Rupak Ginn And Sami Khan Serve Up Second Course Of ‘Spice Road,’ PBS Digital Series That Savors South Asian Culture, Cuisine
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- Spice Road Season 2 premiered this week on PBS Food's Digital Channels, with new episodes releasing every Tuesday over the next six weeks through summer, following a Season 1 that helped launch PBS Food's revamped vertical in 2023.
- Rupak Ginn takes the new season to the Midwest, featuring Chicago's Indienne — one of only four Indian restaurants in the U.S. to earn a Michelin star under Chef Sujan Sarkar — plus Kerala-cuisine spot Thattu (a James Beard semi-finalist) and Amar Pizza in Michigan, ranked among the country's 22 best by The New York Times.
- Sami Khan, the Oscar-nominated co-director of short documentary 'St. Louis Superman,' serves as co-creator and producer alongside Ginn, with the series co-produced by MIRAFILMS, ITVS, and the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM).
- Featured guests this season include YouTube creator Bilal Bhatti (GoldenGully), Omi Vaidya (The Office), Karan Soni, and Roshan Sethi (A Nice Indian Boy).
- Ginn and Khan framed the series around immigrant entrepreneurship, saying in a statement: 'At a time when being an immigrant is dangerous, we're inspired by the chefs and entrepreneurs in this series who risked so much for their dreams.'
- ITVS SVP Royd Chung positioned the show as part of the network's digital-first pivot, saying ITVS and Independent Lens are 'meeting modern audiences exactly where they are' via YouTube.
Why it matters: The Season 2 order gives PBS Food Digital — a vertical that only launched in 2023 — a returning flagship to anchor its identity, while ITVS and CAAM are explicitly betting that South Asian American stories from the Midwest, often absent from coastal media coverage, can build audience on YouTube-first digital distribution. Khan's recent credits (Netflix's 'Starting 5,' Paramount+'s 'Made for March') suggest the show's visibility could also serve as a calling card for higher-profile work.
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