Eating a Meal with the Other:
The Ethical Challenges of Travel Food Shows
The Travel Channel show No Reservations, starring the popular chef and
writer Anthony Bourdain, takes us around the world to explore the cultures and
cuisines of exotic locales. Through tours of everywhere from Vietnam to Paris
to the rural South, viewers are captivated by the fantasy of travel and new
experiences. The travel show is an increasingly common format, as indicated by
the viability of an entire basic cable channel devoted to travel. Such
programming is compelling to watch and often inspires its viewers to be good
consumers on many fronts—^they desire the food, the locale, the culture, the
adventure, to be theirs, and if they want it they just have to pay for it. But as
these shows move from the glitz and glamour of New York or Miami Beach into
underdeveloped countries like Malaysia, Argentina, or Ghana, ethical dilemmas
begin to arise. The unequal power dynamic between the white American
television crew and the individuals who are being interviewed is often troubling,
and the question of whether or not we actually want these communities to be
swamped by American tourists eager to experience “authentic” cultures and
cuisines is left unanswered. Using Anthony Bourdain’s show No Reservations as
my primary text, I examine the question of whether it is possible to have an
ethical travel food show, given these concerns among many others. I argue that
Bourdain’s postmodern, self-reflexive hosting style complicates what could
otherwise be seen as a colonialist intrusion into third-world countries for the
sake of a marketable program that appeals to US viewers. Yet it is important that
we continue to ask what is gained by the production of such shows, and if those
benefits outweigh the negative impact that they may have on their subjects.
The show No Reservations premiered in 2005 on the Travel Channel, and is
now in its fifth season. The show’s host, Anthony Bourdain, is an extremely
popular American chef and author of both fiction and nonfiction books about
food and professional cooking. In his most popular book. Kitchen Confidential,
Bourdain developed his acerbic writing style, describing the restaurant industry
in graphic and somewhat profane language; he is known for his testosteronedriven adventures in drinking, drugs, and sexual exploits—all in the kitchen. No
Reservations starts with Bourdain announcing “I write, I travel, I e a t. . . and I’m
hungry for more” before trekking off to places like Uzbekistan, New Zealand,
Puerto Rico, India and Namibia. On occasion the show will stay in the U.S. to
focus on the cuisine of a city like South Carolina, Cleveland, or New York, but
in general, the focus is on international travel.
It is important to investigate travel shows like this one because of the
ideologies that they propagate about what it means to travel, as well as how one
ought to conceive of and interact with native populations. As Jaworski et. al
argue in their exploration of British tourism programs: