Ugly Delicious

Click here for a video version of this review: https://youtu.be/PUYbHxhzh-c

_Ugly Delicious_ is a Netflix series with chef Dave Chang traveling the world, sampling food, and discussing its origins. There are now two seasons on the platform.

The show has a number of great scenes throughout it like when he was making dumplings with the rural grannies in China or where he has some chicken in Japan and there is this great personal moment where Chang was moved enough to hug the chef and they both ended up in tears. It was such a great and genuine moment. I also really enjoyed the _Home Cooking_ episode where Dave goes home to have Thanksgiving with his family, and also the _BBQ_ episode.

Those nice moments and the excellent look and style of it are about the only things I enjoyed about it though. The show starts with the premise of talking about how not every meal has to be a 10 Michelin Star piece of art, but how often simple, straightforward food tastes amazing and has a lot more heart and meaning to it. As the show goes along it becomes more apparent that it’s less a food travel show and more of a socio-political commentary that uses food as the source of its observations.

And I’d be okay with that, if it was consistent in its messaging and less openly biased. It felt like they couldn't get through an episode without having a "...but white people" moment or some overt political statement about how white people ruin everything. Chang shits a lot on white people and implies they can't understand food from other cultures but then quite happily uses a white British lady - who speaks fluent Chinese - to guide him in the China episodes. This then leads to a scene in the _Fried Rice_ episode of Season 1 where Chang literally spits some food out in front of the host, chef, and staff who put a banquet in front of him. Kind of ironic when not long before he says something like "You need to dumb down real Chinese food for white palates".

It’s also peppered throughout with some childish takes on subjects. For example, one of the guests, Serena Dai, says in one episode that when she hears people say they are scared of Indian food or scared of Chinese food she thinks "What are you scared of? Are you scared of a pork rib or a dumpling? And is it really about the food or are you just scared of the people?" The instant leap to racism being the motivation was mind-boggling. News flash: Some people do not have adventurous palates, some people are scared of trying new things, or things that are, from their point of view "weird". Some people might have had a bad experience in the past. Some people maybe just don't like food or flavours from certain parts of the globe. The enjoyment of food is incredibly personal and subjective and the fact that Dai and Chang seem to fail to grasp this and try and pass off any dislike or hesitance about food as being rooted in racism is a real reach. They do this again and again and again through the series. 

At other times Chang and his guests come across as just plain rude. Apart from the food spitting incident I mentioned before, on another occasion, back in America, when eating a meal in a Chinese restaurant with the son of the owner Chang says with a smug look on his face when eating a dish with intestines in it "This tastes like intestines. You're telling me that people order this?" and he just comes off as aloof and elitist. I couldn't believe he said it straight to the guys face, in the guy's place of work, in his dad's business. It was headshakingly bad.

They even have a crack at the widespread popularity of things like yoga and turmeric, this only one or two scenes after going on about how they wish Indian things were more widely accepted. And after moaning about wanting Indian food to be more widely accepted, shortly after there is a scene where they are literally sitting in an Indian cafe / restaurant somewhere in America and its packed with customers, and they even point out how many non-Indians are in there. It's all over the place and has no consistency to its message.

When its not being political or talking about race, it is so so good. There is some fantastic food porn in it, and the little animations and comedy sketches were great additions that make it a very varied package. But time and again I found myself tuning out mentally as yet another conversation on screen turned into a series of complaints and mixed messages.

I much preferred Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner, and I suggest you watch that instead, unless of course, you like overly political takes on food.