Los Angeles is synonymous with glitz and glamour. But Jamie experiences a very different version of the American Dream a few miles east of the Hollywood sign among America's largest concentration of Mexican immigrants. East LA is notorious for gangs, drugs and violence, but Jamie also discovers a community proud of its food, committed to family and striving to achieve a better life. Jamie samples Mexican delicacies with great-great-grandmother Maria at a fiesta-style birthday party. But on the following day he meets Rigo, an ex-gang member turned successful chef who is hosting a special meal to commemorate his uncle Emmanuel, the victim of a gangland shooting. Jamie is inspired to discover the fresh flavours of Mexican food at a charity helping ex-gang members, and agrees to cook his version of a Mexican feast for a baptism meal.
In the second episode of Jamie's American Roadtrip Jamie steps into the Wild West states of Wyoming and Montana to find out what life as a cowboy is really like. Jamie spends time at a rodeo in Cody, before heading upstate into the mountains to try and cut it on a working cattle ranch. He cooks for proper cowboys, rides out into the wilderness and even sleeps rough under the stars!
For the first time, Jamie will be eating outside Manhattan, experiencing an illegal dinner and opening his own underground restaurant. "New York's food culture is built on wave after wave of immigration," says Jamie, "it's the world on a plate." In Astoria, Egyptian chef Ali takes Jamie to a halal butcher and sends him on a sensory trip down memory lane with a long forgotten taste of hibiscus. "When I was 4 years old someone gave me that on the Norfolk Broads and I've been searching for that flavour ever since and never found it!" he beams.
Jamie goes hunting for alligators and cooking gumbo in Louisiana, as well as helping a local eatery get back on its feet again just weeks after Hurricane Gustav has wreaked havoc.
Jamie finds himself in the Deep South as he visits the state of Georgia in the fifth episode of Jamie’s American Roadtrip. One of the country’s poorest states and birthplace of the civil rights movement, Jamie embarks on a recession roadtrip across the state.
The final stop on Jamie's tour is a Navajo Indian reservation in Arizona, where he encounters America's oldest cuisine and experiences Navajo traditions up close and spiritually.
