As a way to lighten the mood in these dangerous days, here are two TV shows I found recently and enjoy.
Lie to Me, starring Tim Roth as a facial expression and body language expert who founds a company that helps police and government agencies solve crimes, prevent terrorism, free innocent prisoners, etc. Tim Roth is brilliant in this show. I love the way he carefully studies people face to face up close to decide if they are lying. 2009 to 2011 and good news that there are 48 episodes. On Netflix.
Chef's Table, a documentary about chefs around the world. The two episodes I watched thus far are fascinating. Musa Dagdeviren is a Turkish chef in Istanbul who works to keep regional cuisines from becoming extinct. Wonderful food, a chef with bold ideas to save old type cuisines, and lots of footage of Istanbul and small towns. He was sad to hear people in Turkey insult ethnic cuisines (I won't eat at that restaurant, they serve Kurdish, Sunni, etc. foods) and that sparked his zeal to save those old recipes and showcase them in his restaurant. I attended college in Istanbul for a year my junior year abroad and love Turkish food so I watched this episode first.
Bo Songvisava is a Thai chef who is on a mission to save old style authentic Thai food recipes in her Bangkok restaurant. She is also on a mission to support organic suppliers and her restaurant is all organic, which was difficult to do because Thailand has mainly industrial farming according to her. Lots of beautiful scenes of small farms, countryside and Thai food. I am watching this series on Hulu. Each of these chefs is talented and charismatic and doing work I admire greatly. There are many episodes covering many countries and interesting chefs. The photo above is of Bo in her Bangkok restaurant.
