Phil Rosenthal on His Favorite Food Destinations, the Best In-flight Meal of His Life, and How Ray Romano Inspired 'Somebody Feed Phil'

Phil Rosenthal has built a travel career (and following) on his infectious enthusiasm for seeing the world on Somebody Feed Phil, but his first taste of wanderlust didn't come from a passport stamp or a five-star meal—it stemmed from a 7-Eleven in Atlanta. He was just nine years old, sipping on a Slurpee during a family trip, when it hit him: "Wow, I need to travel more."
Rosenthal didn't grow up globe-trotting and jet-setting. Instead, his early windows to the world came through pages and screens. "We didn't have a lot of ways to see other worlds; we only saw it on TV, movies, and books," he told Travel + Leisure.
Then, at the age of 23, came a life-altering courier flight to Europe. "My first stops were Paris and Florence, and that was when my life was changed forever," he recalled. The trip didn't just expand his worldview; it reshaped his priorities. "I knew this is what my extra money is for: to save up for these experiences, to save my money to travel."
At the time, he had no idea travel would one day become his job, but the seed was planted, and it would grow in an unexpected place: the writer's room of Everybody Loves Raymond. During a casual conversation with actor Ray Romano, he asked where the actor was going on vacation between seasons. When Rosenthal learned Romano was going to the Jersey Shore, he asked if he had ever been to Europe. The actor hadn't, and said he wasn't interested in something "different."
So Rosenthal did what writers do: he turned the moment into an episode. "I said, 'We're doing that episode. I'm going to send you in the show to Italy as you and you're going to come back as me—someone who's excited about traveling.'"
It took three years to make the episodes happen, and it was the only time the series filmed abroad. "I saw what I wrote—this character who didn't want to go and is complaining the whole time, and then suddenly gets it—happen to Ray Romano, the person. When this happened 25 years ago, I thought, 'What if I could do this for other people?'"
That question became the foundation for Somebody Feed Phil, but the path to turn his vision into a show wasn't a straight one, even with a hit series under his belt. He wrote other sitcoms before fully pivoting to a show that inspires people to travel. "People think I did Raymond and they just gave me a show and whatever I want. No, it took 10 years. Was it worth it? Yes."What's your go-to plane snack?
Nuts.Is there anything you won't eat on a flight?
If you can eat in the lounge or before the flight, I like that better than plane food.What's the best in-flight meal you've had?
Korean Airlines made a samgye-tang soup, with the whole baby chicken in a pot. I just thought that was as good as a restaurant.Do you have a restaurant red flag?
If there's a tourist menu, don't go in.What's your favorite food souvenir?
Parmesan Reggiano. You can vacuum seal it. I love a food souvenir.For Rosenthal, travel doesn't require luxury—it just requires action. And his advice is straightforward and simple: don't wait. "Go and don't put it off. You're never going to be as young as you are right now. So go while everything still works," he told T+L. "I tell young people all the time that you don't have to have a lot of money. You just got to get there. You can stay on a friend's couch, you can stay in a youth hostel. Doesn't matter; you're there. And just being there, meaning anywhere else on Earth, is everything."
His ethos is that travel isn't just a personal journey, but rather an opportunity to quietly shift the world's perspective. "You make the world a little better because you represent where you're from, and people get to see this is what, you know, a real American looks like. Forget the news. If you're a half-decent person, you're spreading a little bit more love in the world. And what you get back is invaluable, because it literally changes your perspective on life, and that's something you bring home with you."
Now, Somebody Feed Phil is returning to Netflix, and the season 8 itinerary takes viewers to destinations like Amsterdam; Tbilisi, Georgia; Sydney and Adelaide in Australia; Manila, Philippines; Las Vegas; Boston; and Guatemala.
The Guatemala episode, in particular, holds deeply personal value for Rosenthal. "Guatemala is one place I never thought about going, but we had a nanny from there. She would make us little dishes from there that were always delicious. So when the idea of doing Guatemala came up, I said, 'Let's bring Claudia home.' We brought her with us. That's one of my favorite episodes because she's part of the family."
Beyond the personal connection, he was blown away by the food scene. "You think you know what the cuisine is going to be like. And then it's really surprising. The young people are doing kind of modern takes on the authentic Indigenous foods. It's like nothing I ever had; it's really great."
Another standout this season? Spain's culinary gem: San Sebastián in the Basque Country. "It's so gorgeous, and the food culture seems to have everything."
As for his all-time favorite episode, Rosenthal doesn't hesitate to mention the challenge and fulfillment of filming in his hometown, New York City. "I was very nervous to do New York because everyone's done it. It's been more represented than maybe every other city in the world, because it's in every TV show and every movie. So how do I do the definitive New York? I realized I can't. But I can do my New York—and that turns out to be the key, always, you do what means the most to you." The episode includes one of his favorite scenes: going to his parents' apartment.
When the cameras aren't rolling, Rosenthal finds himself returning to tried-and-true destinations (London, Paris, Japan, and Spain, to name a few), though the age-old travel dilemma remains. "The more I travel, the more I fall in love with places. So you want to revisit the places you love, but you also realize, 'I gotta see the rest of the world.' Who knows what I'm missing? So what I usually try to do is—if it's my own vacation—a place I love with another place I haven't been."
When asked about standout food cities, Rosenthal is quick to spotlight Bangkok. "The city has some of the best food I've ever had in my life. Some of the best things I ever ate were in Thailand." Among those unforgettable bites is a $1 bowl of khao soi, the meal he said he still thinks about from his travels in Chiang Mai. The Northern Thai curry noodle soup is typically made with a coconut-based broth, a protein like chicken or beef, and topped with crispy noodles and pickled mustard greens.
As for food cities that don't get the culinary credit they deserve, Rosenthal offered up two surprising answers: Orlando and Las Vegas. "They're similar in that they both have these giant tourist attractions—The Strip and Disney World—that were built and maintained by immigrants over many decades. These immigrants came and set up their communities around the big tourist attraction on the outskirts. So they have a fabulous Chinatown, Thai towns, and Indian restaurants—these are microcosms of America, which is made up by immigrants. So yes, there are great restaurants on The Strip and some fun places to eat in Disney World but the real Magic Kingdom is the real world outside. No one thinks of these cities as great food destinations, but they are."
Rosenthal's golden rule for travel is not to overplan. He credits these unscripted moments, whether chance encounters or local recommendations, as the key to unforgettable travel experiences. "Leave some room in your schedule, as we do when we make the show, for serendipity, for stuff to happen," he said.
Of course, a little research still goes a long way. When looking for restaurants, Rosenthal keeps it simple. "I Google 'best restaurants in Chiang Mai,' and then I don't go by just one review. I look at all the reviews, I start cross-referencing and note the same places start popping up in all the lists. And we have such resources now, like people who blog and Instagram. Instagram is a little dangerous because sometimes you're thinking that the most photographed thing is the best, and it's not. So you can't just go by that." (For the show, though, he credits his production company in New York and their team of fixers around the globe.)
And as for the bottomless meals Rosenthal appears to devour on screen, it's not quite what it looks like. "A lot of people think that I ate all that stuff in one day, and it looks like, 'Oh, my God, he eats so much.' But we film for a week and that scene is probably all I ate that day. And if I looked excited, it's because it's the only meal I've had."
The show's popularity has taken Rosenthal on the road with his live show, where he gives fans a behind-the-scenes look at his global adventures. And he's doing exactly what he set out to do as a nine-year-old with a Slurpee: see the world—and bring the rest of us along for the ride.
Read the original article on Travel & Leisure

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