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Boston Globe
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Phil Rosenthal explores Boston eats in latest ‘Somebody Feed Phil' season
Advertisement While filming in the Hub, he visited some of the city's most innovative chefs and a few of its tourist traps, including an obligatory saunter through Quincy Market. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Not bashful about the fact that his show 'I'm decidedly not cool, and certainly not an expert,' he says. 'I'm decidedly, even proudly, a tourist. But I am a curious tourist, which is how I think tourists should be.' Stops along his Boston itinerary include Advertisement Phil Rosenthal, right, prepares to eat oysters at Neptune Oyster in an episode of "Somebody Feed Phil." Netflix 'I'm anxious that we got it right,' says Rosenthal, who just announced a return visit to Boston for a live appearance at the Wilbur (September 10). His neuroses are a big part of the show's charm. Near the end of the episode, as he prepares to lean into a lamb shank at La Royal, he laments that he's already stuffed. 'The great ones play in pain,' he says. Rosenthal, who is 65, has a wide-eyed sense of enthusiasm for everything and everyone he encounters. It's inherent to his personality, he says, but it's also something he has cultivated in his professional life. Before he created 'We do not provide breakfast for you,' the note concluded. Shocked by the pettiness of the rebuke, Rosenthal decided that if he was ever lucky enough to become a showrunner, 'we're gonna have milk on our cereal.' 'My attitude is if you put nice out there, you get nice back,' he says. 'Some small act of kindness could change someone's life.' For the Boston episode, he and his crew made a detour to Rhode Island, where they visited Sherry Pocknett, the first Indigenous woman to be honored with a James Beard Award. Rosenthal was clearly smitten with her and the food her daughter Jade served up at their restaurant, Sly Fox Den Too. The corn chowder topped with smoked mussels is 'kinda genius,' he says. Advertisement After Pocknett told him she rarely got out of the kitchen, he insisted she come join his group at Since the taping, Pocknett's restaurant Over the show's seven-year run, dozens of restaurants have experienced a surge in their business after being featured on 'Somebody Feed Phil.' After he dined at a picturesque seafood cafe overlooking the harbor in Lisbon, he brought his wife back for a vacation. He called the restaurant, and the owner gushed about the debt he owed Rosenthal for featuring his business. Rosenthal mentioned that he happened to be back in town and would love to stop by, and the guy replied, 'I'm sorry, we're full.' 'I couldn't get in,' Rosenthal says with a laugh. 'I screwed myself.' The episode wraps up with a Zoom visit from his friend Jane Fonda. 'She's a gift to the world, I think,' he says. 'Talk about walking the walk.' She calls him the 'Jewish Tinkerbell,' he explains with another laugh. Fonda is one of many people who have told him that they love the show for its lightheartedness and cultural engagement. 'She says she watches it every night,' he says. 'It soothes her, and it makes her feel good about the world.' Advertisement There's 'a dearth' of shows with those qualities right now, Rosenthal says. 'My show was never meant to be a political statement, but because the world is the way it is today, to be embracing of other cultures is somehow political. Which is really stupid. To me, it's only human.' During the time he spent with Pocknett, she told him about the Wampanoag tribe's first encounter with the pilgrims at Plymouth. The new arrivals were struggling with the climate and the environment, she says. What did the Native Americans do? Rosenthal asks. Her answer, he says, makes the scene 'one of my favorites I've ever done.' 'We were human,' Pocknett says matter-of-factly. 'We helped them.' James Sullivan can be reached at
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Yahoo
Phil Rosenthal on the people, places and dishes that have shaped his life
