‘Eater’s Guide To The World’ Is The Love Letter To Restaurants We All Need To Watch Right Now

In the age of COVID, everything is effed. But restaurants are more effed than many of us. With the window closing on outdoor dining in many parts of the US, restaurants — fancy, un-fancy, and in-between — face a grim and uncertain future. Eater’s Guide to the World, streaming on Hulu and hosted by SNL‘s VP-elect Maya Rudolph, reminds us of how important a meal in a restaurant can be, not just for the belly, but for the soul.

EGTTW ranges from Seattle to Morocco, and is likely to evoke comparisons to other globetrotting travel shows, especially the late and lamented Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations, and more recently, Samin Nosrat’s Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat.A crucial difference here is that this show is much less focused on the host. Rudolph’s narration is voicey and irreverent, but she provides her commentary via voiceover, and does not appear on camera. This choice opens up more space for the people who are cooking and eating the food, which allows EGTTW to say and do more in a more diverse array of voices than a show like Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, where host’s personality can overwhelm the featured food like tarragon in a vinaigrette.

There are seven episodes in the first season, focused on the Pacific Northwest, Casablanca, New York City, Costa Rica, Los Angles, Tijuana, and food around major American airports, including Atlanta and JFK. One of the wrinkles that sets EGTTW from its predecessors is a theme that is not just a locale for many of the episodes. For Portland and Seattle, the theme is dining alone (which rules, and if you don’t believe me, ask MFK Fisher); for New York, the theme is meals eaten at the ass crack of dawn, and for Los Angeles, an especially timely theme of eating on the hood of your car. These episodes are also the ones set in the US, rather than abroad, and they tend to be more interesting than the episodes focusing on foreign countries, which can feel a little too anthropological. At a time when a pandemic has disrupted just about every aspect of food culture, EGGTTW‘s focus on how we eat, as well as where we eat, is really compelling.

Another strength of EGGTW is the way it moves effortlessly from street food to high-end dining, without making a big deal. Good food is good food, even if you eat it standing up. In the Before Times, I was lucky enough to have the elaborate tasting menu at Dan Barber‘s Stone Barns. The next morning, I had fresh mozzarella and prosciutto on a roll after I dropped my nieces off at school. I still think about that roll. In the Tijuana episode of EGGTW, for example, the camera moves effortlessly from Baja Omakase, offering a 12-course sushi tasting menu, to David, selling ceviche from a street cart.

Across the food world, questions of race and representation have been at the forefront in 2020. These conversations have been especially urgent around questions of who appears on camera, and what food appears on camera, as we all rely more and more on vicarious video experiences of food. One of the real strengths of EGTTW is that by subtracting the presence of the on-camera host, we hear directly from the people who are the subject of the show in the first place. Allowing food truck empress Mirta Rodriguez of Mariscos Reuben in Tijuana or Goldie from the ATL-adjacent Clermont Lounge to speak directly to us pushes the episodes more in the direction of a documentary, with something of the feel of a food documentary classic like Les Blank’s Always For Pleasure.

Pushing in the other direction is, well, Maya Rudolph. Her irreverent and hungry narration keeps the content from feeling too academic or anthropological. At the same time, instead of watching Tony, or Guy, or Samin enjoy culinary wonders, it feels as if Maya is on the couch with us, wishing we could be where that amazing meal is. In ordinary times, this feeling of longing comes with the territory of watching food shows – unless you have the means to hop in the G4 and head to that spot in Tulum you just saw on TV. In COVID times, this longing is much more intense, as so many crucial dining places are off the table, either forever, or for an indefinite future. Having a host who yearns along with us makes the whole thing easier to enjoy, and maybe a little bit sadder, all at the same time.

The weeks ahead will be difficult on any number of levels. Many of us won’t get to see loved ones this holiday season. Even if we could gather safely, there would be empty seats at many holiday tables. Like restaurants, our nation faces a frightening and uncertain future. Take a breather. Order takeout from your favorite local place while you can, tip generously, and cruise through a few episodes of Eater’s Guide to the World.

Jonathan Beecher Field was born in New England, educated in the Midwest, and teaches in the South. He Tweets professionally as @ThatJBF, and unprofessionally as @TheGurglingCod. He also sometimes writes for Avidly and Common-Place.

Watch Eater's Guide To The World on Hulu