Season 1
Cooking in the Danger Zone is a British documentary television series produced by the BBC and presented by Stefan Gates in which Gates explores unusual stories in some of the world’s more dangerous places, using food to explore and understand people’s culture and the challenges they face.
He has eaten such obscure foods as rat in India, baby seal in the Arctic and radioactive soup in Chernobyl.
The series originally aired in the UK fom 6 May, 2007 to 30 March, 2008. There are 13 half-hour episodes in three seasons.
Cooking in the Danger Zone premiered in South Africa on DStv's BBC World channel on Saturday 17 May 2008, at 16h30. There are five episodes in the first season.
Repeats
Sundays: 10h30, 19h30
Mondays: 03h30
Synopsis
Presenter Stefan Gates goes on a culinary tour of five very different cultures to explore the idea that food is a social glue that holds societies together, as opposed to simply being about nutrition.
During his risky journey Stefan samples dishes such as fat-tailed sheeps testicles, yak’s penis with Chinese Communists, civet cat with the Karen rebels deep in the Burmese jungle and rotting walrus with the Inuit of the Canadian Arctic.
In Cameroon, every variety of bush meat – rat, snake, porcupine, civet cat, gorilla, chimpanzee – is on the menu, despite conservation efforts to preserve the endangered species.
But in Ethiopia, any food at all is treated as a delicacy.
At times the show goes extreme gourmet-style and shows us foods like eggs from the inside of the chicken (rather than the inside of a shell) found in Korea, testicle kebabs from Afghanistan and soup from a restaurant in Chernobyl, which gives Gates increased levels of radiation in his stomach post-meal.
He also picks up recipes from Dr Dogmeat, narrowly avoids being blown up by abandoned Soviet missiles in Afghanistan and tries to shake off his Communist Party minders in China.