Hi Howard,

I stumbled upon this blog post from a long time ago, but am trying to figure something out. I remember a show called the Traveling Gourmet on PBS but can’t seem to find any mention about it on the internet.

It was about a guy who would visit countries all over the world tasting their cuisine. Felt like an early Anthony Bourdain show.

do you remember that one??

-jeff

There was a cooking show on PBS in the mid-80′s that I believe was produced by a Florida PBS station that was hosted by a gentleman who was somewhat effeminate, heavy-set, had very short buzzed hair and a very thick mustache. He started out cooking fairly fattening foods, but after a couple of years, he dropped a lot of weight, and then begin cooking “diet” foods. I used to love watching him and was wondering if anyone else remembered this show and what his (or the show’s) name was?He kinda looked like Freddy Mercury of the band Queen

This post is old, but I too remember the PBS show, and finally found the information. It was “Travelin’ Gourmet”, hosted by food critic Mike Kalina. The show was on tv around 1988-1989 or so, but Mike’s suicide in 1992 put an end to the show.

terri…your right on. it was travelin gourmet w/mike kalina, great program, loved his singing intro and closing to the program. i was just looking for his apple tart recipe. didnt know of his suicide … shame … any info on what led up to it?

Regarding the Kalina suicide – apparently reports were that he bribed the Pittsburgh newspaper to rate his restaurant the highest. At the same time, he had throat cancer I believe. He killed himself by carbon monoxide poisoning after he was found in his car with a hose coming from the exhaust in downtown Pittsburgh. Shame for what looked to be a very nice TV personality the way he presented those shows. They were very good shows.

I remember a cooking show in the 1980s on PBS hosted by a woman who specialized in bistro fare or new american cuisine. She was a brunette with rather short hair. I remember a recipe for crab cakes served with a red pepper coulis that was just to die for. I still have this recipe. Does anyone remember what the name of that chef was? I am trying to track her down!

stumbled across this blog and I know it’s very old, but I grew up in the 80s watching PBS cooking shows too!

1. The chef named Franco. He’s Franco Palumbo and had 2 shows: Slim Cuisine and We’re Cooking Now.

2. Natural foods lady cook..the only one I remember is Kathy Hoshijo of “Kathy’s Kitchen”. She was using health foods like nutritional yeast, tofu, tempeh, etc.

I also remember a lady who did Greek cooking (can’t remember her name) and a show called “Gourmet Cooking” the host was an older man rotund and wore glasses.