One of the worst things ever featured on the UK version of Kitchen Nightmares was someone who was serving up chocolate and prawn smoothies in sunny spain...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flavour_Thesaurus?wprov=sf...
I genuinely can't find the book (it's not modernist cuisine) but he recommended a book which is sort of part chemistry textbook part cookbook.
Pot may have been involved.
I've watched that show way too much...
The cultural differences between the UK and US versions are really something
Though I haven't seen either. I have seen both original UK & US The Office, which after the first few episodes of the latter (which just uncomfortably rip off the former, making the same jokes but poorly IMO) are each good in their own right, and definitely highlight differences between the respective television cultures, even if not actual society too.
Just to pick up the point about the office - the office US is really good, but the office is UK is an order of magnitude deeper. The US version hits it's stride long after they ran out of UK-material.
They do serve as analogues of the countries they're set in, but ultimately the office UK is much more of character study of Brent and is generally really uniquely shot and directed. Michael Scott is funny, Brent is truly tragic.
Also one thing that really annoys me about US television, is that they clearly assume their audience is too stupid to get many gags, i.e. the office UK is full of clever little gags that don't really make you laugh but really sell the format and location of the show, even if you don't notice them.
To prove "British" can be shit too -> Afterlife is rubbish.