Thomas Keller To Appear On TV Show
Looks like food television has just made it big: Word on the street is that world-class chef Thomas Keller will be appearing on a food and travel show, with Everybody Loves Raymond producer Phil Rosenthal.
Keller has apparently jetted off to London to work on the pilot with Rosenthal (the show has yet to be named), Grub Street reports. And while Grub Street originally claimed that Keller will be on the entire season of the show, visiting chefs and restaurants around the world with Rosenthal, Deadline has another story.
Deadline's says that Keller is set to do the pilot for the series, but the series itself will bring in various chefs. In each episode, "a great chef takes me to a great city and shows me where to eat," they quote Rosenthal as saying.
If all goes well, Rosenthal has also lined up Nancy Silverton for a trip to Italy and Nobu Matsuhisa for a trip in Japan, Deadline says. And while this may sound a bit like No Reservations, which is in its last season, Rosenthal says he'll be different from Anthony Bourdain. "I love him but I'm not like him — I prefer to have a reservation," Rosenthal said.
In the meantime, the chef/Rosenthal pairing makes sense, seeing as Rosenthal has invested in a number of restaurants, including Umami Burger, Mozza, and The Hungry Cat. He is also, Grub Street notes, the executive producer of upcoming food documentary Spinning Plates, which follows people at three notable restaurants (Alinea is one).
This post has been updated to reflect Grub Street's change in their original post, which implied Keller would be in all the episodes. A representative from Thomas Keller Restaurant Group has confirmed to The Daily Meal that Keller is indeed starring in the pilot, but future plans are unknown.