‘Ugly Delicious’ Tackles Foodie Culture’s Snobbery In A Surprising Way

Ugly Delicious is billing itself as David Chang‘s star-studded international search for the world’s best grub. And it’s sort of that, and not at all. Though it’s visually stunning and all about the best food in the world, Ugly Delicious isn’t like other “foodie” shows. Ugly Delicious has a distinctly rebellious streak, namely in how it touches upon classism in the foodie world.

It’s not that host David Chang isn’t a snob about good food and good flavors. In fact, a lot of Ugly Delicious is about searching for the best representations of what a specific food can be. But where other food shows want to highlight only the most authentic food or the most exclusive cuisine, Ugly Delicious…well, it doesn’t care about that. It even makes a point to stump for Domino’s Pizza.

When I asked Chang about the show’s decision to address this divide in the food world, between the gate-keeping foodies and the junk food-chomping hoi polloi, he said, “I’ve been like, and I continue to be like, the worst snob about things and I think we all can be. One of the things that conversation about Domino’s Pizza, that I think people can relate to, is just because you love something doesn’t mean you’re dumb. Sometimes you can’t afford it or you haven’t been exposed to it. We have to remind ourselves constantly that you don’t know where someone’s coming from and if someone says, ‘Hey, I like Domino’s Pizza,’ then immediately it doesn’t mean they have a terrible palate.”

“I like Domino’s still, mainly as a reminder, ‘Hey, don’t tell me what I can and cannot like,’ but I also remembered growing up in Northern Virginia, eagerly wanting Domino’s because it was something that we ate a lot. It was my first pizza. Now that I’ve traveled the world – and I’ve had great pizza everywhere — it still doesn’t diminish the fact that I like Domino’s. And I know that some people are like, ‘Dude, you’re a Philistine.’ And I’m okay with that,” Chang continued with a sort of punk rock perspective.

Foodie culture has never been more hip. This is something that even gets addressed in Ugly Delicious with a wry mix of sighs and excitement. What it means is that food is now so hip that it sometimes represents a lifestyle. Not in a cultural way, but a classist one. Not everyone has access to the same meals simply due to accessibility, and Ugly Delicious seems aware of this, but also tuned into something darker. It doesn’t seem to care about the cash money divide between diners as much as the cultural barriers.

At one point, Chang said, “Americans think sometimes that Chinese food is gross. Not to go deeper into that, which we could, but Chinese people think American food is gross. You’ve got to remind yourself that both of those things can be true. At the end of the day, people just want to eat what they think is delicious.”

Because cuisine is so tied to cultural identity, food is also used as a means to divide — or unite — us. As Ugly Delicious searches for what makes makes good food so good, it’s knocks into our preconceptions about food itself. In the “Taco” episode, we actually get taco expert Gustavo Arellano debating whether or not Mexican food can go “fine dining.” “Should Mexican food be that expensive?” he asks Chang and a few of their pals. “Is it still Mexican food?”

Chang intimated that he included all of these different experts and diners, this diverse cast of voices, to cover his own butt —“I definitely didn’t want to be the sole voice because I’m not an expert on things. I don’t know a lot about food,” he said. “There’s only so much food knowledge you can have.” — but it gives Ugly Delicious a bigger mission statement. Ugly Delicious is about finding common ground over divisive flavors.

“Part of it is just acceptance,” Chang said, once more musing on the debates posed by the show. “If we can accept that people have different opinions on things, maybe we can tackle some other serious topics.”

Ugly Delicious debuts on Netflix on Friday, February 23. 

 

Stream Ugly Delicious on Netflix