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New travel show focuses on luxury trains

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A new television series that launches tonight will feature six journeys on board some of the world’s most luxurious trains.

Gourmet Trains, presented by Jonathan Phang, premiers at 7pm on the Travel Channel.

Phang’s journeys include: Venice to London on the Venice-Simplon-Orient-Express; Bucharest to Istanbul on the Venice-Simplon-Orient-Express; Singapore to Penang on the Eastern & Oriental Express; Penang to Bangkok on the Eastern & Oriental Express; The English Journeys (Kent and Rutland) on the British Pullman & Northern Belle; and Budapest to Vienna on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express.

Along the way he stops off in extraordinary culinary destinations, exploring places with connections to the trains and testing the old adage … is it better to travel than to arrive?

Before the series Phang has never been on an overnight train and during the series he gets to know staff and passengers as well as helping out the chefs.

In the cities he stops off in, Jonathan explores what’s new on the food scene, meets people who are pioneering in their culinary field and tries the unexpected and cutting edge.

In episode one Phang boards the train at Venice train station and travels via Innsbruck to Paris and then on to London. In Venice he explores the Rialto food market and cooks scampi, visits the palazzo Lezze on the Grand Canal and finds out how Venetians live and entertain in these palatial houses.

In Paris, Jonathan is invited to the laboratory of chocolate master Patrick Roger where truffle making doesn’t go quite to plan and he does retro dining at the art nouveau restaurant, La Fermette Marbeuf.

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