Multi-award-winning Phil Rosenthal, the creator of TV’s Everybody Loves Raymond, has entertained millions with his humor and insight. His travel and food show Somebody Feed Phil is currently delighting viewers on Netflix. LJ spoke with Rosenthal about cities he loves, cookbooks he treasures, and what his show and the new accompanying cookbook offer to viewers and readers.

Your Netflix series Somebody Feed Phil is a bright spot of joy due to your mix of insight and glee. Your new cookbook, Somebody Feed Phil, the Book: Untold Stories, Behind-the-Scenes Photos and Favorite Recipes, amazingly, captures much of that through the photos, the Max jokes, and your notes. For readers who will discover the show through this cookbook, what two episodes would you suggest as starters?

Well, first of all, I think a lot of people look at the list of shows on Netflix over the five or six seasons [of Somebody Feed Phil] and they just pick the city that they are interested in. I don’t think we have done a bad one. But if you are forcing me to pick, I think New York and Venice are good starting points. New York because it is New York, and it is very personal to me as well. And then Venice because it is so beautiful, and it has everything. I am also fond of Lisbon. People tell me they have actually traveled to Lisbon because of the show, more than any other episode. So there is something magical about that one. From this season, the one that is on right now, I think Maine kind of encapsulates everything that I love doing in the show. Meaning the food is great, the scenery is gorgeous, and there is some personal connection and a real sense of making the place better than how you found it.

We like to ask cookbook authors about their favorite cookbooks. You say you do not cook, but what are your favorite cookbooks?

There are certain cookbooks that are so gorgeous, just to look at, that they are works of art and I look at them as if they are art books. And I think my favorite one might be [Heston Blumenthal’s] The Fat Duck Cookbook. It is a gigantic volume. Is there a better one than that in terms of beauty? I also have some of the El Bulli cookbooks [which are] so spectacular and cool-looking that they are works of art to me. Those are my favorites. I have quite the collection because I get them as mementoes of the restaurant. Not that I am capable of doing anything, but sometimes I will hire someone to cook from the cookbooks. This is no reflection on me at all because I have nothing to do with these recipes, but I think Somebody Feed Phil, the Book is one of the best ever made because of the chefs involved and because we have got 60 recipes from the greatest chefs in the world who all contributed to one book, so who has that?

Do you read for pleasure? If so, what are some of your favorite books and authors?

The older I get, the less I physically read. I listen to a lot of books on audio now. I have read a lot in my lifetime, but not compared to people who curl up at night every day with a book. I am not that guy. I am a horrible child of television and movies. Most recently I just listened to Mike Nichols: A Life, by Mark Harris [narrated by George Newbern], which I thought was fantastic. But favorite book ever? To Kill a Mockingbird is pretty good. I love Ragtime, that was such a good book. When I was a kid, my favorite book was The Shining. I am going to read my book; I read all the essays for audio. And if you get the audiobook, you will get online all the photos and recipes. I did it once before for my first book, You’re Lucky You’re Funny: How Life Becomes a Sitcom.

What do you think it is about your show that is so engaging to people?

I think it is the lesson I leaned from doing the sitcom [Everybody Loves Raymond] for all those years that the number-one ingredient that the audience looks for is relatability. I sold the show with one line, “I am exactly like Anthony Bourdain if he were afraid of everything.” I think a lot of people are afraid to take a chance or step out of their comfort zone. And I think they see a guy who is like them. Maybe a slightly funnier version of the guy next door. Maybe that helps make it worthwhile, but I also think, besides me, even if you did not like me, you get Italy, you get Lisbon, you get the world, it’s gorgeous, the food looks delicious. I mean, what’s not to like? In the sitcom we knew that our job was to be funny. No one is going to get any message you are trying to put out there unless you are first entertaining, so that of course is the currency of the show. [That] is what I think I could offer that another food and travel show would not have. But it’s just a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down. I am just using the food and my stupid sense of humor to get you to the real point of the show, which is this kindness in the world and what travel will not only do for the world, you being a kind ambassador to the world, but what you get back from travel is invaluable for your life. That is the real point of the show.

What’s it like working with your brother and show producer Richard?

Terrible. I have to say that because that is our shtick. But to be honest it is one of the great joys of my life, to travel the world and eat with ostensibly my best friend. It has been an absolute joy in my life. And you know who loved it even more than we loved it, was my parents because they got to see their sons truly happy, and not just truly happy, but truly happy together. And I know they loved this because we fought terribly as children. And so, to have it come out on the other side of this, I mean I talk to him every day. It’s my closest relationship other than my wife and kids. I can tell you that I think our best episode is yet to come. We filmed it already and it will be on for season six; it is a tribute to [our parents] Helen and Max.