Heart-warming, smile-filled, eye-opening and appetite-arousing, Tony Shalhoub Breaking Bread is a new six-episode CNN Original Series that delves into delectable travel-and-food adventures, hosted by Tony Shalhoub — the Golden Globe, Tony and Emmy Award-winning actor (of TV’s Monk and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel fame). “This is a show about bread and people and how countless combinations of flour and water bring us together,” explains Shalhoub, his voice distinctive and inviting. “I am traveling the world, connecting with friends, family and total strangers as we bake, break and chew our way to the most delicious breads on earth.” The action heats up Sunday nights at 9 (ET/PT); premiering October 5. Shalhoub touches down in New York City, Brazil, Marseille (France), Iceland, Tokyo and Wisconsin for colorful scenes brimming with flavors, passions and cultural influences. Lively appearances by super-talented bakers, chefs, restaurant mavens, old pals and new, as well as Shalhoub’s wife, actress Brooke Adams, and their two daughters, Josie and Sophie, add an appealing bounty of personality and expertise. Shalhoub and I dished about our zest for fabulous food, how sharing a meal can touch minds and the uplift that travel instills.
Laura Manske: “In the fun spirit of your show, I’ve buttered a slice of Challah bread — a favorite among many New Yorkers — that I bought yesterday from the 109-year-old Orwashers bakery at its original location on the city’s Upper East Side, my neighborhood. I will eat it while interviewing you. Then I can say that I’ve broken bread while talking with Tony Shalhoub.”
Tony Shalhoub: “That sounds perfect.” (Laughter)
Manske: “Your first episode is set in New York City. You visit Orwashers’ other location on the Upper West Side, the neighborhood where you live, accompanied by your friend Lin-Manuel Miranda, best known for his Broadway hit musicals Hamilton and In the Heights. Keith Cohen, Orwashers’ owner, welcomed both of you to a behind-the-scenes peek to learn about its popular pumpernickel and New York rye.”
Shalhoub: “That is one thing that motivated me to do this show in the first place. I’ve been working as an actor for more than 40 years. There is a point, when doing this kind of work, that it feels like a bubble appears around you. You’re not always as connected to the real world as you should be or as you want to be, as I wanted to be. [So creating this show] was a way to get out into the world, interact with people who love what they do and are good at what they do. To get an appreciation for the challenges that these people have and to celebrate their successes. To get a deeper understanding about why they do what they do.”
Manske: “Did you pitch your show to CNN or did CNN execs brainstorm the theme and come to you?”
Shalhoub: “I brought the idea to CNN. It had been kicking around for a while. We had tried to pitch a similar idea almost 15 years ago. It didn’t get much traction. But the timing was right now. I was inspired by other CNN travel-food shows, such as Stanley Tucci’s Searching for Italy, which I loved. Stanley has been my friend for a long time. [They starred together as two immigrant Italian brothers opening a restaurant in the 1996 film Big Night.] I also worked with Eva Longoria a few years ago and became a fan of her CNN travel-food show Searching for Mexico. I thought that I had something to add. I am not a foodie in the way that I think about Stanley, for example, who is a true artist when it comes to cooking. His knowledge and understanding of food is massive. But I do have a curiosity about food, especially about bread and how these few simple ingredients are used differently all around the world. All of these things were the driving factors that inspired me to try my hand at this.”
Manske: “There is a joyful segment filmed in your Manhattan apartment kitchen with Richard Hart, known as the ‘godfather of bread,’ who teaches you how to make sourdough. ‘It feels so good, I can understand why people get so completely into it,’ you remark, while kneading the comforting dough. What will surprise many viewers are the astonishingly varied kinds of food that fall into the category of bread — and it will encourage them to rethink bread. For example, in the New York City episode, acclaimed pastry chef Camari Mick dazzles with her inventive croissants jammed with a ground beef mixture, which reflects her family’s Jamaican roots combined with her classical French-culinary training.”
Shalhoub: “Right. The beautiful thing about bread, first and foremost, is that it’s tactile. It’s that one cool thing that you don’t need a utensil for. Most times, you’re picking it up with your hands. Unless, maybe, you’re eating croutons in a salad. By the way, I always pick croutons out of a salad to eat them with my hands!”
Manske: “Your show’s beauty and strength is that bread — and the breaking of it — is a metaphor for conversing and sharing with others.”
Shalhoub: “I’d love to have the [observation] about this show and my approach to this material to be not just about bread itself. I want it to be about a larger discussion and a larger explanation. Because I feel that right now, there is so much going-on, so much agita, so much division, so much noise out there. Social media and its stresses. I want this show to get us back to the basics. Simpler things, simpler times. Put down your phone. Pick up this bread, break off a piece, hand it across the table. Basic essential actions that connect us in a better way.”
Manske: “I was touched to see the ‘real’ Tony — not an actor playing a role. Your genuine laughter. Your tears. Your enthusiasm. Your curiosity. Your compassion.”
Shalhoub: “To be frank, it was daunting. Initially, I was a little bit nervous about it, because I’m much more comfortable in front of the camera or being on stage playing a character, saying another person’s words. For me, I find it much harder to do unscripted material. People said: Just be yourself. Well, wait a minute, what is this exactly? I have this paranoia that being myself is not as good as [what] a writer [could create]. I’ve been very fortunate in series television: I’ve had really, really great writers throughout my career. So I was a little anxious, but just had to trust in the subject matter and trust that the people I interviewed and talked with and worked with were going to be engaging and engaged. And they were! They were very forthcoming, very interesting and they seemed to be more comfortable in front of the camera than I was.”
Manske: “It was amazing how amazing they were! In the Marseille episode, your daughter Josie was a pro on camera.”
Shalhoub: “She was great! And she is not an actress. She is very clever and sophisticated and very confident.”
Manske: “Which of the six destinations was the most wondrous for you?”
Shalhoub: “São Paulo, Brazil. I had never been to South America. There was something about the people and the interesting, unusual foods that they eat regularly that I had never heard of. There’s also an enormous Lebanese population, which is one of the reasons we wanted to visit it. I got to meet restaurateurs and bakers and eat extraordinary food, rivaling and surpassing the great Lebanese food that I grew up with.”
Manske: “You had previously been to Iceland on a family trip 17 years ago. It included a five-day horse trek! Wild and so cool! So this was your second trip there.”
Shalhoub: “Having my wife and my daughter, Sophie, appear in that episode and being on horseback again together was wonderful. Just exploring the unbelievably beautiful, very diverse landscape — and how the people survive in sometimes very harsh conditions.”
Manske: “The importance of travel in your life?”
Shalhoub: “I love travel. Even though I have traveled a lot, I feel like I’ve just scratched the surface. When I talk about travel, it is not just foreign travel. I love to explore different parts of this country, too, which is why we included a couple of domestic episodes: One in New York and one in my home state of Wisconsin. If we can go forward and get another season of Breaking Bread, I would always include one or two regions of the states, perhaps the Southwest or Maine, where I went to college, or the Northwest, or certainly the South, which is fascinating. This is a really diverse country and there are a lot of great foods and breads to explore. I grew up in a small town in the Midwest. I did not fly in an airplane until I was 13 or 14 years old. I came from a big family. We didn’t have a lot of money. I remember when we walked onto that first flight, I thought: ‘This is where I belong. Somehow I’m going to figure out a way to travel a lot more.’ It was that exciting.”
Manske: “What one word describes the power of travel for you?”
Shalhoub: “Revelatory.”
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
For another recent travel-energizing article by Laura Manske, see Fun Interview With Actor Eugene Levy: His Best Travel Bucket List.