Italian cuisine is so much more than pizza and pasta – but there's still lots of tasty pasta in Bonacini's Italy. Celebrity Chef Michael Bonacini cooks his way through 15 Italian regions, exploring the flavours and ingredients that make these areas unique. Each episode takes us through an entire meal from one region, from antipasto, soup, or salad, to delicious primo, succulent secondo, and even sometimes a decadent dolce. As he cooks, Michael regales viewers with stories of his travels in Italy and tells us interesting facts about each region he focuses on.Set in a warm, contemporary kitchen, Michael inspires viewers to try their hand at making sumptuous Italian fare.
Unusual and exotic cuisine from around the world is sampled. He typically shows how the food is procured, where it is served, and, usually without hesitation, eats it.Originally a one-hour documentary titled Bizarre Foods of Asia, repeated showings on the Travel Channel drew consistent, considerable audiences. In late 2006, it was decided to turn the documentary into a weekly, one-hour show with the same premise and with Andrew Zimmern as the host. In 2009, Zimmern took a break from Bizarre Foods to work on one season of the spin-off Bizarre World.
As part of the show, the host explores America's most unusual foods. Much like the popular Bizarre Foods, Andrew heads to some of the most unique food hubs in the country. Once there he meets with locals and local chefs to gain a better understanding of American cuisine and to see how America has developed its reputation as a melting pot of cultures and foods and what sort of unusual foods people in America might have in their own cities and not realize.