Food Unknown
With Jonathan Legg. A hunt for the world's most unloved and under-represented cuisines — what they say about the culture that eats them, and why the rest of the world never took to them.
Jonathan Legg hones in on an extended foodie mission: find the world's most unpopular and under-represented cuisines. What do they tell us about the culture? Why have they not been embraced globally?
Whether ripping motorcycles through misty Irish backroads, galloping horses through the Mongolian plains, or snapping sails down the sunny Croatian coast, all regions are explored. And from runny duck fetuses, to jiggly blood pudding, to stuffed camel carcasses, all edibles are consumed.
It's a culinary adventure full of mishaps, risk, and the most unloved food on the planet. Is it buried in obscurity, is it about to emerge, or is it just bad? Come find out on Food Unknown.
The premise is a buyer's premise, not a travelogue's: every episode has a question at the front of it that the hour has to answer. That gives the series a spine an acquisitions team can pitch internally — and gives each territory a reason to be in the show beyond scenery.
Presenter-led with Jonathan Legg, shot in the same small-unit method as the rest of the SD Media slate: a senior team, long access, and the willingness to go where a full crew would be turned away.
- Volume
- 5 × 60′
- Master
- 4K
- Rights
- Owned outright
- Availability
- Linear · SVOD · AVOD · FAST
Five hours. Five cuisines nobody defends.
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01
Philippines
The nation of 7,000 islands has no problems with beach, sun or sea — but it suffers tremendously with cuisine image. Jonathan lands in Manila to discover the top chefs are well aware of the issue and, following their advice, launches off on an expedition to find part of the solution. Driving from headhunting tribal villages, to step-back-in-time colonial towns, to restaurants in the shadow of the American military behemoth, an intriguing story slowly pieces together. In the dense jungle one treasure stays buried while another comes literally out of the woodwork. But danger always lurks — zombie moray eels, landslide-prone passes, and forbidden fields behind the rice paddies.
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02
Finland
Finland is the one Nordic country that is never on the global cuisine radar. Yet the reserved Finns have been quietly perfecting their craft of foraging culture and folding it into a cuisine all their own. Jonathan explores the entire expanse of the country to understand that cuisine and the ethos of its top chefs — from locally sourced cooking in Helsinki to an expedition into Lapland to learn about foraging, and the Finnish delicacy: reindeer.
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03
Ireland
It's the birthplace of Halloween, but the ghosts and ghouls that have canvassed the world have not scared up much interest in Irish cuisine. Mounting a classic motorcycle, Jonathan tours a land of mystic traditions, boisterous locals and iconic scenery. The world's most magnetic pub culture draws him in, border conflict pushes him out, and dark legends pull him around. It's an adventure soaked in rain, lore, and the food of ancestors past.
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04
Mexico
Jonathan Legg is from California and he thinks he knows Mexican cuisine. That notion gets shattered by the onslaught of food in Mexico City. Between trying scorpion tacos and dodging shady markets in San Juan, he learns the dark art of sacred drinks — pulque and mezcal — now turned into social libations. His journey also takes him to Oaxaca for the low-down on the fabled mole sauce, and a long haul to a remote village reveals a secret ceremony with origins in the dark arts.
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05
Russia
Jonathan faces his toughest challenge yet, entering a country still coming to grips with defining and understanding its own cuisine. Through historical turmoil and harsh climate, Russia lost its traditional way of cooking and eating — but the country is reviving that culture. Jonathan ventures the far stretches of the country to meet modern cooks and to find ancient kitchens still housing the one tool that gave birth to true Russian cuisine: the Russian oven. He'll learn their insights, understand their efforts, and work with traditional ingredients to learn what the cuisine used to be, and where it's headed today.
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Five hours, rights held, ready to licence.
Food Unknown is owned outright by SD Media. Screeners, episode links, rate cards and territory availability are a single email away — and we can licence directly or through our distribution partners.