Chef Anton Amoncio sets sail with Taiwanese host Patty Lee in a four-episode travel series that takes TLC across Asia's most beautiful coastlines — from Kaohsiung harbour to Palawan's last wild shores.
There are travel shows about food. There are travel shows about culture. And then there are travel shows about what happens when two strangers — from different countries, different worlds, different kitchens — agree to navigate the same waters together. Cruise the World, TLC's four-episode co-production with the Taiwan Tourism Bureau and the Philippines' Department of Tourism, is squarely in the third camp. And for Malaysian viewers who have watched Anton Amoncio climb steadily through the ranks of Asian food television, it is also a chance to see him beyond the kitchen bench for the first time.
Amoncio, the 2016 Food Hero Asia winner, has been making a name for himself as one of the region's most watchable food personalities since his win in Singapore. He's appeared on the Asian Food Channel and Food Network, taken on acting roles, and built a following that goes well beyond the cooking-show faithful. With Cruise the World, he's doing something genuinely different: leaving the mise en place behind and boarding a cruise ship with Taiwanese actress and model Patty Lee, neither of them entirely sure what to expect from the other.
"I want people to see that traveling with a stranger is fun — well, not the bad kind of stranger — because you get to explore their hometown through their eyes."
— Anton Amoncio, on Cruise the WorldThe premise is deceptively simple. Each pair of hosts — two couples across the four episodes — is sent on a cruise. They disembark at each other's home cities. They play tour guide. They eat. They water ski at Lotus Pond. They push each other into discomfort in the most photogenic possible settings, and the result is something warmer and less polished than your average travel series. Which is, of course, the point.
Patty takes Anton on a bespoke local tour of Taiwan's largest harbour city. Anton gets challenged to water skiing at Lotus Pond, one of Kaohsiung's most iconic attractions. The episode focuses on Taiwanese food and coastal culture through the eyes of an outsider.
Anton returns the favour by taking Patty to Palawan — the Philippines' last wild island paradise. He rolls up his sleeves to cook savory seafood dishes and the pair explore local culture together. For Anton, it's a homecoming of sorts; for Patty, a revelation.
Journalist and Bloomberg TV host Yvonne Man takes television presenter Michele Lean through Hong Kong, including a wander through Seafood Street shopping for dried seafood goods. The city becomes backdrop for an unexpected friendship.
The final pairing heads to China's Hainan Island, where the hosts meet beluga whales up close for the first time and celebrate their journey at a sky bar. A fittingly spectacular finale for a show that consistently chose the spectacular over the expected.
Winner of the 2016 Food Hero Asia competition in Singapore. Formerly ran his own restaurant Antojos before pivoting to television. Has appeared on the Asian Food Channel and Food Network. Currently training under a two-Michelin-star chef.
Taiwanese actress, singer and model. Known for her range across entertainment formats. A natural in front of the camera, she serves as both guide and foil for Amoncio across the Taiwan and Philippines episodes.
Journalist and host of Bloomberg TV. Brings a different energy to the series — sharp, curious, less about performance and more about genuine discovery. Her Hong Kong episode is a masterclass in knowing your city well enough to show it to a stranger.
Television presenter and Asia Food Channel host. A TV chef in her own right, Michele's pairing with Yvonne produces one of the series' most genuinely warm partnerships — two food-focused women navigating each other's cities with curiosity and appetite.
"When I eat food at a foreign place, it's kind of like reading a history book but tastier — you get to see what influenced them. The food whispers to you. All you have to do is listen."
— Anton Amoncio on what it means for a chef to see a new cityWhat makes Cruise the World worth watching — particularly for Malaysian audiences who know TLC's Asian output well — is the degree to which it commits to authenticity. The hosts are not performing for the camera in the way that bigger-budget travel shows demand. They're figuring it out. When Anton and Patty get on a jet ski at Lotus Pond, you sense that neither of them is entirely comfortable with what's about to happen. That uncertainty is the show.
Amoncio has spoken candidly about what this kind of television means to him as a chef: people see him in a three-dimensional way that a cooking show behind a kitchen bench can't offer. He interacts with different types of people. He eats food in context — on location, with the people who made it, in the culture that produced it. For someone who describes his grandmother's tinola as the best food he's ever eaten, that matters.
A warmhearted, beautifully shot travel series that works because its hosts are genuinely discovering each other's worlds. Anton Amoncio is a revelation outside the kitchen.
Cruise the World premieres on TLC on Saturday, January 19, 2019 at 7:10pm (SEA/PH) and 8:00pm (Taiwan). The Sunday broadcast airs January 20 at 6:00pm India time. Four episodes.