- Emmy-winning actor Tony Shalhoub stars in the new CNN travel and food series, “Breaking Bread.”
- The show uses bread as a lens to explore diverse global cultures, histories, and personal stories.
- Shalhoub travels to locations including New York City, France, Japan, and Brazil, often accompanied by his family.
- The series joins a popular genre of celebrity-hosted travelogues but aims to carve its own niche with a personal, heartfelt approach.
A Fresh Take on Food and Travel
NEW YORK — Four simple ingredients—flour, water, salt, and yeast—form the foundation of bread. But for CNN’s new series, “Breaking Bread,” a special fifth ingredient has been added: Tony Shalhoub. The celebrated star of “Monk” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” is stepping into the crowded field of celebrity travel hosts, bringing his unique charm and curiosity to a global exploration of culture through its most fundamental food.
“It is about bread, but bread really as a kind of a vehicle, a vessel, to illustrate and billboard history and culture and people and find out what they do and why they do what they do,” Shalhoub explained.
The series follows the actor as he samples everything from baguettes and bouillabaisse in Marseille, France, to fluffy milk bread and red bean paste buns in Tokyo. It’s a journey that proves bread is more than just sustenance; it’s a gateway to understanding a region’s soul.
More Than Just a Loaf
The adventure begins in Shalhoub’s hometown of New York City. The first episode sees him tasting old-fashioned pumpernickel, rye breads, and even Irish soda bread scones. He ventures to Chinatown for fried dough and to Brooklyn’s Little Caribbean neighborhood for black cake and currant rolls. Guest Lin-Manuel Miranda joins him for an everything bagel, exclaiming, “I don’t know how you convinced people to make this a show. We just get to eat delicious bread.”
But the culinary tour doesn’t stop there. In a subsequent episode, Shalhoub finds himself in Brazil, exploring the influence of Lebanese immigrants—like his own family—on São Paulo’s food scene, tasting flatbreads with za’atar and pistachios. He also learns about Afro-Brazilian heritage through deep-fried bread balls made from black-eyed pea flour. And, of course, there’s time for local drinks. “This used to be a show about bread,” he jokes after enjoying a caipirinha, Brazil’s national cocktail.
Following a Beloved Recipe
Shalhoub joins a growing list of celebrity travel hosts like Stanley Tucci and Zac Efron, all following in the footsteps of the legendary Anthony Bourdain. Amy Entelis, an executive at CNN who worked on Bourdain’s “Parts Unknown,” greenlit Shalhoub’s project, emphasizing that the goal isn’t to replicate the past. “No one we work with tries to be Tony Bourdain,” she stated. “We try to work with people to go on that mission, but to make it theirs.”
A Personal Journey
For Shalhoub, making it his own means turning it into a family affair. His wife, Brooke Adams, and their daughters join him on different legs of the journey, tracing his father’s 1920 journey through Marseille and exploring Iceland together. This personal touch is central to the show’s theme.
“Bread to me is tied to memory, tied to our childhood, tied to our parents and our grandparents,” Shalhoub said. “We’re drawing from the past, but it’s also something that we want to pass down to my grandchildren and forward and onward.”
He insists the focus remains on the people and places he visits, positioning himself as a “tour guide” for the audience rather than the star. This fresh, fish-out-of-water perspective offers a heartfelt look at the man behind the iconic characters we’ve come to love.
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