This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK). I was 17 when I had garlic for the first time. I always equate it to The Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy opens the door and the movie is then in colour. My parents were German immigrants, so we ate old-world German-style cuisine. Things like beef stew, chicken schnitzel, potatoes… there was zero spice. Even when we ordered Chinese food, once every three months, it was always the blandest thing on the menu. It wasn't until I left their house that I had food with flavour. My parents were fantastic in every way, except for food. I've spoken to people like Alice Waters, who reinvented the farm-to-table movement [in the US] and she told me her parents were terrible cooks, too! But I'm not a cook, I'm just a fan of food. I'm exactly like Anthony Bourdain — if he was afraid of everything. That's what I said to sell Somebody Feed Phil. The idea for it came from my love of food and for shows like Anthony Bourdain's. I would watch him and think he's amazing, but I'm never doing that. He's a lot braver than me, and a pioneer. But then I thought, maybe there's a show for people like me, who love the idea of travelling, but even just getting off the couch is stepping out of their comfort zone, let alone riding in dune buggies and having a chest tattoo pounded into your skin by Borneo tribes. Bourdain inspired many people to travel, many of whom are way more adventurous than me. But the show is a different take on the travel genre that Bourdain reinvented. I'm following in his footsteps, but in my orthopaedic shoes. Every city has a fantastic food scene, especially because every city has immigrants from other places. Some of the best shawarma I've ever had was in Glasgow. Why? Because a man from Syria moved to Glasgow and opened a shop. And a lot of Chinese people will tell you, the dishes they made in China taste way better in Los Angeles because of the produce available here. So now they have their brilliant recipes with great ingredients. The immigration and the intermingling of the cultures, that's what elevates everything. Where you are, where you're sitting, the temperature, the people you're with, what you're looking at, what you're feeling at the time… literally affects your taste. For example, I bet you've had wine on holiday and thought, this is the best wine I've ever had. You've bought a case of that wine and save it for a special occasion. The special occasion comes, you open that wine, and… it's okay. Maybe the first time you tried it you were falling in love or you were with the person you were going to marry. Everything affects how you perceive everything else. In Italy, everywhere is beautiful to me. All the food is delicious and everyone is always hugging and kissing you — what's not to like? I was once in a little skiing town in Cortina, and I went into this little chalet and asked, 'What's the speciality here?' They said, 'Pasta with onions.' That doesn't sound like much, I thought, but it was one of the best things I've ever eaten. The onions had been simmering for days until they were sweet and velvety, and mixed in with a touch of cream and herbs. If you have great ingredients, it doesn't need to be fancy. I ate ants in Tokyo and they tasted just like lemons. I was at a restaurant called Den, and my companion said I should order the salad, but when it came, it had these big black ants on it. I thought, the restaurant has a problem, call the exterminator! I was very nervous, but I was being filmed and the chef was just across the counter. I bit down and it crunched a little. But you know what? It was like someone put a drop of lemon on my tongue. The chef told me that these particular ants, from a particular part of a particular forest in Japan, taste like lemon. I asked, 'Who found this out? Who was the guy who tasted all the ants in the forest and said, 'Mmm, lemon!'?' Shanghai has a fun food scene I'd love to explore. I've seen it depicted in movies and shows, and it looks so great and romantic — this big Chinese city with dishes from all over the world. I've never been to Greece and I can't wait to go to Turkey. But the new season is coming out in June, and I go to some places I've never been, but I can't tell you what they are yet! I went to a Palestinian woman's restaurant in Dubai and she gave me food that made me cry. The world will tell you that we're not supposed to be friends, right? I'm a Jewish man, this is a Palestinian lady. We bonded instantly. She was so sweet, warm and lovely — it's in the show, you can see it. She made a raw lamb dish with all kinds of herbs and spices, from her mother's recipe. We've stayed in touch ever since, all through the troubles. To subscribe to National Geographic Traveller (UK) magazine click here. (Available in select countries only).
