From flying across the United States to film episodes of Netflix’s Queer Eye to visiting six countries and three continents for his National Geographic series No Taste Like Home, Antoni Porowski has traveled the world for his career — and he’s embraced the local cuisine in every destination he’s visited.
Fans of the television personality and cookbook author know that as soon as he enters someone’s home on an episode of Queer Eye, Porowski makes a beeline for the kitchen, where he’ll smell and taste every food he can find in an effort to better understand the person who lives there. He shows the same curiosity in his new series with National Geographic, Best of the World, which debuted on June 7. The showchronicles Porowski’s journey through four major cities — London, Mexico City, New York City, and Paris — as he experiences local culture and seeks out the best food, drink, hospitality, and more that each destination has to offer.
It’s clear that Porowski has a passion for exploring cuisines, a motivation that’s led him to try thousands of dishes around the globe. When we asked the Best of the World host to name a shortlist of the destinations he recommends traveling to for food this year, four locations stood out.
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Maine
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If you’re seeking great bites this summer, don’t overlook this domestic destination. People who have visited Portland, Maine — which we named the best small city for food and drink in our 2026 Global Tastemakers Awards — may already be familiar with the artisanal bakeries, fresh seafood, and chef-driven restaurants that make this city’s dining scene stand out.
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Porowski encourages travelers to head outside of the state’s biggest city too, telling us, “Maine is my favorite place to spend summer in the U.S. for two simple reasons: lobster and wild blueberries (not always together, though!). The waters stay refreshingly cool, and there’s no shortage of charming small towns to explore. A personal highlight is sailing with friends who run a charter called The Ladona, a beautifully retrofitted schooner based in Rockland that hops from island to island. It’s pure magic. Onboard, the chef, Anna Miller, makes a wild blueberry buckle that you can snack on all day with coffee. It’s perfection.”
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Paris
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It goes without saying that Paris is home to incredible food. Porowski is quick to point out that the city’s culinary reputation rests as much on the quality and consistency of classic dishes as it does on innovation. “Paris just keeps on surprising me. It has the consistency of the steak au poivre, which you can just basically have anywhere; I’ve never really had one that I was disappointed in.”
But Porowski has also found unforgettable meals in unexpected places, like the restaurant at Hotel Hana. “When I stayed and was filming, I loved this hotel because it was the cutest and most thoughtful, well-appointed [place] without being too pretentious and intimidating,” he tells Food & Wine. “I had the most unbelievable soft scrambled eggs with this dense sourdough and furikake butter for breakfast and their dinner was amazing as well… It was like a beautiful little Japanese boutique hotel that made me miss Tokyo, yet I was very excited to be in Paris.”
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Greece
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Like all of us, Porowski craves a dip in the ocean and fresh, coastal flavors as the weather warms up. “Once I’m fully in summer mode, July and August tend to pull me toward the Mediterranean, especially Greece,” he says. “Whether you’re in the mood for the energy of Mykonos or the more relaxed pace of Paros, I’ve never had a bad meal in either place. From a simple seaside table to a refined hotel restaurant, the food is consistently exceptional.”
Wine lovers should book a trip to Paros, Porowski’s recommendation for a less-traveled island in the Aegean Sea. The region’s wine reflects the unique terroir of its mineral-rich soil, and it produces the only PDO red Greek wine that permits the blending of red and white grapes during the co-fermentation process.
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Mexico City
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Before filming Best of the World, Porowski hadn’t visited Mexico City, and he was immediately struck by its architecture upon arriving. He recalls admiring the “vines, beautiful root systems growing out of concrete and nature taking over and knowing that the city was built on a lake.” In addition to the architecture and urban design, the city’s food scene left a lasting impression on the television host — and one chef prepared Porowski a meal he’ll never forget.
Acclaimed bakery Panadería Rosetta is known for its flaky rol de guayaba, filled with sweet guava jam and cream cheese, which Porowski says lives up to the hype surrounding it. He was lucky enough to meet the establishment’s executive chef, Elena Reygadas, and remembers that, “When I was at Rosetta with chef Elena, she made the most excellent tamales I’ve ever had with this fungus (huitlacoche) that grows on the corn. It changed my life.”
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“Then she served a taco that, if I remember correctly, was a savoy cabbage leaf that was a perfect circle with… sea asparagus and some other greens. It was a vegan taco and it blew my mind… Then we started talking about Polish cuisine and how much respect she had for a lot of my people’s soups that [incorporate] a lot of sourdough starter, for example.”
From blueberry buckle on a boat in Maine to vegan tacos in Mexico City, Porowski’s recommendations make it clear that the most delicious culinary travel often calls for embracing unexpected experiences.
To uncover the best food and drink experiences for travelers, Food & Wine polled over 400 chefs, travel experts, food and travel writers, and wine pros from across the globe for their top culinary travel experiences. We then turned the results over to our Global Advisory Board, who ranked the top nominees in each category. For the full list of winners, visit foodandwine.com/globaltastemakers2026.
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