Best Travel Food Shows to Inspire Your Next Adventure
Food is one of the best ways to get to know a place. A bustling market, a family-run café or a dish shared around a crowded table can reveal as much about a destination as its famous landmarks. The best travel food shows bring these experiences into our homes, combining memorable meals with stories about the people, traditions and landscapes behind them.
Whether you enjoy lively street-food tours, thoughtful documentaries or relaxed culinary adventures, these shows are well worth adding to your watchlist.
Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown
Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown is an acclaimed choice for viewers who want more than a guide to what to eat. Bourdain travelled widely, meeting local cooks, artists and residents while exploring the history and politics that shape a region’s food. Its thoughtful approach makes it as much a series about people and place as it is about cuisine.
Best for: Curious viewers who enjoy culture, conversation and food with a deeper story.
Somebody Feed Phil
In Somebody Feed Phil, Phil Rosenthal travels the world with infectious enthusiasm, sampling local dishes and meeting the people who make them. The show is warm, playful and easy to watch, with a genuine interest in the traditions and personalities behind each meal.
Best for: A cheerful, feel-good watch that celebrates food and human connection.
Street Food
Netflix’s Street Food series shines a spotlight on the cooks and vendors who feed their communities. Each episode explores a city through its street-food culture, with personal stories at the heart of the journey. From long-standing family recipes to ambitious new ideas, the series shows how much character can be found in a simple meal served at a stall.
Best for: Viewers interested in local food traditions and the people who keep them alive.
Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy
Actor Stanley Tucci explores Italy through its regional food, travelling from one part of the country to another to discover how history, geography and local ingredients shape what appears on the plate. The series is an inviting introduction to Italy’s culinary variety—and a tempting reminder that Italian food is far more than one familiar menu.
Best for: Italian food lovers and travellers planning a culinary trip.
Rick Stein’s travel series
Rick Stein has spent decades combining travel, cooking and cultural discovery on screen. Across his series, he visits destinations around the world, meeting local cooks and exploring the dishes that define a place. His calm, knowledgeable style makes the programmes both entertaining and useful for anyone keen to understand the ingredients and traditions behind regional cooking.
Best for: Viewers who enjoy relaxed travel, practical cooking and plenty of local context.
The Hairy Bikers’ travel series
The Hairy Bikers bring humour and down-to-earth curiosity to their food and travel programmes. Their adventures often combine road trips, local encounters and generous helpings of regional cooking. The result is an approachable look at the food people make and eat in different parts of the world.
Best for: A light-hearted mix of travel, cooking and easy-going company.
A Cook’s Tour
One of Anthony Bourdain’s earlier series, A Cook’s Tour follows the chef as he searches for memorable meals across different countries. It has a looser, more spontaneous feel than some later food documentaries, offering a snapshot of Bourdain’s early travels and his appetite for unfamiliar dishes.
Best for: Fans of food adventures with an informal, exploratory spirit.
The Mind of a Chef
The Mind of a Chef takes a closer look at the ideas, techniques and influences that shape chefs’ cooking. While it is not exclusively a travel series, its episodes often connect food to places, ingredients and culinary cultures around the world. It is an excellent choice for viewers who want to understand the thinking behind a dish as well as how it tastes.
Best for: Food enthusiasts keen to explore cooking techniques and culinary inspiration.
How to choose your next food-travel watch
The right show depends on what you want from your viewing. For personal stories and social context, try Parts Unknown or Street Food. For an upbeat escape, Somebody Feed Phil is a natural choice. If you are looking for destination inspiration closer to home, Rick Stein and the Hairy Bikers offer plenty of travel and regional cooking to explore.
Availability varies between streaming services and regions, so check your usual platforms before settling in. Whichever show you choose, expect new flavours, unexpected stories and, quite possibly, a sudden urge to plan a trip around your next meal.
Top 9 Travel Food Shows to Satisfy Your Wanderlust and Appetite
- Watch *Somebody Feed Phil* for cheerful food-led city trips.
- Try *Anthony Bourdain
- Explore regional Italian cooking with *Stanley Tucci
- See vibrant street-food scenes in Netflix’s *Street Food*.
- Follow Rick Stein’s culinary travels in *Rick Stein’s Long Weekends*.
- Discover local dishes across Britain with *The Hairy Bikers’ Food Tour of Britain*.
- Watch *Taste the Nation* for US food and immigrant stories.
- Join *Gordon Ramsay
- Pick *A Cook Abroad* for chefs retracing food journeys around the world.
Watch *Somebody Feed Phil* for cheerful food-led city trips.
For a cheerful escape, watch Somebody Feed Phil. Phil Rosenthal explores cities around the world through their food, meeting local cooks and residents along the way. His warm, curious approach makes each trip feel welcoming and fun, while the tempting dishes offer plenty of inspiration for your own travels.
Try *Anthony Bourdain
Try Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown for a thoughtful take on food and travel. As he visits destinations around the world, Bourdain explores local dishes alongside the people, traditions and histories behind them. It’s an absorbing choice if you want more than restaurant recommendations and enjoy seeing how food connects with everyday life.
Explore regional Italian cooking with *Stanley Tucci
Explore regional Italian cooking with Stanley Tucci in Searching for Italy. Travelling from region to region, Tucci discovers how local ingredients, history and traditions shape each area’s distinctive dishes. It’s an appetising introduction to Italy’s culinary diversity—and may inspire you to plan a trip around the food.
See vibrant street-food scenes in Netflix’s *Street Food*.
For a vivid taste of local life, watch Netflix’s Street Food. The series explores bustling food stalls and markets around the world, celebrating the vendors, family traditions and local flavours behind each dish. It’s an appetising way to discover how street food reflects a city’s character—and may leave you planning your next trip around what to eat.
Follow Rick Stein’s culinary travels in *Rick Stein’s Long Weekends*.
Follow Rick Stein’s culinary travels in Rick Stein’s Long Weekends, as he explores European cities through their markets, cafés and restaurants. With his relaxed style and curiosity about local traditions, Stein serves up plenty of food inspiration alongside ideas for your next city break.
Discover local dishes across Britain with *The Hairy Bikers’ Food Tour of Britain*.
Discover Britain’s regional flavours with The Hairy Bikers’ Food Tour of Britain. Si and Dave travel across the country to explore local specialities, meet the people who make them and uncover the stories behind beloved dishes. It’s an appetising mix of travel, food and good humour—and a great way to find inspiration for your next British getaway.
Watch *Taste the Nation* for US food and immigrant stories.
Watch Taste the Nation for a fresh perspective on food and identity across the United States. Presenter Padma Lakshmi travels to meet communities whose culinary traditions reflect the country’s rich immigrant and Indigenous histories, exploring the stories behind familiar dishes and lesser-known regional specialities. It’s an engaging choice for viewers who want their food travel shows to offer cultural insight as well as inspiration for what to eat.
Join *Gordon Ramsay
Join Gordon Ramsay on Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted, as he travels to remarkable destinations to discover local ingredients, cooking traditions and the people who keep them alive. From learning new techniques from regional experts to creating a dish inspired by each place, the series is an exciting pick for anyone who enjoys bold flavours, adventurous travel and a little friendly competition.
Pick *A Cook Abroad* for chefs retracing food journeys around the world.
Choose A Cook Abroad for a chef-led journey through the food and culinary traditions of destinations around the world. As chefs retrace influential food journeys, the series explores local ingredients, cooking techniques and the stories behind regional dishes, offering plenty of inspiration for curious travellers and food lovers alike.