They’re easy to make, easy to carry and almost always inexpensive. Their roots are humble, but often deep, sometimes dating back to millenary traditions. More than just a dish, a tradition, or a phenomenon, they have become icons of the global village, revolutionizing traditional means of satisfying the most elementary need all over the planet: feeding ourselves. And they have turned into high-stake components of our economy, culture and society.
Pizza, ice cream, sandwiches, sushi, French fries and pasta: six stories, six adventures, six unusual, unexpected destines, sprinkled with surprises, anecdotes and discoveries, carried by passionate characters and startling situations.
These simple local dishes have all achieved a universal dimension and are eaten around the world today. Universal food, true, but never the same from one place to the next. In adopting these dishes, each country has also adapted them to local tastes, giving rise to variants that have in turn been elevated to the status of local specialties: from New York’s hot pastrami sandwich to Hawaiian pizza, from Finnish noodle casserole to cold pasta salad, from Brussels’ mussels with fries to American French Fries… Culinary exchanges never stop. Which is how the Japanese in Japan can try “sushi à la parisienne”, just like in Paris!
But the series doesn’t stop at the culinary: the films also deal with history, economics, culture, science, psychology, travel, and humor. Each dish leads us to discover fascinating countries, lifestyles, characters and destinies. From the countries of origin to those of adoption, the voyage is punctuated with meals, interviews, archive images (family films, reports, film clips, advertising and more), and reveals chefs’ secrets for preparing and enjoying these foods throughout time.
This multi-faceted odyssey’s narration is often astonishing, always in motion, never tasteless. Here’s a pizza advice: try it, you’ll like it! After pizza and ice cream, it’s time to set off for surprising new horizons and try fries, sandwiches, pasta and sushi.