National Geographic
24-03-2025
- National Geographic
Phil Rosenthal on the people, places and dishes that have shaped his life
This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK). I was 17 when I had garlic for the first time. I always equate it to The Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy opens the door and the movie is then in colour. My parents were German immigrants, so we ate old-world German-style cuisine. Things like beef stew, chicken schnitzel, potatoes… there was zero spice. Even when we ordered Chinese food, once every three months, it was always the blandest thing on the menu. It wasn't until I left their house that I had food with flavour. My parents were fantastic in every way, except for food. I've spoken to people like Alice Waters, who reinvented the farm-to-table movement [in the US] and she told me her parents were terrible cooks, too! But I'm not a cook, I'm just a fan of food. I'm exactly like Anthony Bourdain — if he was afraid of everything. That's what I said to sell Somebody Feed Phil. The idea for it came from my love of food and for shows like Anthony Bourdain's. I would watch him and think he's amazing, but I'm never doing that. He's a lot braver than me, and a pioneer. But then I thought, maybe there's a show for people like me, who love the idea of travelling, but even just getting off the couch is stepping out of their comfort zone, let alone riding in dune buggies and having a chest tattoo pounded into your skin by Borneo tribes. Bourdain inspired many people to travel, many of whom are way more adventurous than me. But the show is a different take on the travel genre that Bourdain reinvented. I'm following in his footsteps, but in my orthopaedic shoes. Every city has a fantastic food scene, especially because every city has immigrants from other places. Some of the best shawarma I've ever had was in Glasgow. Why? Because a man from Syria moved to Glasgow and opened a shop. And a lot of Chinese people will tell you, the dishes they made in China taste way better in Los Angeles because of the produce available here. So now they have their brilliant recipes with great ingredients. The immigration and the intermingling of the cultures, that's what elevates everything. Where you are, where you're sitting, the temperature, the people you're with, what you're looking at, what you're feeling at the time… literally affects your taste. For example, I bet you've had wine on holiday and thought, this is the best wine I've ever had. You've bought a case of that wine and save it for a special occasion. The special occasion comes, you open that wine, and… it's okay. Maybe the first time you tried it you were falling in love or you were with the person you were going to marry. Everything affects how you perceive everything else. In Italy, everywhere is beautiful to me. All the food is delicious and everyone is always hugging and kissing you — what's not to like? I was once in a little skiing town in Cortina, and I went into this little chalet and asked, 'What's the speciality here?' They said, 'Pasta with onions.' That doesn't sound like much, I thought, but it was one of the best things I've ever eaten. The onions had been simmering for days until they were sweet and velvety, and mixed in with a touch of cream and herbs. If you have great ingredients, it doesn't need to be fancy. I ate ants in Tokyo and they tasted just like lemons. I was at a restaurant called Den, and my companion said I should order the salad, but when it came, it had these big black ants on it. I thought, the restaurant has a problem, call the exterminator! I was very nervous, but I was being filmed and the chef was just across the counter. I bit down and it crunched a little. But you know what? It was like someone put a drop of lemon on my tongue. The chef told me that these particular ants, from a particular part of a particular forest in Japan, taste like lemon. I asked, 'Who found this out? Who was the guy who tasted all the ants in the forest and said, 'Mmm, lemon!'?' Shanghai has a fun food scene I'd love to explore. I've seen it depicted in movies and shows, and it looks so great and romantic — this big Chinese city with dishes from all over the world. I've never been to Greece and I can't wait to go to Turkey. But the new season is coming out in June, and I go to some places I've never been, but I can't tell you what they are yet! I went to a Palestinian woman's restaurant in Dubai and she gave me food that made me cry. The world will tell you that we're not supposed to be friends, right? I'm a Jewish man, this is a Palestinian lady. We bonded instantly. She was so sweet, warm and lovely — it's in the show, you can see it. She made a raw lamb dish with all kinds of herbs and spices, from her mother's recipe. We've stayed in touch ever since, all through the troubles. Phil's European live tour is taking place until 19 April. Max & Helen's, his new diner in Los Angeles, opens this spring. Season 8 of Somebody Feed Phil is coming soon. National Geographic Traveller (UK) magazine click To subscribe to(UK) magazine click here . (Available in select countries only).
