More than trying his hand at cooking exotic dishes and taking his time consuming it, Adam Liaw loves the fact that he gets to explore other places through hosting the show “Destination Flavour.”
“I get to explore. That’s the thing I love the most about the show. Yes, it’s a food show, I guess, but more than that, we use food as a way to explore culture and people,” he said in an interview with InterAksyon during this year’s History Con at the World Trade Center.
He explains further, saying, “I never say, ‘Oh that was a delicious thing I ate’ or ‘That was a great restaurant I went to.’ I always think about, ‘Oh that was an interesting guy that we met’ or ‘That was a dish that I learned how to make there and really explained a lot about that cuisine that I didn’t know before.’ That’s what I really like about the show.”
Life isn’t always perfect for the food and travel show host and former Master Chef Australia winner, however. There are downsides to having one of the most enviable jobs on the planet, after all—but the perks are very rewarding.
“You know it’s not…people think, maybe they say, ‘Oh it must be so great to travel and eat all this nice stuff.’ Yes, it’s kind of nice but to be honest, when you travel as much as I do, traveling is not as much fun as it’s made out to be. But it’s just always so interesting. What you can learn from what someone puts on a dining table is phenomenal. It brings together so much people and culture and history and geography and everything that brings that food to that place at that time. And I find that fascinating.
“I think I put on 30 kilos making ‘Destination Flavour’ and I have a young family but I’m away from home an awful lot, which is hard for me and the kids as well. But the upsides are I get to learn a lot in a really unique way. It’s not learning about culture like going to school, or picking up a book. It’s really practical, you get to look people in the eye and hear their own stories on culture from there,” Adam said.
While Adam hasn’t had the chance to feature our country and cuisine on his show, he has been able to sample Filipino dishes such and Adobo, Sinigang and Kare-kare, among others, on rare visits. “I honestly liked everything that I’ve tried in the Philippines so far,” he said.
Among the three, he found Kare-kare to be rather unusual, but still enjoyed it almost as much as all the local delicacies he has tried.
“I find the food here fascinating. You know, the regional differences that you get around from food in the Philippines. I do think that Filipino food is underappreciated overseas. But you see just how much locals here are in love with it.
“How can people love it so much here, but you know it doesn’t really transport overseas as much. You don’t go to New York and have a Filipino restaurant on every corner in the same way that you might see a Chinese or Korean restaurant. Of course there are historical reasons, but the food here is really fascinating so I want to explore that more.”
He hopes to feature Filipino cuisine on the show soon enough, but not before he has done sufficient research.
“I was in Boracay a little bit last year. I’m going to Siargao. Half vacation. I would love to do more in the Philippines.
“I don’t know enough about the regional aspects of the food, so that’s kinda why I’m doing these trips now to find more about the food. So I have a better understanding,” he said.
“Destination Flavour” airs on HISTORY®. HISTORY® is available on SKYCable Ch 67; Cable Link Ch. 43; Dream Satellite Ch 30; Destiny Cable Ch 57; and CignalTV Ch 125.
