Phil Rosenthal wasn’t always a TV food guy. He was a TV comedy guy, having been the creative force behind the celebrated US sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond. But behind it all, food – and travel – were the things he loved the most.
So in 2015, 10 years after the last episode of Everybody Loves Raymond aired on US TV, he fronted I’ll Have What Phil’s Having, a travel and food show on PBS. It ran for six episodes, but wasn’t renewed. Then Netflix came along. Phil now has a hit show across the world (or should we say ‘all across the sea and the land’), appealing to all ages, all cultures – anyone who loves food and seeing a bit of the world while they’re at it.
His genial demeanour and a love of food and the stories behind them is both beguiling and contagious, making Somebody Feed Phil the feel-good show that we all need…
Manchester’s Finest: Right, first things first, is Manchester on your list yet…
Phil Rosenthal: [Laughs] Everywhere is on the list. People say ‘Where do you still want to go?’ and I say ‘Everywhere I still haven’t been’. I came to Manchester for one day a couple of years ago to do this show, and I’ve been invited back. I can’t wait to be back, and hopefully I’ll be able to explore some other things.
MF: We hope so too. If you had to encapsulate what Somebody Feeds Phil is about, maybe to someone who hasn’t seen it, how would you go about it…
PR: If there’s a theme to my show, it is immigration makes the world go round. It’s fantastic. It makes life grand and interesting. People immigrate everywhere, and it should not be surprising that I had one of the shawarmas of my life in Glasgow.
MF: Of course, and in Manchester we are lucky enough to have all kinds of great food [hint hint] thanks to immigration, particularly Indian and Pakistani food. You went to Mumbai in the last series…
PR: I have.
MF: Did you love it?
PR: I did. I loved it. Wow. And here’s something obvious to say, but you know if you like Indian food, you know where it’s really, really good? [Laughs] So I try to tell people by showing them; if you love something, you go to the source, it’s that simple!
MF: Was this curveball in your career something that you foresaw? Because your first career was obviously TV and writing comedy…
PR: No, I had no idea! By the way, it didn’t happen overnight. It took a long time to switch lanes. And the industry doesn’t welcome you switching lanes. It was like ‘Hey, so you were a tuba player, and now you want to be a tap dancer?’ Literally, like that.
MF: But food was your passion before that, though?
PR: Right. I saw food as something, for one, very enjoyable, and two, a gateway to other cultures, and people around the world. So when I first started travelling, in my 20s, it became my absolute passion. All extra money I had would be put towards this, towards travelling. And of course, my favourite part of the travelling would be eating. I felt like it was the secret of life. The secret to peace and love and happiness in the world.
MF: That feels like a lot to ask of food…
PR: It’s not. If you can open a mouth, you can open a mind. If you try something, it’s literally taking in a new idea. Maybe the world would be better if people were more open to other people’s thoughts and ideas. When you eat with someone, right away you’re not fighting. Next, if the food is any good at all, we’re going to be in a good mood. Then, if we share a laugh or a smile even, now we’re friends. Food is the connection.
MF: Where did those first travels take you?
PR: We couldn’t afford to go anywhere when I was growing up, and when I was 23, I hadn’t been out of the country. But I got a free flight as a courier to Europe and I went to Paris and Florence, with hardly any money at all, maybe $200. This was 1983. It got me into pensiones and hostels. Wow, did I have a good time. I made lifelong friends in Florence that I still have, and I see when I got to Florence, in their bakery.
MF: And what did you eat?
PR: In Paris? A baguette with cheese. I’d never had either bread or cheese like that. Such a simple thing. It was the best of those things I’d ever had in my life. And eating it in the most glorious setting in the world? You’re going to remember that. I thought that was heaven. Until I got to Italy. And that was even better. Pizza. Pasta. Gelato. I went insane. And I said to myself ‘every penny I make that’s not going to basic stuff is going to be spent on travel’.
I’m a man of simple tastes, though I will try everything. I don’t go out for fancy meals a lot. I love Mexican food and in Los Angeles, you know, we’re blessed with huge populations of people, the largest populations of people from other countries outside their native countries in the world. So the biggest Chinese population outside of China is here, and now same with Mexicans, same with Japanese, same with Thai. So the food scene here is incredible and the way the world is, I can open my phone and have it delivered to my house.
MF: Here’s a big question for you Phil… do you cook?
PR: I’m not a cook. I don’t have the talent or the temperament for it. I don’t cook a lot at all for myself. I can make a tuna fish sandwich. I can make a hot dog and I love those things. I think when we find the things we loved as kids, the best versions of those things, they become our favorite things. You can’t do everything. People say ‘You have this food [show], but you can’t even cook?’ I say I’ve met a lot of great chefs in the world, and they can’t write a sitcom.
MF: What’s been the most unusual dish that’s been put in front of you?
PR: It’s happened on the show. I’ve had to eat my share of bugs, which I don’t seek out at restaurants usually. I tried an ant in Tokyo. The ants were placed on a salad. If you saw that, you’d think the restaurant had a problem. But my companions tell me ‘these ants are very good, they taste like lemon’. I’m like, if it’s lemon flavour we’re after, could we have some lemon? So the cameras are rolling, and I have to walk the walk. So I did it, and it took every bit of courage to put that ant in my mouth and crunch down on it, and it did crunch. You know what, it was like someone put a lemon drop on my tongue. Like a magic trick.
MF: I thought you’d say, maybe, like a spleen… are you less squeamish about that sort of thing?
PR: Eeeee… Sometimes a spleen, if it’s chopped up in a sauce, it’s going to look more like meat. I’m not seeking that out either. ‘Sir, give me your finest spleen’. I’m not looking for it. They gave me an opportunity to eat iguana in Mexico. I said ‘no thank you’. But if it had been prepared and put on a plate and I couldn’t see that it was an iguana, as opposed to when they showed me the iguana? I probably would have tasted it. But if given the opportunity, I am a chicken.
MF: What has been the most meaningful moment for you in the show, the moment that really touched you the most…
PR: Did you watch the Dubai episode? There’s a scene where I visit a Palestinian woman’s restaurant. This woman was lovely and wonderful, yet the world has told us that a Jewish man from Los Angeles and a Palestinian woman from Dubai aren’t supposed to get along. But we got along really well. And the food was so delicious, it made me emotional. And we’re still in touch. I’ll never forget that. I’m not a spiritual person, but there’s something spiritual about that.
MF: That’s a great privilege. I suppose the show has been a great privilege to make…
PR: The first time that I got to have a terrific meal on camera, filming our first episode of I’ll Have What Phil’s Having, it was in Barcelona. That first meal I ate in Barcelona, I thought ‘Woah, that was phenomenal, if it ended right now, I had this’. And that’s how I’ve felt every single meal, of every single episode of every single year that I’ve gotten to do it. So I just feel blessed for any and all. Now, greedily, I want to keep going. Because I’m having the time of my life and I don’t want the ride to end.
Phil lands in Manchester on 9 April for An Evening With Phil Rosenthal of Somebody Feed Phil at Manchester Academy.
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