Mondays with Mike: Around the world in a kitchen

During our Covid year, I never got hooked on or binged any Netflix or other streaming shows. I did, however, binge watch cooking shows. Our PBS station, WTTW, stacks them pretty much all day long on Saturdays.

There’s America’s Test Kitchen, which, in addition to recipes and techniques, also does a segment evaluating cooking tools and ingredients From the best mixers to the best mayonnaise, it’s kind of cook’s Consumer Reports. Then there’s Cook’s Country. And Simply Ming. It’s kind of a meditation to me. The pace, watching the process, even the predictable “Oh my God that’s good” reaction after each dish is tasted is kind of soothing. (But just once I want someone to say “That’s just awful.”

You can stream the segment on Lesvos, which includes the heroic fisherman, by clicking here.

Several other Saturday shows are a sort of flavor of Anthony Bourdain’s stuff. They focus on a national cuisine, and they mix travel and cuisine with national and cultural history. And you learn about a lot more than cooking.

Lidia Bastianich hosts Lidia’s Kitchen, which focuses on Italian cuisine, culture and customs. Lidia reminds me so much of my Italian-born grandmother it hurts. On Milk Street, the hosts travel and bring home recipes from around the world. Pati’s Mexican Table explores … Mexico, so does Rick Bayless’ Mexico, One Plate at A Time. On My Greek Kitchen, Diane Kocilis travels all around Greece exploring history, culture, and food. And there’s one for Poland, another for Scandinavia.

Some of these shows have pivoted to filming in the home kitchens of the hosts, but it’s largely been reruns over the past year. That’s fine with me. I didn’t start watching until lockdown, so it’s all new to me.

During last Saturday’s My Greek Kitchen, host Kocilis visited with fisherman/chef Stratis Valiamos on the Greek Island of Lesvos. Remember the Mediterranean refugee crisis from 2016? Well, Stratis Valiamos was one of the good souls who used his fishing boat to rescue countless refugees, many of them who couldn’t swim. His description of those times were heartbreaking (his Greek was translated to subtitles.) He said that on more than one occasion, refugees threw their babies onto his boat—to be sure they made it on before it was filled to capacity.

Who knows how many lives he saved. And he was nominated for a Nobel Prize for his efforts.

Check out this interview. Totally humble and compassionate. And he can cook.

That’s one cool dude.