A Cook’s Tour
A Cook’s Tour was Anthony Bourdain’s first television show. It ran from January 2002 through 2003 on the Food Network. If you’ve ever seen it, you know it has a very different “feel” than Bourdain’s later shows. In it, he is still a novice at both being a television host and navigating his celebrity. As such, he travels as many of us do when we first begin exploring the world: haphazardly and often making many mistakes.
As such, you’ll see many of the destinations he visited during A Cook’s Tour were revisited in later shows; for a perfectionist like Bourdain, this was undoubtedly an attempt to “get the destination right.”
Here’s a list of all episodes of A Cook’s Tour across its two seasons. Any links will take you to the specific guide to the places Bourdain ate in that destination. This page is regularly updated as new posts are published about these episodes/destinations.
| Episode | Season 1 | Season 2 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tokyo (Japan) | St. Martin/Sint Maarten |
| 2 | Atami and Tokyo (Japan) | New Orleans (USA) |
| 3 | Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) | Salvador (Brazil) |
| 4 | Mekong River (Vietnam) | Rio de Janeiro and Niterói (Brazil) |
| 5 | Phnom Penh and Siem Reap (Cambodia) | New York City (USA) |
| 6 | Pailin (Cambodia) & Tokyo (Japan) | Minneapolis (USA) |
| 7 | Porto and Douro Valley (Portugal) | Kansas City, Houston, and North Carolina (USA) |
| 8 | San Sebastián (Spain) | Sydney (Australia) |
| 9 | Arcachon (France) | Melbourne (Australia) |
| 10 | Portugal & Southwest France | Chiang Mai (Thailand) |
| 11 | Saharan Morocco | Hanoi (Vietnam) |
| 12 | Morocco (Cities) | Bangkok (Thailand) & Singapore |
| 13 | Saint Petersburg (Russia) | |
| 14 | Saint Petersburg (Russia) | |
| 15 | Oaxaca (Mexico) | |
| 16 | Puebla (Mexico) | |
| 17 | Los Angeles (USA) | |
| 18 | Napa Valley and San Francisco (USA) | |
| 19 | New York City (USA) | |
| 20 | New York City & Provincetown, MA (USA) | |
| 21 | Scotland (UK) | |
| 22 | London (UK) |
Have any questions or comments about A Cook’s Tour, the places Tony visited, or something else? Let me know in the comments below.