Well she ain’t no Stanley Tucci.
It was obviously a hard act to follow. The Tucci series was first and foremost about the food with a Tucci as a genial Maine d’. . . Longoria sadly is all about her.
Some of the food and kitchens are interesting, but she comes across as neither knowledgeable nor genuine. She gets in the way of what could have been a very good program.
Agree that Tucci is better, but Somebody Feed Phil is better than either, and funnier to boot.
Totally agree.
Miss his parents; you understood where his humor came from.
Tucci is back though.
Stanley Tucci returns to Italy with National Geographic series and vows to ‘go more in depth’
https://apnews.com/article/stanley-tucci-italy-6181c7c29f863ca014fca1c6e8d2f24c
Eva is in France now and doing an admirable job. I’ve watched the episodes on Bordeaux and Burgundy and she’s getting some red carpet treatment visiting the likes of Chateau Palmer & Angelus in Bordeaux and Domaine Dujac and Chateau du Clos de Vougeot in Burgundy. Some of her other visits are great i.e. the one to the snail farmer.
Will have to circle back and watch the first few episodes particularly the one from Provence.
Agreed; a vast improvement over her Spanish program. She seems far more relaxed in France, and although there is a certain amount of gushing, not as off putting, and the show is the better for it. Still no Tucci, but the gap is narrowing.
Longoria serves Vega Sicilia Unico as their “house red wine”.
Spain episodes were just okay. Wanted to not like it because I was butt hurt over Tucci. She seems to be a honest good human. The laugh though… LOL
France has been better. She knows france very well, she lived there and her ex husband was French, Tony Parker the former basketball player. I have a classic story about them when we flew on the same flight to LAX after their honeymoon but I digress.
BTW new Tucci season 2 starts on May 13th on NatGeo
I kinds of like her better than Tucci when it comes to loving and appreciating wine and food culture particularly with the France episodes. Tucci has some great episodes don’t get me wrong but you could see him almost recoil when it came to drinking red wines, whereas Longoria is head over heels in love with the reds and she’s animated when it comes to food. Tucci much more reserved by nature, Longoria much more animated and getting better with the writing. Neither of them will ever be Bourdain but they don’t need to be.
Bourdain was brilliant when he voiced over the writing, but get him at a dinner table, was istrangely incapable of saying anything other than good or great. But once he left the table, his programs were a joy.
That’s a great summary of Bourdain! I felt it was much more of a cultural travel show with food being the binder. In hindsight, I prefer that style as opposed to someone giving me tasting notes. Keep it broad and teach me about the history and culture of the place and food.