Italian Food Safari (2010)

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General		Extras
Category	TV Series	Main Menu Audio Deleted Scenes-Lots of them!
Rating
Year Of Production	2010
Running Time	338:13 (Case: 325)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Toufic Charabati
Studio Distributor	SBS Madman Entertainment	Starring	Maeve O'Meara Guy Grossi
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Dual
RPI	$29.95	Music	Carlo Giacco

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	Yes
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Some shows start to lose their edge after a few seasons or get boring whereas some, like this one, find a way to spice things up without changing their basic approach. In this fourth season of the Food Safari show, instead of having each episode focus on a different cuisine, this time the entire season focuses on one cuisine only; the rich and widely varied Italian cuisine. In addition to this, regular host Maeve O'Meara is joined by celebrity chef Guy Grossi who is a wonderful and warm addition to the show. The concept here, as opposed to most cooking shows, is that the focus is not on one or a small number of chefs but rather that the hosts are more the official tasters who go on 'safari' to discover the variety of Italian Cuisine. They visit professional chefs either in their workplace or their homes or home cooks in their own kitchens and watch them prepare a dish (and in Guy's case often get involved). They then share it with them and sometimes their friends and family. This season also features a number of sessions with Guy Grossi cooking for Maeve. The extras feature a lot more of this. Lots of great Italian chefs are featured including Giovanni Pilu from one of my favourite restaurants, Pilu, here in Sydney.

     This DVD release (the second Food Safari release by Madman Entertainment) features the thirteen episodes of Italian Food Safari which first aired on SBS in 2010. They are all 26 minutes each.

     Maeve is a good host who obviously has a great interest in different cuisines and cultures. The addition of Guy Grossi is a masterstroke as his obvious love of food and Italian cuisine makes the audience even more involved in what is going on. He comes across as a lover of what he does and a man you would love to cook and eat with.

     The thirteen episodes are spread over two discs, with ten on the first and three on the second plus lots of extras.

     Highly recommended, probably the best Food Safari so far.

Video

     The video quality is very good. The feature is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio, which is the original aspect ratio, 16x9 enhanced.

     The picture was quite clear and sharp being consistent with the digital television presentation. Shadow detail is very good. The colour was excellent.

     There were no noticeable artefacts.

     There are no subtitles.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The audio quality is good.

     This DVD contains an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack encoded at 224 Kb/s. It is very front and centre focused even when processed using Pro Logic II. Dialogue was clear and easy to understand throughout.

     The music mostly consists of the theme tune which becomes a little too much over time.

     The surround speakers were not used to any great degree but it is not really important for a show such as this. The subwoofer was not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

     The extras are 16x9 enhanced.

Menu

     The menu features music and stills from the show.

Disc 2

Deleted Scenes (168:38 in total)

     Incredibly, there are nearly three hours of extra content here with lots of wonderful recipes and information included. There is lots more of Guy Grossi cooking a variety of dishes and other chefs such as Stefano Manfredi. There is a lot here to enjoy and it adds significantly to this DVD set. It is almost like an entire extra season of the show. There are extra sections for every episode which can be played all together or separately.

    This is an All Region release.

    The video quality is very good. The audio quality is good.

    160 minutes plus of extra scenes make for an excellent extra (essentially 6 extra episodes!).

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall