Celebrity Chefs Share Their Culinary Travel Secrets In New Podcast Season

The award-winning podcast "Travel That Matters" is back for a long-awaited third season that its producer, CurtCo Media, has dubbed the "Master Chef series." From the name alone, it sounds like this 10-episode season might as well have been tailor-made with Tasting Table readers in mind. Indeed, according to an April 25, 2023 press release from CurtCo, the new season features exclusive conversations with some of the world's most renowned, respected, and charismatic celebrity chefs. 

Episodes will feature, among others, the charmingly opinionated Daniel Boulud of Restaurant Daniel fame; "Top Chef" host Gail Simmons; "Chopped" judge Amanda Freitag; the James Beard Award-winning Gregory Gourdet, whose Portland, Oregon restaurant, Kann, puts a well-deserved fine-dining spin on Haitian cuisine; and celebrated Bahamian chef, Simeon Hall, Jr. And just wait until we reveal the engaging American chef featured in the first episode. 

The subject matter? Aspirational culinary travel secrets! Featured chefs will share personal insights about their own journeys to the destinations that shaped their various epicurean ethos. They'll be offering insider tips on how and where to find the best specialty dishes in various locales, as well as the secrets you need to know in order to recreate them authentically in your own kitchen. If you're someone who dreams of traveling to the world's most luxurious destinations, sampling their culinary treasures, and learning a thing or two about cooking in the process, then you're going to want to tune in. 

If you're already salivating over the promise of exclusive chat about some of the top culinary destinations on the planet with some of the world's most erudite chefs, then you'll be pleased to know the first episode of the new "Master Chefs" season of "Travel That Matters" is out on all the major podcast platforms — and it features none other than the award-winning, chef, author, and activist, Marcus Samuelsson, speaking with host, Bruce Wallin, who also knows what he's talking about when it comes to food and travel. For the past two decades, Wallin has been the editorial director of the aspirational luxury magazine, Robb Report and its affiliated Robb Report Luxury Resorts, which Wallin founded and launched in 2007.  

In this first episode, listeners will hear Samuelsson speak of his many culinary pilgrimages, his favorite food cities, his go-to ballpark stadium snacks, why Sweden should be on every foodie's bucket list, and what it was like to work with Anthony Bourdain. Episodes in coming weeks will feature Boulud chatting about Caribbean cuisine and where to find fabulous food off the beaten path in France, among other topics. Gourdet will reminisce about his first Mexican taco and his first Thai chicken and sticky rice and share highlights from his appearances on "Top Chef," and "Chopped" judge Amanda Freitag will reflect on her own culinary travels as well as why some of her favorite food cities happen to be in the U.S.