Hacker Cinema
Poster for The Mind of a Chef

The Mind of a Chef

2012 · TV series · documentary · 30 min episodes · 6 seasons

Documentary

Go inside the minds of some of the world's top chefs. Narrated by Executive Producer Anthony Bourdain, The Mind of a Chef is that rare and beautiful thing: an intelligent show about cooking.

2 positive1 neutralfrom 3 commenters

IMDbTMDBTrends

Where to watch

No streaming data for this title.

3 comments on Hacker News

  1. NeutraltptacekNov 18, 2018

    I've read the book and watched the series. Both are fine.

    The series is in a weird place in between Mind of a Chef (which, in most of its seasons, is a significantly better show) and a more conventional FoodTV cooking show. I think they're trying to do too much in each episode, and also that the travel-show part of each episode works better than the cooking demos do.

    The book is better than the show. I have friends that swear by it. I like it fine! It sort of joins a pantheon of "if you're only going to own one cooking book make it this one" books, which would include Bittman's "How To Cook Anything", Ruhlman's "Twenty", the Cooks Illustrated Cookbook, and, I don't know, maybe "Joy of Cooking"?

    Of those books, I think Ruhlman's "Twenty" is by far the best. It's similar to "Salt, Fat" in the sense that it breaks cooking down by technique and concept, instead of courses or dishes. But I think it has a more coherent structure, covers more ground, and, while wasting less time on narrative, still manages to establish a conversational tone.

  2. PositiveelsherbiniJul 22, 2016

    David Chang himself throws me for a Strange Loop. On the one hand he is a genius and I'm so intrigued by his take on food, but then he'll talk about how he loves gas station hotdogs or orange chicken from Panda Express. I love that he can be pretentious in his unpretentiousness.

    If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend the PBS series The Mind of a Chef. The first season is all about David Chang, narated by Anthony Bourdain. It's on Netflix and at least the Ramen episode is on Daily Motion.

  3. PositiveepsOct 19, 2013

    There was an excellent bit of trivia regarding the "dangers" of MSG on one of the "The mind of a chef" episodes. Apparently it was made into the issue largely by the ignorance of the press.

    Here is that bit, found it - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1oR0EYaOHY