Tony Shalhoub is loath to check his upcoming CNN sequence, “Breaking Bread,” to the journey meals reveals hosted by his frequent collaborator Stanley Tucci, who directed him within the gourmand basic “Massive Evening.”
“I don’t take into account myself a foodie,” Shalhoub says in a video interview. “He’s the final word foodie, wonderful chef. He actually is aware of what he’s speaking about and I don’t know something.”
However Shalhoub, greatest recognized lately as one of many stars of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” makes up for his lack of information with utter enthusiasm. As host and govt producer of “Breaking Bread,” premiering Sunday at 9 p.m. Pacific, he traipses the globe making an attempt completely different breads and bread-related merchandise whereas uncovering tales of how these staples relate to migration, labor and his circle of relatives historical past. In truth, the legacy of Shalhoub’s father, who settled in Wisconsin after leaving Lebanon, is current in a number of episodes. The elder Shalhoub’s love of the stuff served as one of many inspirations for the entire enterprise.
“We had been consuming most frequently bakery bread quite than simply business store-bought packaged bread, and he actually had a fantastic appreciation for it and wished to mannequin that for us,” Shalhoub says.
Nonetheless, Shalhoub’s targets transcend meals porn. Days earlier than the premiere, Shalhoub spoke about why he sees “Breaking Bread” as being about one thing larger. This dialog has been edited for readability and size.
How did doing a meals present even come to you?
Properly, I used to be so enamored of Stanley [Tucci’s] present.
I used to be going to ask if Stanley had one thing to do with it.
We by no means actually talked about it quite a bit, however I’ve been impressed by Stanley for therefore many issues. However even previous to his journey meals present [“Searching for Italy”], a nephew of mine [Michael Matzdorff], once I lived in Los Angeles, got here to me and he was making bread on the time. This was manner earlier than the pandemic, when that turned the factor to do. We bought into speaking about bread, and I used to be so impressed by what he was doing in his personal kitchen, and he simply casually talked about, “Wouldn’t or not it’s cool to discover bread making all around the globe?” We bought a pitch collectively. It didn’t actually get numerous traction then, and this was a pair a long time in the past, however the concept stayed with me. I discussed it to a different pal who’s a producer on the present, Tamara Weiss, and she or he simply type of had this nice concept to reformat it, and I assume the timing was proper.
Was this your nephew that seems within the Tokyo episode or a unique nephew?
That is an older nephew than that. I’ve many nephews and lots of nieces they usually’re all geniuses. However there’s one other leg to this too, except for my fascination with bread and bread all over the world. I’ve been performing for therefore a few years and felt very lucky with all the breaks that I’ve gotten. However I’ve been beginning to really feel slightly bit like I wished to reconnect to the world once more, in a roundabout way. When you’re working and your experiences are principally coming via scripted, principally fictional stuff, after some time, there’s that chance that you just begin to really feel slightly disconnected from precise life and the world. That additionally was one of many essential drivers right here. I wished to satisfy new folks, journey to new locations and even acquainted locations, however with a unique standpoint. In numerous methods, it’s been eye-opening. The meals element apart, I’ve discovered it’s been actually good for me. You get out of your personal head and out of your personal sphere, and also you’re reminded that there’s a lot else occurring on the market.
How did you select the place you had been going to go? So most of the locations have a private connection for you: You stated you wished to start out in Lebanon, the place your father is from, however the political state of affairs didn’t enable for it so that you went to Brazil, the place there’s a massive Lebanese inhabitants. You spend time in New York, the place you reside, and Wisconsin, the place you’re from.
We initially had an inventory of about 12 completely different places, and a few of these had been places that I simply thought, “Boy, it might actually be enjoyable to journey there.” Once we bought into it with CNN, you already know, particularly for the primary season, they wished for me to have a private connection to every of those places. We gave them an inventory of about 10 locations, they usually selected six. So clearly New York, as a result of that is now my second time dwelling right here within the metropolis, and I like it. I take into account it my dwelling and the place a lot of my profession has taken place. I feel Marseille, as a result of though I traveled to France a number of instances, is a spot the place my father, when he was immigrating from Lebanon over 100 years in the past, as many immigrants did, needed to cease in Marseille within the course of. We’ve at all times been interested by that a part of his journey as a result of we knew about his departure from Beirut, and we knew about his arrival in Ellis Island, however we didn’t know concerning the center a part of his journey. So we had been in a position to discover that and get some extra new details about that.
Members of your loved ones additionally present up, together with your daughter Josie Adams and one other nephew. Why did you need to contain them?
Each time there’s a dialogue about bread or about meals generally, it principally stems from or grows out of my childhood, rising up, my dad and mom, my different older kin, and I assume that’s the closest connection for me. It has been such part of what connects us all.
Tony Shalhoub along with his daughter Josie Adams and pastry chef Pierre Ragot within the Marseille episode of “Breaking Bread.”
(CNN Unique Sequence)
How did your relationship to bread, clearly one thing you like, change over the course of creating the present?
The primary takeaway was that the present, for me, actually turned extra concerning the those who I met than the product itself. There have been acquainted issues, a few of them executed in a type of progressive and new manner and different issues that I had not skilled earlier than or tasted earlier than, however [it was] actually extra concerning the folks and their devotion to that work and the explanations that they change into so obsessed and so dedicated to that type of work. For me, the present actually turns into about these tales and people histories, whether or not it’s a household historical past or a narrative about immigration or a narrative of a war-torn nation. To be actually frank about it, bread is de facto extra the car that brings us into these different discussions.
I need to say this in a really tactful manner, however the threat of doing this type of present is that there’s a level, I consider, of diminishing returns after we speak about meals. That is my concern. It was like, will somebody get up and say, “Cease it.” There’s so many essential issues which are occurring that deserve our focus and our consideration, however as a result of we’re speaking about meals, it’s inevitable as a result of now we have to have it daily. It sustains us, and that’s all high quality and good, however I’ve been desirous about this quite a bit, and I need bread to be that factor that sparks different conversations.
Within the Marseille episode, you uncover a part of your father’s story, discovering particulars of his journey to America within the municipal archives. What was that have like?
It was fairly transferring and likewise doing it with my daughter and having these discussions with my daughter. She didn’t know my father as a result of he handed away earlier than she was born. However I don’t suppose I might’ve had the chance or the entry to uncover these items had I not been doing this present at the moment in that metropolis. It might’ve simply gone undiscovered and unknown.
Clearly, you’ve eaten on display screen earlier than, that’s a part of an actor’s job, however did you concentrate on the way you had been going to react to what you strive?
I didn’t actually give it some thought or plan it. I wished to determine methods to keep away from or sidestep inventory reactions. “God, that’s scrumptious.” After all, that’s what everybody says after they’re consuming one thing thrilling and new. However I used to be actually making an attempt to remain open and quite than utilizing phrases, numerous instances I simply felt I let it go into my physique and my physique type of did the work.
There’s a second while you virtually perform a little dance.
As a result of some of these things simply transcends phrases.
Was there one thing you tried that really stunned you?
Actually, I feel given the quantity of pastry I devour and have consumed in my lifetime, I believed that Mary O’s Irish Soda Bread scones had been type of a revelation. I’ve made scones. I’ve had scones. I like them, however this was revelatory. In Brazil they couldn’t develop wheat for a time, and earlier than they had been importing it, they had been counting on cassava flour in every single place. They make a cheese bread. They had been making it out of cassava flour, which is scrumptious, not heavy, and no gluten and all of that, and with cheese. One way or the other miraculously, you’re consuming these items and also you’re by no means feeling full or bloated.
