Here is a reason to keep PBS on the air. Professional pithy sourpuss Anthony Bourdain is narrating a new show called "The Mind of A Chef." The first season, which premieres November 9, will center around Momofuku's David Chang.
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From the preview video below, it looks like a combination between a live action issue of Lucky Peach, a travel show and a standard cooking show. And looking at the season summary it sounds like each episode will follow this formula: Chang goes somewhere interesting, sees something cool, eats something unusual and then show the audience how he makes one of his signature dishes.
Amusingly, the series is rated TV-G and suitable for general audiences. That's a testament to the production company, which must have performed some minor acts of editing magic to sanitize Bourdain and Chang's normally 'colorful' speech. In addition to Chang and Bourdain, it sounds like the show has roped in a number of other interesting figures as well. Comedian Aziz Ansari accompanies Chang to Montreal and food scientist Harold McGee explains the science behind alkaline salts in ramen noodles.
While all the episodes sound interesting, the second episode, titled Noodlin, features a visit to a noodle factory --which given the company, we hope looks like an episode of Mr. Rogers brought to by the f-bomb-- and Chang doing interesting things with store bought ramen. Episode 9 Phresh Vs. Phrozen involves a novel way of murdering fish followed by Chang cooking with "space food."
Of course this all presumes the lights stay on for public broadcasting past November. If not, don't despair, we're sure you'll still be able to pick up cooking tips from Honey Boo Boo.