On TLC's World Café: Asia and World café: Middle East, chef and restaurateur Bobby Chinn takes you on a whirlwind tour of the regions' most interesting locations. Each show focuses on a different city or country, introducing the best cuisine and cultural experiences it has to offer. The New Zealand-born, half-Chinese, half-English host is a one-man party, and Bobby Chinn is ready to talk and joke with everyone he meets! When traveling to Calcutta, India, Bobby discovers a city unlike any other. Back when the British had an empire that stretched around the world, Calcutta was the jewel in their crown. Even now, more than 60 years after the end of British rule, their influence is still evident. Calcutta also received merchants and travelers from France, Arabia, Holland, and China, and they all had their impact on the local cuisine. He finds curried beans on toast, steamed chicken buns, and even a Swiss bakery. Bobby also learns how to cook some authentic Indian food. He uses a mouth-watering array of ingredients to make the kind of slow-cooked curry that would have once fed Indian royalty. And at the other end of scale, he visit a restaurant where destitute women are taught how to prepare food. In the first episode of World Café : Middle East, Bobby Chinn visits Istanbul, Turkey. He describes the city as being one of the most exciting in the world. For one thing, Istanbul spans two different continents, with one half of the city in Europe and the other half in Asia. For another, it was once the center of many of the world's ancient trade routes. With visitors arriving from so many different lands, Istanbul developed a wealth of different foods to tantalize the taste buds. There are over 40 kinds of locally made cheese; there're also fresh seafood, lamb kebabs, beans, sweet pastry desserts, and bread. Bobby explains that Turkish cuisine can be divided into two groups, Ottoman and Anatolian, and naturally, he's keen to try them both. Ottoman food is seen as being sophisticated, and recipes can be traced back to the times of the Ottoman emperors, who ruled the surrounding countries for hundreds of years. When Bobby meets an expert in ancient Ottoman dining, he helps make stuffed mackerel and even learns how to take the bones out of a dish without cutting it open. The best thing about World café is Bobby Chinn's passion for traveling. He's enthusiastic about eating and cooking new dishes, and he loves interacting with the people he meets.