A Cooks Tour (TV Series) Season 1 Episode 1 Tour of Tokyo
This episode started it all, the man we fell in love with started here. You can see someone who shies away from the camera, someone who had been in the back for his entire life. This helps him come across as authentic, something that is nice to see from the beginning but something we come to find out later is true. This episode was centered around a sushi chef making authentic sushi and the process around making it in Japan. From what I’ve read about Anthony I assume that this is the first time he has been to Tokyo and you could see it on his face. He said it perfectly later in life when travelling to Vietnam saying, “I came here and it stole my heart.” The fish market was awesome to see him smile and curious about everything. You could tell he wanted to be back buying for his restaurant, still wanting to work in the kitchen at heart. They then go back the sushi kitchen and learn how to make the sushi or at least let us look at them make it (I won’t be rolling sushi anytime soon). We then see the two guides and Tony sitting at a traditional table and being served the sushi. After the meal, premium Sake is served by the Chef himself, an important piece of the dining experience showing the friendship between people it is poured among. We then transition to Sumo wrestling, an art as much as it is a sport with us seeing a sumo group train, listening to how they live, and trying to peek in at what they cook in the house but are denied swiftly. A restaurant is in order and after being denied in the pursuit of learning the sumo diet, tony ends up at a sumo wrestler style meal restaurant. Tony and his guides share a hot pot like soup in the middle, exchanging stories and overall seem to have a great time. The ingredients very basic, but the conversation carrying the dinner and making it about more than the food. What was most interesting is the food was quality but the wrestlers ate large quantities, giving them their mass instead of eating low quality foods.