This article appears as part of the Food Matters newsletter.

‘Oh, I think I’ve sat in that exact seat before’, I shout out like the saddo I am as Phil Rosenthal and Kelly MacDonald sit down to demolish a mountain of pastries at the brilliant Sunny Acre café on Pollokshaws Road.

I can’t help but notice my parents, who are visiting for the weekend and have been plonked in front of the telly, don’t seem all that impressed by the revelation.

Then again, that might be because it’s the fourth such outburst within the first 40 minutes of the new, Scotland-focused episode of Somebody Feed Phil.

Yes, I am now definitely verging on irritating rather than enthusiastic but can’t seem to stop.

Despite having walked the same streets and interviewed the same chefs who have appeared on screen many times before, there’s something so incredibly heartwarming about seeing a city you know and love through a visitor's eyes.

There’s Julie from Ga Ga, and don’t her Malaysian-inspired dishes look so good on camera that you can almost smell them through the screen?

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And Shawarma King, three-time winner of the Best Kebab House in Scotland Award, has never seemed more appetising than when the show’s host takes an enormous bite of his mixed shawarma wrap, wide-eyed and soon to ask for an insane amount of extra garlic mayo.

I’m suddenly very thankful for the colleague who tempted me to tune in by describing Rosenthal’s presenting style as the antithesis to Anthony Bourdain’s brooding and unapologetically ‘chefy’ demeanour.

As a huge fan of Bourdain’s work, I’ve often returned to his 2015 Scotland episode of Parts Unknown which paints a picture of Glasgow as a hard-as-nails city with a heart of gold where chips and curry sauce reign supreme.

But I’m glad to learn that the Everybody Loves Raymond creator's unbridled enthusiasm for every person he meets, and dish sampled from a haggis scotch egg to ice cream spaghetti, is equally as satisfying.

The Herald:
If you’re in need of an instant serotonin boost, I’d wholeheartedly recommend sticking it on to see his entourage travel across the country with stops in Skye and Edinburgh.

On a roll, and not likely to venture back out into a miserably cold March evening, we’ll later move on to the newly released instalment of Rick Stein’s Food Stories, in which he discovers the likes of Gomo Kimchi, Civic House and Bare Bones chocolate.

I’m so chuffed while watching that you’d think I had fermented that cabbage or tempered those glossy squares of 70% dark chocolate myself.

Our city, and of course the rest of Scotland, will always deserve a starring role in my eyes.

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But the idea that people across the globe are being introduced to our food heroes through this new wave of TV features is a truly joyous thing.

I’ll perhaps just resolve to watch them alone next time.

Somebody Feed Phil is available to stream on Netflix now, while Rick Stein’s Food Stories can be viewed on iPlayer.