Anthony Bourdain is prime time television; his show No Reservations on the Travel Channel is prime time opportunity for free publicity. Bourdain has done more for Asia’s cuisine, and tourism, than any food writer, travel guide, celebrity chef or Michelin-rated restaurant. From street snack to pop culture and politics, Bourdain takes a tongue-in-cheek look at the food and the people of whichever country or city he is travelling in.
However, his recent episode on Romania turned out to be less-than-delectable television, drawing a barrage of righteous indignation and expletives from prickly patriotic types, who, I’m quite certain, have never seen his show before. Like all well-meaning Americans, Bourdain could not escape Romania’s Dracula cliché and ended up doing a farce of Transylvanian proportions, complete with costumes and pig slaughter. He says it is one the funniest shows he has hosted, but that’s high cynicism even by Bourdain’s standards.
I find the No Reservations: Romania episode quite entertaining from whatever I have seen so far on YouTube. Perhaps it could have done better with some good camera work and better scheduling, and a more knowledgeable local fixer rather than the one used in this episode, as the chef-turned-writer admits in his blog. Bourdain could have included the Danube Delta in his itinerary, specially its abundant supply of caviar and fish. But that is another story. Couple of problems with the episode though… the timing was completely off, and it looked like the filming had been scheduled in autumn when it’s raining.
The episode seems to revolve around the 50th birthday of the fixer and his own personal agenda rather than Bourdain’s. A lot of time was taken up by a tour of the Bran Castle, a national monument and museum often mistakenly referred to as Dracula’s Castle and now up for sale. The asking price – anywhere between 60 and 100 million euros. A trip to Maramures, the old country, steeped in tradition, seems to have been included, but a whole lot of other interesting places were left out for the lack of a better informed fixer. The train ride from Bucharest to Brasov is nothing short of breathtaking, but the camera seems to have stayed on headshots and the train’s interiors.
A trip to any one of Romania’s many vineyards would have made sense, since wine is such an integral part of the local culture. But you can’t get it right all the time. Sadly, Romania’s cuisine remains an undiscovered tourist attraction and any future opportunity to showcase it on international television must be given due attention from those in the business.
