Anthony Bourdain returns to Uruguay—the small, often overlooked country between Argentina and Brazil, where showing off is frowned upon and staying humble is a point of pride—alongside Ignacio “Nacho” Mattos, the Uruguayan-born chef behind some of New York’s most celebrated restaurants.
In Montevideo’s old city, Bourdain sits down at Jacinto with chef Lucía Soria, who came up in Francis Mallmann’s kitchens alongside Mattos. Over prawns with avocado and apple and beef tartare with quail egg, the talk turns to happiness, ambition and the simple urge that makes people cook for one another—and a story about a first breakfast that nearly brings Tony to tears. He then joins the members of Hablan por la Espalda, pioneers of Uruguay’s DIY hardcore scene, for a relaxed afternoon in keeping with the country’s famously progressive laws, followed by pizza topped with fainá at Bar Las Flores and a frank conversation about what they call the national pathology: envy, but only of the guy who plays just a little better than you. Along the coast, in the working-class town of Maldonado near the glossy resorts of Punta del Este and José Ignacio, Tony shares the day’s catch, puffed provoleta, whole roasted suckling boar and milanesa napolitana, then sets out with Mattos in search of something new to both of them: a drive-thru steakhouse. It is a journey so unhurried that it exposes what the rest of the world might learn from a country that refuses to rush.
From Montevideo tables and hardcore basements to a boxed steak eaten in the car and a sandbar asado with Martín Pittaluga between the ocean and the lagoon, this episode is a portrait of Uruguay at its most laid-back—and of a traveler who, for once, simply slows down.
Newfoundland closes it out at Raymonds in St. John’s, where chef Jeremy Charles serves a tower of razor clams, snow crab, mussels, capelin, whelk and sea urchin, raw scallops brought up by friends willing to dive the freezing North Atlantic, and caribou tartare with chanterelles—wild game being something restaurants here can serve and restaurants everywhere else in the country cannot. There is cod sound, the swim bladder of the fish, salted, dried and fried into a crisp; the local jigs dinner rebuilt as a pasta that Bourdain calls the best he has ever eaten; and chanterelle ice cream that he is frankly annoyed nobody made sooner.
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Travel the globe with the legendary chef, author, and storyteller Anthony Bourdain as he uncovers the soul of a destination through its food, culture, and politics. Far more than just a cooking show, Parts Unknown dives deep into the corners of the world rarely seen on TV—eating with locals, exploring diverse culinary rituals, and asking the hard questions.
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