The great success of Stanley Tucci's breakthrough cooking and travel show has inspired many documentary series in the same vein, starring the likes of John Leguzamo and Eva Longoria, but perhaps his top competitor is the famous chef Jose Andres.
Named the top chef in the world decades ago for his innovations, Andres has more recently emerged as a true humanitarian, dropping in to hot spots and disaster areas ranging from Haiti to Ukraine and performing miracles of providing aid to suffering people en masse and to scale rivaling the efforts of governmental organizations like FEMA. In fact, his logistical abilities have become legendary.
Here he takes his three eldest daughters with him to Barcelona and environs, sampling great local restaurants of all sorts, with quality rather than price point of greatest importance. The man's verve is amazing, and his love of food, people and his home country is infectious.
The documentary's editing is a bit dizzying, with cutting between shots in a scene at a given location in rat-a-tat-tat fashion disconcerting, especially when interspersed with old family photos and other historical scene-setter material. The more laidback approach Tucci and his directors took brings the viewer in more effectively and conforms with Stanley's laidback low key attitude and droll sense of humor that serves him so well in his ongoing acting career. Also missing from Jose is the outspoken political stance that Tucci daringly integrated into his survey of Italy and its various contradictory trends (including right-wing movements).
Still, this introuction to tapas and many Catalonian culinary specialties is eye-opening and a chane to bring into the spotlight many of Andres' old friends and leading local lights in the retaurant world.
