Gordon's odyssey begins in the north of India, home of our curry house classics. On board an express train he's thrown in at the deep end cooking for its many passengers in the train's cramped pantry car. Later, he meets his match working for a cantankerous royal chef, preparing a biryani with a difference for a huge wedding feast, before venturing into the jungle where he gets eaten alive by ants when he scales a 40-foot tree in search of the local tribe's favourite delicacy.
Gordon heads off the tourist track into impenetrable north-east India, home of the country's best-kept culinary secrets. Leaving the 21st century behind, he immerses himself in the life of a local meat-loving tribe in Nagaland, once better known for head-hunting than their curries. Then he's off to Assam to enter a housewives' competition to find the best Assamese dish; and finally he sets up shop among the street food stalls of Calcutta to try and tempt the local foodies into buying north-east curry - Ramsay style.
Gordon heads south to Kerala for the ultimate seafood curry. In Tamil Nadu he hits a meat-free zone, and faces his biggest culinary nightmare: living in an ashram where the only food on the menu is vegetarian. Any tranquility soon evaporates when Gordon tries bullock racing. Last stop finds Gordon in Mumbai; both in the city's slums and later cooking alongside one of India's top chefs for a star-studded dinner at the Taj Hotel.
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.
