Rick starts a modern trip back to the one he took along the Pacific coast of North America shortly after graduation and his father's death back in San Francisco. He finds it essentially unchanged, with great seafood around Fisherman's wharf, such as the Hangtown Fry, called after the desolate 'nearby' prison town where it was ordered because assembling the ingredients used to take days of execution stay. In Chinatown, chef Martin explains wok cooking and basics of Chinese cuisine. A trip north to an oyster farm which also serves at sea. Then off to Monterrey, where he makes friends with two partners running the pioneer restaurant at Cannery Road, called after the former world capital of processing of sardines, which meanwhile left the area. Written by KGF Vissers

Rick enjoys driving trough southern California to near the Mexican border, although part of the legendary road is hazard-closed, praising the great and beneficial culinary influence of the Latino neighbors. The dairy-rich chowder is exemplary of (near-)over the top Californian (and US) cuisine. Sea urchins are an underrated discovery, like the fisherman's laid-back sailing lifestyle. A pioneering pixie (seedless) tangerine orchard allows a plea to respect, not ban, Mexican harvesters and other migrant laborers without whom much of the US agriculture and some other business wouldn't be viable. Written by KGF Vissers

Rick enjoys a US breakfast in San Diego, his last Californian stop before the Mexican border, steak. Then he boards his camera crew's van to Tijuana, across the border, yet still not quite Mexican, a borderland mixture, also in culinary terms. There and in a nearby fishery harbor, utterly Mexican despite the presence of a fenced-off Hollywoodian film studio, he enjoys some of the various, often innovative styles of Mexican cuisine, in food trucks and restaurants, often starring seafood. Written by KGF Vissers

The chef explores Mexico's western mainland, visiting the town that put tequila on the map and exploring Guadalajara. He can't resist paying a visit to Casa Kimberly bought by Richard Burton for Elizabeth Taylor.

Rich reaches the capital, Ciudad Mexico, the metropolis grown around Ancient Aztec Tenochtitlan, a cultural and culinary melting pot of regional and foreign influences. After tasting local street and fast food, he great enjoys a boat trip to the floating gardens, which have up to seven harvests of fresh ingredients, the key to a famous self-made (US-deported) chef's international restaurant franchise. Next the more quiet, colonial-style preserved city of Puebla, center of the French (gastronomic) influence since the short-lived 'empire' was ruled from there, with the convent credited with the invention of mole. Finally to the mountainous desert state of Oaxaca, where an Indian distillery owner explains how many agave species and recipe variations produce mescal almost as varied as brandies. Written by KGF Vissers

Oaxaca from desert to a tropical paradise. Rick delights in exploring this hidden land where you can smell the tropical fruit from roadside stalls long before they come into sight, where vanilla still grows wild and cacao orchards are harvested to make superb chocolate. Written by The Magnetic Crabstick

Rick heads east from Oaxaca to the Yucatan Peninisula where local people feast on the habanero chilli, bury and cook Pibil dishes below ground on hot rocks. He ends his trip eating grilled seafood in Tulum on the Caribbean coast.