Netflix food show starts tough conversations
- 3 years ago
Netflix's binge-worthy docuseries "Ugly Delicious" uses food to tear down cultural barriers and challenge the perceptions of iconic dishes. The series, which follows Momofuku founder David Chang, along with some famous friends, is executive produced by Morgan Neville, a writer, director and producer whose previous credits include the Oscar and Grammy-winning documentary "20 Feet from Stardom," plus "Best of Enemies," and the forthcoming "Won't You Be My Neighbor?"
"I understand certain cultures more through their food than anything else. So in a way then, food is like the perfect Trojan Horse, to talk about anything," Neville said on "Salon Talks." According to Neville, the "Ugly Delicious" team had no intentions of making a generic and light food show. "The approach was really, like what are the ideas we're excited about, or what are the ideas we're arguing about, and let's essentially backwards engineer and episode out of that," he said. For example, an episode on tacos was born out of a conversation around how the U.S. restaurant industry thrives and survives on illegal labor and the current state of U.S.-Mexico relations.
"I understand certain cultures more through their food than anything else. So in a way then, food is like the perfect Trojan Horse, to talk about anything," Neville said on "Salon Talks." According to Neville, the "Ugly Delicious" team had no intentions of making a generic and light food show. "The approach was really, like what are the ideas we're excited about, or what are the ideas we're arguing about, and let's essentially backwards engineer and episode out of that," he said. For example, an episode on tacos was born out of a conversation around how the U.S. restaurant industry thrives and survives on illegal labor and the current state of U.S.-Mexico relations.