The driving force behind Burt Wolf’s traveling is neither a love of food nor a love of travel. It’s a love of knowledge.
“I am curious about certain things,” he says, “and the only way I can get answers to my questions is to travel.”
Wolf is the star of the PBS series “Burt Wolf’s Table,” in which he imparts information about various cultures and their cooking, and the author of several cookbooks including the just-released “Burt Wolf’s Menu” (Doubleday, $22.50). He also hosts the daily food news report on CNN, “What’s Cooking With Burt Wolf.” His new PBS series begins Aug. 14 on WTTW-Ch. 11 in Chicago and will be called “Burt Wolf’s Menu.”
Wolf, who travels eight months out of every year to do his shows on location in virtually every region in the world, says he feels like he’s been on the road all his life. When he was a youngster he used to travel solo from New York to Boston to visit an aunt.
“The train was called The Yankee Clipper,” he says, “and my mother would take me to the station and sit me down on the train. My aunt would get on at a station called Back Bay and pick me up and take me off. They would give me what I remember as $5 to go in and have lunch in the dining car, which was a knock-out. I was probably 7 or 8, not much older, when I started making this trip. It was so exciting.
“I remember the people who would come through the train with magazines and food–they were called news butchers. I loved these guys. I’d eat something with them and then I’d go into the dining car. I always had the same thing. On the way up I had frankfurters with Boston baked beans and brown bread, Coke and a hot fudge sundae. On the way home, I had hot turkey–open plate–and always the hot fudge sundae for dessert. Why I should retain this, I don’t know.
“I’ve constantly traveled since then, and I just love it. There’s a sense of excitement and adventure with each trip. I never know what’s going to happen. I prepare myself as best I can, but you just don’t know. And I love that.”
Wolf selects his destinations by choosing a subject, such as celebrations and rituals, on which he can do 20 half-hour shows. Then he spends the year traveling the world to put together 20 programs which will air the following year on PBS and also form the basis of a book.
Sometimes Wolf and his crew of four travel to several countries in the same trip. This may include several different climates and a variety of needs as far as the shows are concerned.
“I pack wardrobe according to the schedule,” he says. “On my next trip I’m going to be in Lapland so it’s going to be cold. I need outdoor clothes and rain gear. I have no choice about working in the rain if that’s the day an event I want to show is scheduled. I can’t call up the archbishop in Florence and say, `It’s a little rainy today. Can we do Easter tomorrow?’ So I look at the scripts and I know I’m going to be out there and the weather might be tough.
“I look at each show and take all the clothes I might need in any possible weather in each place. Layering is critical. And I also pack by having clothes for the north in one suitcase, another for Italy and Portugal and so on. I have friends at the Weather Channel and I call them and say, `What do you guys see for next week in Spain?’ “
Wolf has learned, he says, that the cost of laundry in a good hotel is often more expensive than the item he’s laundering. So he brings as many socks and underwear as he can. If he runs out, he can buy new socks for less than it costs to launder them.
In all, the group travels with about 22 suitcases, which includes, besides their clothes, their equipment and one case with just research materials that Wolf needs to write his scripts. And he carries 50 pounds of weights which he needs to use regularly because of a back problem. He says it’s a great way to ensure that he follows the regimen.
“I carry these weights and pay the overcharge for them; I’d look like an idiot if I didn’t use them.
“I also always bring one interesting book that challenges my mind,” Wolf says. “On my last trip I reread the `Odyssey.’ On the next trip I’m going to reread the `Iliad.’ It’s something I focus on intensely. I read it on the plane and, also, every morning, to center me.”
Wolf has learned a lot about travel safety over the years because he often goes to places that are not very secure. “Arrive at the airport as close to your check-in time as possible,” he says, “and go immediately through security because on the far side of security you’re much better off than at the check-in counters. And when you get through security don’t sit near a window. Most people are hurt by flying glass.”
He recommends that you take no alcohol and, if possible, no caffeine when you go into a trip where you’re going through several time zones. When he gets on a flight he changes his watch to the new time and, he says, “no one is allowed to say, `Gee, it’s 6:30 back home.’ You’re on the new time.”
Wolf also suggests that before you go through customs you remove any tags that say First Class or Business Class or indicate any form of priority treatment. The tags can suggest to the agent that you have sufficient disposable income to exceed the no-duty limit. Wolf and his crew always travel Business or First Class but, he says, he rarely spends more than $50 or $100 on purchases on any trip.
“But there I am with five pieces of luggage and First Class tickets and I say I didn’t buy anything? `Come over here, kid. Open that bag.”‘
The single most common injury for travelers, reported by emergency rooms, Wolf says, are broken toes. These occur when a foot is banged against furniture in an unfamiliar hotel room. “So we all travel with slippers now,” he says.
Wolf says they try to stay in the best place they can, wherever they go, “but sometimes the best place is pretty scary. When you’re in Rome, London or Paris it’s great. But when you’re in the mountains of Taiwan and you’ve gone up there to do a story about how tea is grown, they don’t have any tourists; there’s no place to eat.
Somebody is kind enough to make a place for you and feed you. Everybody is always really nice to us. The smaller the place, the nicer they are and the more they really want to help you. But sometimes there are just no facilities for eating and sleeping.”
Wolf can’t be pinned down on any favorite place. “My children’s homes, any one of the three of them,” he says, “are the best places in the world. To go and hang out with my children is the best place. That’s what I do on vacation. Two of them live in the United States and one lives in Tokyo.”
As for the rest of the world, each place has something unique that makes it wonderful, he says. “The Lapps are not going to have the same kind of food that I’m going to get in Rome. On the other hand, Rome is not going to have that extraordinary natural environment that I’m going to see with the Laplanders. When I’m in Paris I have fabulous food and wine and an urban environment that I enjoy. On the other hand, when we got into the national park at the bottom of Chile, there was not the greatest food in the world, but I stood next to an iceberg.”
To all travelers Wolf says, “Keep traveling. For all of us here, it’s a giant odyssey and we love it. We know eventually we’ll just go all around the world and come back home, and home will look wonderful.”
