Worlds Greatest Food Markets: a fishmonger-out-of-water reality show | Television
Jazz Twemlow’s week in Australian TVTelevision This article is more than 8 years oldWorld’s Greatest Food Markets: a fishmonger-out-of-water reality show
This article is more than 8 years oldJazz TwemlowIn this episode of the entertaining SBS series, charismatic host Roger Barton, a London fishmonger, is thrown into the deep end as he tackles buying and selling chilli in a Mexico City food market
I’m in Melbourne for the city’s annual comedy festival, prepping my 90 minute set list. I’ll soon commence a financially unfeasible run of shows, where I’ll be bring myself on to the stage with the unfortunately accurate opening line, “good evening, lady and gentleman”.
Not that I’m bitter: it’s just a crowded market. At this time of the year, it feels like there are at least two million comedians in Melbourne, meaning that promotional flyering often becomes just a time-consuming way to cover the pavement in narcissistically customised litter. You might as well be handing out puddles during a flood.
Thank goodness I’m able to draw comfort from former fishmonger Roger Barton, the gruff and cheeky company provided in World’s Greatest Food Markets (SBS). Each episode follows the plucky whiskered chap (known as the Bastard of Billingsgate, a Harry Potter title that never quite made it) as he’s taken out of his home turf of London, gets thrown into an overcrowded, bustling market of a new international city, and has to use his full repertoire of hustling skills to buy and sell his way to profit. I should have been taking notes.
The most recent episode sees Barton head to Central de Abasto in Mexico City. It’s a giant hive of scurrying traders, some 600 acres in size, serving 400,000 people. Every shot in this documentary is a visual cacophony worth tuning in for in itself. And there’s something charming about watching Roger “the Bastard” wander around in his tattered straw boater, fish-out-of-water as he effs and mutters “bollocks” at the swirling array of fruit and vegetables. It’s as if Guy Ritchie penned the script for a Mexican Coles ad.
The episode becomes more compelling with the introduction of antagonist, Don Cesar, one of the country’s biggest chilli sellers. He openly admits to benefiting from Barton’s uninformed trading, as does the market, and says Barton doesn’t fully understand the product he’s selling. Spurred on by Cesar’s assurance there’s a chilli scarcity, Barton is suddenly heading to the countryside in a hired lorry to pick up several tonnes of chilli to bring back to market. It’s a 2,000km round trip from which Roger cannot afford to return empty-handed.
Looking haggard as the hat on his head, Roger arrives at the chilli farm in the countryside and wanders the fields, prodding various chillies while declaring them “the bollocks” (which, if you don’t speak cockney, means the opposite of “bollocks”). However, back in Mexico City Cesar won’t answer the phone and let him know how many chillies are expected in the market the following day. Blind, Barton’s weak position is quickly exploited and he has to buy high.
Returning to Central de Abasto at dawn and looking like a sleep-deprived collection of hair and straw, Bastard Bollocks Barton soon discovers the market is awash in comedians – sorry, chilli – and he is forced to sell at a lower price. Eventually the manipulative Don Cesar turns up and puts Barton out of his misery by buying up most of what remains, pushing Barton into serious loss.
World’s Greatest Food Markets is not a series I was expecting to enjoy. Generally any show that has a superlative in the title puts me off, as if being “the most” anything is enough to make it good TV: dangerous logic that leads to us all plonking ourselves down on the sofa to enjoy World’s Bendiest Potatoes. And what could have been a gimmicky premise, in execution is a fascinating and fresh glimpse into the world of food markets. Host Barton is earnestly plying his trade as best he knows how, and from the comfort of a sofa makes for engrossing television. First hand, I’m sure it’s a rather stressful experience.
Speaking of which, want a flyer for my show “The Disgrunta ... ” No? OK, I’ll just leave it here on the street in case you change your mind.
World’s Greatest Food Markets airs in Australia on SBS
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