“VIEWERS CRAVE Culinary travels with dave eckert”

January 1, 2007 — With the release of 26 new episodes, Culinary Travels with Dave Eckert has reached a milestone.   These programs mark the seventh year of production for Eckert and Culinary Travels-meaning Eckert has now produced more than 170 half-hour programs on six continents!

 “We’ve covered people, places, products, and passion like no show on television,” exclaims Eckert.   Where else would viewers be transported to a cockle farm in Phuket, Thailand or the world’s only conch farm in the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean?   “I’ve traveled up the side of a volcano to pick strawberries, and out on the water to troll for salmon, search the nets for prized perch, and sample mussels fresh from the waters of New Zealand.   I’ve watched cheese makers continue a thousand year tradition in an alpine dairy over an open fire in Gruyere, Switzerland, and toured and tasted in a Belgium brewery dating back hundreds of years,” says Eckert.  “And, the best part is viewers get to come along for the ride.”

Faster, funnier, and more diverse, year seven of Culinary Travels with Dave Eckert is the best season yet.   This year’s programs take viewers on tantalizing Epicurean journeys to Australia, South Africa, Italy, Mexico, The Turks and Caicos, Canada, California, Oregon, Washington, and beyond.   Travel fans will love the varied and historic destinations from Tuscany to Capetown.   Foodies will enjoy local fare: and organic farmer’s market in Chicago, tantalizing seafood in the Caribbean, the best game in the world in Alberta, Canada, elegant wine country dining in Napa and Sonoma, and formal dining under the stars in the middle of a Big Game preserve in South Africa.  As always, wine lovers will be treated to some of the best winemakers, wineries, and wine regions in the world.   From Australia to South Africa, Italy to California, and Ontario to the Pacific Northwest, Culinary Travels with Dave Eckert shines its spotlight on more 30 wineries this year alone!

“There’s no other show like this on television,” says the Emmy Award winning Eckert.   “Culinary Travels combines my more than 25 years of television journalism experience with life’s passion for food, wine, spirits, and travel, and it’s my hope PBS programmers will put it on the air for viewers to savor.”   Eckert continues.   “My show explores what’s unique and indigenous from a culinary standpoint in destinations all over the world, and while I thoroughly enjoy all the experiences, I always remember the stories are about the people who live and work in those destinations, not mine.”      In these days of screen-hogging, camera mugging, not-nearly-as-funny-as-they-think-they-are television hosts, that’s both refreshing and unique. Culinary Travels with Dave Eckert-it’s not to be missed.