STRAIGHT OUTTA BOSTON–AND THE WILD WITHIN

Finishing up in Boston today after a really good time. For what is supposedly the heart of enemy territory, this Yankee fan has to admit he was treated very, very well.
Of course, I knew from the start that this was going to be all good. Except maybe the candlepin bowling–at which, it turns out, I profoundly suck. It did not help that after every gutter ball, the old guy in the Sox cap a few lanes down would jokingly yell: “Nice one, Jeter!”

Before getting in the car for the drive home, a quick re-pack and a plane to Eric Ripert’s yearly Cayman Food and Wine Festival, I want to take a minute to urge you to watch a really good show tonight on Travel. Yes. My own network.  My friends and long time partners at ZeroPointZero Production have, for the last year, been humping up mountains and hanging from cliffs with an astonishingly interesting, articulate and foolhardy young man named Steven Rinella. He’s the author of a terrific book you might have read called “The Scavenger’s Guide to Haute Cuisine“–and a correspondent for OUTSIDE magazine. The series they made together (to the usual ZPZ high standards), is called THE WILD WITHIN and it debuts tonight, SUNDAY at 9PM.

You know you’re not watching another ordinary travel and food show when the host, very early in the program, walks you through his apartment in Brooklyn, shows you a freezer, announces “It’s time to go get some meat”. Then flies to a remote part of Alaska to fill it up and feed his family.

Oh, yeah. And the guy can cook.  His book, in which he hunts and scavenges for a 43 course Escoffier based menu was awesome enough. This show? Well…see for yourself.
Let me stress that this is not your stereotypical hunter. This is a challenging, thought provoking, insightful–show. And at times scary.

This is a guy who CHOOSES to feed himself and his family (and his Brooklyn pals) in the most difficult ways possible–the way people everywhere used to have to do it. And we really see…REALLY see–where food comes from. Take a look.

If I have one complaint, I notice that ZPZ has been creaming off some of our best veteran shooters, editors and producers to make this show. And I know now why they look so tired and haunted all the time now.  Their hard work shows on the screen.