Ugly Delicious

Ugly Delicious is informative, entertaining, and enriching, and I can’t recommend it more highly.

Neville’s multidisciplinary approach to storytelling matches Chang’s break-all-the-rules mentality. Each episode careens through a number of different styles, including talking heads, cinéma vérité, drunken conversations shot on a phone, illustrations, animation, sitcom spoofs, and even a mock political debate, in which the opposing parties argue over which culture’s dumplings reign supreme. The flexible approach makes for a kinetic, humorous, and entertaining viewing experience.

At every turn Chang is learning something new. If Season 1 was about challenging long-held ideas about food, Season 2 is about exploring entirely unknown arenas, and what we stand to gain when we can admit, “I don’t know.” The show is all the better when Chang and its litany of wildly talented and smart guests admit when they don’t know the answer, which always provides a more satisfying avenue for understanding and knowledge.

A wholly captivating tour exhaustive in its detail, which may or may not leave us with a deeper understanding of who we are, or of other cultures, though it’s likely to induce intense cravings to eat.

It’s well worth the occasional eye-roll or moment of frustration to spend these eight episodes exploring the landscape of “ugly” American foods with David Chang and Peter Meehan. It’s often fun, and sometimes something much more.

The visual curlicues and the attempts to impose a larger thematic structure and narrative--there’s an awful lot of tired talk about how food tells stories--don’t hide the reality that there isn’t a whole lot new or surprising about Ugly Delicious. (The exception: the openness with which it discusses racism as a fundamental force in culinary culture.