You Need to Watch: Mind of a Chef

bryson in Food & Drink

4/27/15

[updated: 1/5/21]

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I stumbled upon Mind of a Chef on PBS one saturday after my usual ritual of This Old House and Woodrights shop and completely fell in love. If you haven’t yet, I highly recommend you add the first and second season to your Netflix list and binge watch the heck out of it.

Instead of the usual Food Network style cooking show where a chef presents the items he/she will cook that day, Mind of a Chef (MOAC) picks a topic and allows the chef to expound on it however they please.

Whether it’s Sean Brock (of Husk and McCrady’s) making traditional southern chicken and dumplins with his mom:

or Chef David Chang turning Instant Ramen into gnocci, MOAC lets the chefs explore whatever they want.

As a full-time creative designer I absolutely love this show. It’s a look into another side of a creative industry. Instead of photoshop and photography, there’s food, pots, pans and a lot of bacon. It also teaches you to experience food as a creative experience, like a live concert or dance recital. This show has moved me from complaining on Yelp about a restaurant’s tiny entrees to understanding that it’s a dance, choreographed by an artist in an apron with an eye for delicious detail.

Here’s a break down (with some highlight videos) from the last three seasons:

Season 1: Chef David Chang of Momofuku