‘Ugly Delicious’ Season 2 Review: David Chang’s surprises us with a more humane and candid culinary journey
Netflix just dropped the second installment of its popular original food show and it wouldn’t be wrong to say that it’s not just a docuseries about food. While we have to agree that the first season was more informative and eye-opening, with stories and history about mainstream dishes and their heritage, the all-new season goes multiple notches up and ventures into zones that most contemporary culinary shows don’t, or perhaps wouldn’t.
‘Ugly Delicious’ still manages to tantalize our taste buds, just like season one, but there’s a lot more human angle and unfiltered approach of David Chang throughout the show.
The season opens with Chang’s journey into fatherhood as he walks us through the news of his wife’s pregnancy, his fear of being a would-be dad, and talking to renowned chefs who are parents.
The first episode is not much about food but more about the work-life balance, being a full-time chef and embarking on an entirely new adventure of life. It’s cute, to put simply, and despite there not being much about culinary aesthetics or exploration of significant dishes, it doesn’t quite let you down. But if you are not a parent or not yet in that zone yet, you might get bored with an hour-long talk about kid-friendly food.
However, it won’t be long before you are transported to the deepest corners of India and its food heritage, followed by steak stories of Detroit, Australia, and Japan, and digging deep into the pit ovens of Turkey, Syria, and Iran.
As the season moved forth, we see Chang venturing into more unknown territories of food, through the cultural and social aspects of different cuisines and dishes. He does continue the tradition of tagging along with his celebrity friends like Nick Kroll, Padma Lakshmi, Aziz Ansari, Helen Rosner, Dave Choe, Danny McBride, and more. Unlike his other food travel show, ‘Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner’, Chang and his friends not just talk about food and travel to exotic locales. In fact, there are no exotic locales on ‘Ugly Delicious’.
The content focuses on the rawness of food, as we had seen in the previous season, but more so in this edition. They explore the heritage, the social, religious, historical and cultural implications of Korean, Indian, and Mediterranean cuisines and how they influenced and affected global food.
You will see a lot of foreign locales, no doubt, but not how you are used to seeing on generic food travel shows.
From cooking home-style Korean food with his parents to walking the bustling alleys of India, and learning from street food vendors across the Middle East, ‘Ugly Delicious’ Season 2 sees Chang in elements we have never seen before.
It’s an absolute delight to hear a celebrity chef of his repertoire to own up and admit how uninformed he is about certain food and their respective traditions.
Chang is not afraid to share his fears of the unknown and unseen, and yet he embarks on a new adventure, albeit with company, meets new people, learning and unlearning every time. It’s highly inspirational, especially for aspiring chefs or even culinary enthusiasts and epicureans (quite like this writer).
The Netflix original did not earn its recognition out of thin air; there’s a reason, this documentary had garnered immense appreciation last season. But this season, it went beyond being just a show and became an experience of, by, and for people. The concept, at its core, is about human interactions and seeing them through food and the self-realization of Chang about what he knows and wants to know about his world (which is essentially food) takes over this season.
Through four episodes of kids’ food, perfecting a steak, learning and rediscovering Indian cuisine, and exploring the historical and socio-economic influences on Mediterranean food, Chang makes us fall in love, not just with food, but the world, in ways we often don’t see.
With a five stars and two thumbs up for this season, we look forward to another exciting and heartwarming edition of this brilliant food show.
‘Ugly Delicious’ Season 2 is now streaming all four episodes on Netflix.