Gordon's Great Escape

Gordon is going off the beaten track to Cambodia. After the years of Khmer Rouge rule and civil war the country was at year zero. Today the country is in recovery and the food is undergoing a revival. Gordon scours the country hunting out historic recipes that pre-date the Khmer Rouge rule. He hires a chopper to take him into the heart of the jungle where he discovers a dessert fit for a restaurant, he turns hunter gatherer wading through snake infested rivers on the hunt for a Cambodian favourite, frog and is on the trail of Cambodia’s hairiest delicacy - tarantula!

Gordon touches down in Vietnam – he’s never been here before but the Vietnamese are fearless foodies; if it moves they eat it and every bit of it! On Gordon’s travels he is wowed by legendary local restaurateur Mrs Duck who turns out to be the queen of beak to tail cooking, he loses his bottle when a 6 foot long snake complete with beating heart is served-up for dinner and finishes his week trying to impress Vietnam’s pickiest foodies when he takes over a traditional restaurant and has his own Kitchen Nightmare.

Gordon is in Malaysia where he quickly learns it’s the women and not the chefs that rule the kitchens. Gordon’s week is spent under the wing of some of the country’s best female cooks. He’s invited to cook his first Malaysian curry for the Prime Minister, scales great heights to find the key ingredient to bird’s nest soup before he’s entered into a cooking competition against some of the country’s hottest female cooks.

Gordon is in Thailand, home of the UK’s fastest growing favourite food. Before he’s made it out of Bangkok Thailand’s most celebrated TV chefs signs Gordon up to a battle of the chefs on his show at the end of the week. Thailand proves to be a real eye opener; Gordon enters a temple to search for inner calm when he gets a lesson in mediation, a night out to see Thai Boxing takes a peculiar twist when lady boys steal the limelight and Gordon finishes his week trying to out-cook celebrity chef McDang on national television.