In the first episode of Netflix's Ugly Delicious, David Chang, along with some colleagues, decides to travel to restaurants all over the world to test the importance of traditional ingredients in pizza. David Chang is a culinary chef and is the founder of Momofuku Noodle Bar. He chose to explore the traditions of pizza because he believes that food is worth exploring and learning more about.
The restaurants Chang traveled to were located in Brooklyn, New Haven, Los Angeles, the Tri-State Area, Tokyo, Italy, and Copenhagen. These restaurants all varied from one another, from ingredients to recipe to the history of the pizzeria. The first pizzeria he traveled to was located in Brooklyn, New York named Lucali. The method the owner had was focused on toppings, which were the generic toppings the average American is use to. The second restaurant Chang traveled to was located in Tokyo, known as Savoy. The chef of the restaurant served Chang and guest star, Aziz Ansari, pizza with tuna and mayonnaise. They thought this method was quite unconventional, but nonetheless they did not dislike it. The third restaurant was visited by Iacono, owner of Lucali. Frank Pepe is located in New Haven, Connecticut known for their clam pie. This clam pie is a signature dish of Frank Pepe's and holds its own tradition within the storefront. Wolfgang Puck's restaurant. Spago, was the fourth restaurant visited. Here, they discussed less about food and more about how rules are meant to be broken when it comes to tradition. Totonno's was the fifth pizzeria to be visited and the second in Brooklyn, New York. This restaurant also had a similar story to Frank Pepe's, Chang admired the history behind the family.
After visiting these long chain of restaurants, Chang's colleagues traveled to where the love of pizza came from, Italy. In Italy he visited the restaurant Pizzeria "De Attilio" and discussed the origins of the favorite food. From there, Chang visited Baest in Copenhagen who is best know for their wood-fired pizzas and their homemade mozzarella. The eighth restaurant visited was by Iacono in Caiazzo, Italy. This pizzeria was very interesting by the fact that they served post-modern Neapolitan pies.
Back to America, Chang visits the famous food chain Domino's and works a shift as a delivery-man. He then traveled back to Tokyo, where he was again surprised by the pizza recipe because it was made entirely of Japanese ingredients.
The frames the creators used to describe the food they ate are authenticity and exotic. The restaurants Savoy, Frank Pepe, and Pepe Grani dealt with the food frame of exotic. These restaurants made pizza out of unconventional foods and were still delicious. This reminded me of the YouTube video Thai Fruits and article read in class and how there are so many different aspects of one food item. The rest of the restaurants dealt with authenticity in their own way. Frank Pepe and Totonno's authenticity dealt with the history of the restaurants and where their recipes originated from. This history brought culture into the restaurants and led their consumers into knowing exactly who they are. The consumers are also able to relate to a culture they never grew up in, with history it ties everyone together. With the rest of the restaurants, their authenticity formulated from the ingredients and cooking style. These aspects symbolized the long history behind pizza and how consumers feel more included in being a part of this culture being shared with them. This episode of Ugly Delicious was extremely relatable, due to the fact that, pizza is my favorite food. I never thought of one food item being so different, especially pizza because I have always known of it to be generic and simple.
