Tony Shalhoub considers himself an adventurous eater. He will try almost anything once, shakes his head vigorously at the idea of eating the same meal over and over and is an investor in two buzzy restaurants, Rezdôra and Massara, in New York City.
Still, the veteran actor insists, he’s no foodie.
“In my mind, a foodie is someone who not only appreciates but is a good cook, and understands the chemistry of it all,” Mr. Shalhoub said. “I know people like that, and I get it.” But that’s not him.
It may come as a surprise, then, that CNN would greenlight “Breaking Bread,” a food-centric travel show starring Mr. Shalhoub.
But if you came to know him as Antonio Scarpacci on “Wings” or Primo in “Big Night” or Adrian Monk in “Monk” or Abe Weissman in “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” or Tewfiq in “The Band’s Visit,” then you know there are few moments on the stage or screen where he hasn’t left a lasting impression.
On Sunday, the network will air the first of six episodes that follow the Emmy-Award winner as he tears into baguettes, boules and soda bread with locals in Tokyo; São Paulo, Brazil; New York City; Marseille, France; Iceland; and his hometown, Green Bay, Wis.
“The first thing that stood out to me was Tony,” said Amy Entelis, an executive vice president at CNN. “The way that he talked about this idea, thought about how he would do it, communicated passion for the subject and tied it back to his experience around the dinner table with his very large family.” (Mr. Shalhoub is the second youngest of 10.)
Over lunch at Ilili, a chic Lebanese restaurant in Manhattan, Mr. Shalhoub said the show is his attempt to get back to basics. “You go to restaurants and everyone’s doing this,” he said, pantomiming texting, “and no one’s connecting.” Then the bread arrives.
“It’s the O.G. connector,” Mr. Shalhoub said. “Let’s just hit the pause button for a second and talk about how [expletive] good this bread is.”
He channels that zeal on “Breaking Bread,” connecting with bakers, food writers, chefs, former restaurant critics and his own family to talk about, eat and commiserate over carbs.
Mr. Shalhoub’s professional world, filled with actors, producers, agents and craft services, at times feels separate from the real world, he said. “But I feel like when I meet people who are doing food, especially doing bread, they’re so devoted to the daily exercise of it.”
Where a show takes viewers can sometimes be secondary to the person leading the way. For Ms. Entelis, who also led development of “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown” and “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy,” name recognition goes a long way. “It’s very hard to start from scratch,” she said.
In Tokyo, where rice rules all, the show highlights the city’s bread offerings. In São Paulo, the focus is on the production of cassava flour, a staple of Brazilian food. And in New York City, Mr. Shalhoub eats bagels from Orwashers with Lin-Manuel Miranda and travels to New Jersey for pizza at Razza with Adam Platt, the former New York magazine restaurant critic.
“We tried to go for a little more off-the-beaten kind of thing,” Mr. Shalhoub said. “There was also the idea that we didn’t want to go from Michelin star to Michelin star. We wanted to get a little more obscure.”
Mr. Shalhoub’s exploration of his Lebanese heritage serves as a through line. His father’s childhood journey to the United States ran through the port of Marseille. São Paulo is home to one of the largest populations of Lebanese people outside Lebanon. And in Green Bay, where Mr. Shalhoub grew up, his family was part of a small Lebanese community in the area.
“We wanted to start the show in Lebanon,” he said. “That was always the plan. But it was too volatile over there.” He last visited the country in 2018.
Mr. Shalhoub’s hosting style is almost certain to draw comparisons to Mr. Tucci, who starred alongside Mr. Shalhoub in “Big Night” and now hosts “Tucci in Italy” for National Geographic, having carved out his own niche in the food world.
“I’m a halfway decent cook thanks to working with Stanley on ‘Big Night,’” Mr. Shalhoub said. “Kind of inspired me.” But where Mr. Tucci’s on-camera presence is just this side of dry, rarely inclined to big displays of emotion, Mr. Shalhoub’s is effusive and sentimental.
While touring a bakery with his eldest daughter, Josie, in the Marseille episode, his eyes well up as he cradles a boule of sourdough wrapped in a damp cloth. (“Reminds me of you when you were a baby,” Mr. Shalhoub coos.) In New York City, where he has lived for the last nine years, he shares tears and soda bread with the Irish pub owner Mary O’Halloran. Even over lunch, he growls at a steaming basket of pita. “Look at that gorgeous creature.”
An actor? Emoting? Groundbreaking. But it is honest to who he is. He gesticulates wildly when discussing jaboticaba, a berry native to Brazil that he had never tried before; bursts with joy over a particularly garlicky toum; and takes long pauses, often midsentence, when considering the true definition of “foodie.”
With “Breaking Bread,” he said, he’s simply not interested in playing the role of expert. Instead he’s reminded of his sister, a retired teacher, who now works as a docent at a museum in Atlanta.
“I like that term,” Mr. Shalhoub said. “Maybe I would be the docent.”
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