Season 5 of Chef's Table Is About More than Magic — Food TV

"It's lovely to talk about the magic and mysticism of food, but it's a lot of hard work and time invested," says Tunde Wey in the first episode of the fifth season of Chef's Table.

He's talking about Cristina Martinez creating barbacoa, but for me, the quote provides a framework for these four new episodes. In Season five, there's so much more than magic at the Chef's Table.

Read more: Watch the Trailer for Season 5 of Netflix's "Chef's Table"

The beauty of food can be a powerful tool to create a space to talk about issues that are so much bigger than what's on our plates. In the same way food calls us to the table, food television has the capacity to lure us in with lingering shots of a pile of fresh dumplings or a whimsical swirl of edible foam, and show us the people and systems that bring you to that shot. It can stoke our hunger for more than our next meal. It can stoke our hunger for change.

READ MORE »