In episode one, Rick enjoys sitting on the dock of the bay in San Francisco, tasting legendary dishes like the hangtown fry - oyster pancake; a dish that can trace its origins to the California gold rush, which created the most famous Chinatown in the world. San Francisco is also the home of sourdough and where America's love affair with seasonal cooking took hold. Particularly important to the spread of this philosophy were groundbreaking restaurants like Chez Panisse, run by the legendary Alice Waters, who Rick is keen to meet. But it is also where he got his first taste of Mexican food. Enchiladas, guacamole and burritos were no longer names he had only heard on the radio, so the food of Mexico, an essential part of his culinary imagination, became real.
Rick Stein continues travelling down the Californian coastline immortalised by Steinbeck, past citrus groves, vineyards that inspired one his favourite movies, Sideways, and into the city of dreams, Los Angeles. There, movie icons of old like Charlie Chaplin enjoyed eating lamb's kidney with bacon alongside the perfect martini on Hollywood Boulevard and where the A-listers of today opt instead for chopped salad off the avenues of Beverly Hills. On the edge of Downtown LA, Rick discovers Olvera Street, where the Hispanic origins of the city took root. Then onwards, south to San Diego, where he meets 79-year-old Peter Halmay, the oldest sea-urchin diver in town, and where a local fishmonger cooks him the best fish chilli he has ever had.
Rick enjoys a hearty steak and eggs American diner special and bids a fond farewell to his trusty Ford Mustang as he heads across what is reputed to be the busiest border crossing in the world - San Diego to Tijuana - to begin his Mexican adventures. He follows the Pacific coastline down to Ensenada, sampling flour tortilla burritos and fresh fish landed, marinated and cooked on Popotla Beach, before visiting the Valle de Guadalupe - Mexico's best-kept secret for fabulous wines and the jewel in its culinary crown for Baja Med cuisine.
Leaving the Baja Peninsula, Rick explores the western mainland. He lands in the town that placed tequila - and probably Mexico - on the world map and the metropolis that gave us mariachis and dishes like chilli con carne; a city so loved by its people that they insist on repeating its name twice - Guadalajara Guadalajara. But Rick is no stranger to Mexico, and for family holidays he often flies to the tropical beaches of Puerto Vallarta on Mexico's Pacific coast. Nothing matches the view from these picture postcard beaches as waiters create theatre with the famous Mexican flaming coffee, its flames blending with the evening sky as the sun sets over the Pacific. Being a hopeless romantic, Rick can't resist a visit to Casa Kimberly, bought by Richard Burton for Elizabeth Taylor, where they still serve her favourite cocktail - a chocolate martini - as well as Mexico's favourite celebratory dish, chiles en nogada.
Rick heads to Mexico City, a rich melting pot of cuisines. Then he visits Puebla the home of mole. Finally, Rick travels to the deserts of Oaxaca where mezcal is produced.
For Mexicans, their most revered dishes come from the south and their Mecca is undeniably Oaxaca, where locals still dress in traditional costume, bringing to life the enduring descriptions of writers like D H Lawrence, who fell in love with the area. This is the land that coined the phrase 'people of the corn', the former site of the desert empire of the Zapotecs, and the home of Mexico's national cheese queso oaxacana. Totally off the beaten track and across the Chinantla Mountains, the muggy breezes of the Mexican Gulf transform eastern Oaxaca from desert to a tropical paradise. Rick delights in exploring this hidden land where you can smell the tropical fruit from roadside stalls long before they come into sight, where vanilla still grows wild and cacao orchards are harvested to make superb chocolate.
Rick Stein's journey begins to draw to a close as he heads east from Oaxaca to the Yucatan Peninsula - a place once frequented by real pirates of the Caribbean, including our own Sir Francis Drake. Here, where the Europeans first landed over five hundred years ago, the local folk have lighter skins and bluey green eyes. They feast on the hottest chilli of them all, the habanero, and give slow food a new meaning as they bury and cook their Pibil dishes below ground on hot rocks. This was the playground of the ancient Mayans, their pyramids gleaming like gold above treelined canopies and where dishes like Papadzules and Sikil Pak are still enjoyed in small villages across the countryside. Rick ends his journey feasting on grilled seafood in Tulum along the shores of the Caribbean Sea.
