Top photo credit: @deaddsouls

The producers at Netflix really know how to tap into our inner, most secretive cravings, and none are as addictive as food porn. We’ve narrowed down the list of our favourites on Netflix Asia, since we sadly don’t get the same selection as our comrades across the Pacific.

Please note: we’ve weeded out the somewhat depressing documentaries on food politics, since all they ever inspire in us is mass paranoia and a proclamation to follow a diet based solely on filtered water. We’ve also eliminated all food competition shows, since they are as numerous (and unnecessary) as yet another Kardashian series. 

The series

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Photo credit: Netflix

Chef’s Table/Chef’s Table France

Food porn quotient: 10/10

Educational value: 7/10

Entertainment value: 9/10

An Netflix in-house production, each episode focuses on just one chef and his or her journey to greatness. There are stunning, cinematic beauty shots of dishes you can never hope to recreate in your own kitchen and emotion-stirring classic music (mostly strings) to accompany the unapologetic food porn. Prepare for a tasty dose of elitist snobbery, as the show only showcases chefs from the most refined kitchens of the world. No noodle shacks featured here, merci beaucoup

Ugly Delicious

Food porn quotient: 6/10

Educational value: 7/10

Entertainment value: 8/10

Produced and hosted by bad-boy chef David Chang, this series addresses our most popular food indulgences (hello, fried chicken!). We love the no-bulls**t approach of Chef Chang, who comes across as outspoken yet surprisingly humble. The chef travels to key cities around the globe to see how popular foods like fried rice, pizza, barbecue and tacos have been adapted to suit the local culture. We all want to be food besties with David Chang. 

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Photo credit: PBS

The Mind of a Chef

Food porn quotient: 8/10

Educational value: 8/10

Entertainment value: 8/10

Produced and narrated by our favourite satirical chef, Anthony Bourdain, this series already has six seasons under its belt and has gone through quite a transformation, from a singular host travelling the globe to focus on various food topics to an almost Chef’s Table type of approach to documenting lauded chefs. The food porn has also progressively gotten better throughout the seasons. Maybe we can best describe it as the union of Chef’s Table and Ugly Delicious – if they made some food porn and produced a baby, that is.

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Photo credit: The Daily Beast/Netflix

Cooked 

Food porn quotient: 5/10

Educational value quotient: 9/10

Entertainment value: 7/10

Written and hosted by acclaimed writer Michael Pollan, this four-part series takes an almost philosophical approach to food. Divided into the elements of fire, water, air and earth, the show has a definite zen-like undertone. Based on the book by the same name, Cooked is as much about the origins of various cooking techniques as it is about the cultural significance of these food traditions. A slower, more academic food show for the inquisitive (and somewhat geeky) foodie. 

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Photo credit: Ready Steady Cut

Somebody Feed Phil

Food porn quotient: 7/10

Educational value: 6/10

Entertainment value: 7/10

Phil Rosenthal, the creator of Everybody Loves Raymond, takes on a new role as host of this travel food show. He travels to various cities around the world showing us enviable food porn – we wish someone would feed us all those exotic goodies! A broad-spectrum travel show that bodes well with the entry-level foodie but that may seem trivial to the connoisseur globetrotter. 

The one-offs

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Photo credit: Forbes/Nordic Food Lab

Bugs

Food porn value: 0/10

Educational value: 10/10

Entertainment value: 9/10

Documenting the experiences of Copenhagen-based Nordic Food Lab, this show follows chefs and researchers across vastly diverse communities in Europe, Australia, the Americas, Africa and Asia to explore the ways in which insects can be incorporated into the mainstream diet. Profoundly informative, this documentary is a trailblazer on this brave new frontier of an insect-based diet (although we are still having nightmares about the rippling fat on the writhing body of a queen termite as she sizzled on the grill). 

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Photo credit: Chicago Tribune

For Grace

Food porn quotient: 4/10

Educational value: 5/10

Entertainment value: 6/10

As the name hints, this documentary is all about the making of Grace, Chef Curtis Duffy’s three-Michelin-starred passion project, which closed abruptly in December 2017. The show follows him through his personal struggles, the construction of his restaurant and his ambition to make this Chicago eatery the best in the country. A raw inside look on the life of a chef. 

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Photo credit: Moviefone/YouTube

Jeremiah Tower: The Last Magnificent

Food porn quotient: 5/10

Educational value: 7/10

Entertainment value: 8/10

A documentary about the life of one of America’s greatest culinary innovators, Jeremiah Tower, who mysteriously disappeared from the food scene after gaining worldwide fame for transforming the culinary landscape of the United States with the concept of California cuisine. Plenty of food heavy hitters are interviewed, including Anthony Bourdain, Wolfgang Puck, Mario Batali, Martha Stewart and Ruth Reichl. 

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Photo credit: Philadelphia Style

King Georges

Food porn quotient: 6/10

Educational value: 6/10

Entertainment value: 7/10

An emotionally charged look at the twilight years of one of America’s greatest French chefs, Georges Perrier, as he bids farewell to his life’s work at Le Bec-Fin in Philadelphia, one of the finest French restaurants in the United States. Seasoned with candid interviews from culinary greats such as Thomas Keller, Daniel Boulud and Éric Ripert, King Georges is a heartfelt tribute to this dying breed of classic French chef. 

Barbecue

Food porn quotient: 6/10

Educational value: 7/10

Entertainment value: 7/10

There’s a certain kind of magic that happens when fire meets beast, and the documentary Barbecue strives to capture this wizadry by travelling to 12 countries to taste the diversity of barbecue cultures. We seriously wanted to “fire up the barbie” after watching this!

And one more for the road…

Master of None (Season 2)

Food porn quotient: 6/10

Educational value: 4/10

Entertainment value: 10/10

Strictly speaking, this quirky comedy-drama by Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang isn’t based on food, but we certainly got plenty of food envy watching Aziz prance around Italy making pasta and dining at some of the most fantastic restaurants in the world. We couldn’t stop drooling over the meal at Osteria Francescana or imagining what the famous sausage sandwich at Bar Schiavoni might taste like. Allora!

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Editor-at-Large, Jetsetter Food Nomad

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