‘No Taste Like Home’ is not an average foodie show

There are food shows that take viewers into restaurant kitchens, home kitchens, bakeries and chefs that judge contestants’ dishes to tears.

These are well-worn formulas and why No Taste Like Home is something entirely different.

The show, hosted by Queer Eye’s foodie Antoni Porowski, isn’t just about cooking, it gives audiences something meatier.

It’s about memories, migration, and personal identity, all enjoyed and experienced through the universal language of food.

For Porowski, the show became more than just another hosting gig, he said it was a personal journey that reshaped his perspective on food, culture, and human connection.

Each episode features a well-known guest, from BAFTA-winning Florence Pugh to Awkwafina.

Every instalment returns to the roots to uncover the stories behind their family’s culinary traditions. But this is more than a celebrity travelogue. It’s about heritage and how personal and political histories are woven into the meals people grow up eating.

If love is a meal’s biggest ingredient, heritage and tradition come a close second.

A new career chapter

No Taste Like Home marks a new chapter for Porowski’s career.

Until now, it has been somewhat unconventional, never intentional. It’s as if success sought him out first.

Born in Montreal, Canada to Polish immigrant parents, he grew up speaking Polish, English, and French before moving to West Virginia in the United States as a teenager. He studied psychology at Concordia University before heading to New York to pursue acting. He worked as a waiter, a sommelier, and eventually a restaurant manager before landing his breakout role on Queer Eye in 2018.

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“I basically wanted someone to fund my world travels,” Porowski said and shared that his vision for the show aligned with National Geographic’s commitment to diverse storytelling.

The production, backed by Studio Ramsay Global, chef de hectic Gordon Ramsay’s production company, took care in researching each guest’s culinary lineage, ensuring that every historical claim was corroborated by multiple sources.

“That’s the power of working with National Geographic,” he said. “Every single thing I say on the show had to be backed up by three independent sources.”

The series hops across three continents, from Issa Rae’s exploration of Senegalese cuisine to Henry Golding’s deep dive into the culinary heritage of Malaysian Borneo.

The show looks at regional flavours and historical context but is ultimately about human connection.

“The more we learn about other cultures, the less afraid we are,” Porowski said. “We’re living in a time where people are quick to put up walls. But food breaks them down. It’s about understanding the past and realising that we’re all connected even if we come from different places.”

She just ate it with her hands

Pugh’s enthusiasm for food was a highlight for Porowski.

“The first day, we made Shepherd’s Pie with her Nan and her mum, and later, in the rolling hills of Yorkshire, she was fixated on a leg of lamb coming out of the oven.”

Her passion for food and complete disregard for formality made her a fascinating guest, he said.

“She grabbed a Yorkshire pudding, smothered in lamb fat, and just ate it with her hands. That kind of unfiltered joy is what this show is about.”

Unlike most travel or food shows, it doesn’t focus on Michelin starred chefs or high-end pretty food.

Instead, everyday meals are interrogated, the kind that shape identities and carry family histories in every bite.

“It’s not about the most expensive ingredients or the fanciest techniques,” Porowski said. “Instead it is about the stories. It’s about going back to a childhood dish and asking, for example, why this? Why did our ancestors cook it this way? What does it say about where we come from?”

Life happened in the kitchen

Porowski said his love for food was already settled in childhood.

“Some of the most important conversations of my life happened in the kitchen,” he said. “Watching my mum cook, preparing food together, even doing the dishes, was always the heart of our home. Food is also my love language; it’s how I show people I care. But cooking for myself? That’s harder. That’s something I’m still learning.”

The project was quite close to home in other ways, too, said Porowski.

“There were moments where I was feeling sorry for myself, going through a personal rough patch,” he shared. But then, in Dakar, he encountered the Senegalese concept of ‘teranga’ which is a tradition of hospitality and sharing.

“A people who have had so much taken away from them, and yet their defining value is generosity. That put things in perspective.”

No taste Like Home currently airs on National Geographic DStv channel 181.

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