every step of the brewing process as well as through the streets to visit some of the oldest tea merchants in the city. And with ​Sarah Rose​, author of ​For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World’s Favorite Drink and Changed History​, Christine learns of the early tea adventures of Robert Fortune and the part he played in the convoluted history of tea. Chef Christine and her guests and experts put together the story of tea; more than just a ceremony, it is an art and a science, a celebratory drink, and even a medicine!

#203 "Huaiyang"

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Classically trained chef Christine Cushing doesn’t need to be convinced that food is art, but even with descriptions and explanations from her mentor chefs and her own research Huaiyang cuisine is a mystery; albeit one well worth exploring!

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Chef Cushing discovers that Huaiyang cuisine is historically connected to poets and scholars, and demands meticulous knife skills and elaborate presentations. The cuisine appears to be a personification of the teachings of Confucius. The creative presentation of skillfully combined ingredients expresses the four most important elements in the art of Chinese cooking: color, aroma, flavor and texture. All of this is incredibly enticing, so why, then, is Huaiyang cuisine so little enjoyed or understood in North America?

#204 "The Origin of ‘Cuisine’"

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When did cooking become cuisine? Was it in the Confucius Mansion 2,500 years ago, and is Chinese cuisine really the biggest, the most expressive, and the most complex cuisine on the planet?

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Is Chinese cuisine, with its Confucian structure, really the origin of the world’s great cuisines? Christine challenges top chefs in France, England, Italy, Greece, the US, and Canada. Working with academics, chefs, food historians, and experts, Chef Cushing really sticks her neck out as she ventures into high profile kitchens, searching for connections and roots that might trace back to Confucius. Christine’s journey takes her to some of the most important culinary schools in the world, including Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and Alma Culinary Center in Parma, Italy. Significant and thought-provoking, this journey leads us to a deeper appreciation of our global connection to our stories, our cultures, our traditions, and how they are connected through food. We look at our world, it's ethnicities and its races, through a foodie filter.

#205 "Bitter"

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Who wants something bitter? Chinese cuisines do. In every meal the use of bitter provides balance, and as Chef Christine discovers there is something to love in the flavor in drinks in Hong Kong and Bangkok, but she reserves judgment on the bitter fruit Durian in Malaysia.

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The taste of Chinese medicinal herbs, bitter flavor is said to clear "heat", strengthen the stomach, and promote salivation. Bitterness in often found in Chinese cooking, but rarely used alone. Christine cooks a popular local bitter ingredient with Asian Food TV star Ili Sulaiman in Kuala Lumpur and makes a less than delicious visit to a Traditional Chinese Medicine shop, experiencing firsthand the power of bitter herbs. Christine is presented with a Chinese philosophy around bitter and learns how this philosophy applies to keeping Chinese heritage alive in Malaysia. The Chinese concept of “in bitter there is sweetness” is applied to immigration and restoration as Christine makes a memorial visit to Penang island where she meets the engaging and eccentric hotelier, Christopher Ong.

#206 "Shandong"

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The oldest and, in fact, the cuisine of Confucius, Shandong leaves Chef Christine Cushing wondering until she plans a banquet with her mentor chefs and invites guest celebrity chefs to join her.

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Christine’s first experience with Shandong food, it turns out, was years ago when she had Peking duck for the first time! She had no idea that she was experiencing Shandong cuisine at the time and neither do most North Americans. In California, with Food blogger Kristie Hang, Christine discovers steamed buns and a garlic sauce that is treasured by some, but feared by others. Christine learns that street food like this is sometimes the best place to start when experiencing a new cuisine. The oldest of the cuisines and, with its roots in dishes served to royalty, Shandong is the cuisine of Confucius. Chef Christine marvels at the cuisine and wonders what prevents Westerners from getting to know this style and why they can’t identify it as a separate and distinct Chinese cuisine? Her search culminates in a hands-on experience with her mentor chefs and an impressive guest list of professional foodies enjoying a Shandong banquet.