Where is Somebody Feeding Phil now?

After eight seasons of eating his way around the world for Netflix, Phil Rosenthal has moved to YouTube.It sounds unusual because shows generally go from YouTube to Netflix, but Phil is delighted to be doing things backwards. In fact, the creator of Everybody Loves Raymond and irrepressibly enthusiastic host of Somebody Feed Philthinks everyone else may eventually be following him.

Production giant Banijay approached Lucky Bastards, Phil and his brother Richard’s company, about working together. “I said, ‘How would you like to do Somebody Feed Phil?’ They said, ‘But you’re at Netflix.’ And I said, ‘What if I wasn’t?’”

Crucially, Phil owns the intellectual property, which meant he could take Somebody Feed Phil with him.“YouTube is the future,” he says. “It’s the most democratic – with a small ‘d’ – of the platforms and anyone can watch for free. I love the idea of the show’s message getting out to everybody.”

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For Phil, that accessibility matters. One of the joys of Somebody Feed Phil has always been that, despite the exotic locations and occasionally spectacular restaurants, it isn’t really a show about expensive food. It is about people he has met as he has wandered through markets, ate at roadside stalls and in family restaurants where he has introduced viewers to places they might otherwise never have found. His undisguised pleasure when someone puts something delicious in front of him is part of the appeal.

“I certainly wasn’t going to change my show,” he tells me of the move. And he isn’t going to now. The food, jokes, small restaurants and people will stay the same. There will be another eight episodes and season nine begins filming in Greece this autumn, with plenty of other parts of the world still on Phil’s list.

“I feel like there are many places that I’ve never been in my life that I should hit first before I revisit the ones I liked,” he says, but quickly adds  “I love every place we’ve been.”

The new home also gives Somebody Feed Phil a potentially enormous audience. Phil contrasts Netflix’s hundreds of millions of subscribers with the billions of people using YouTube, but it is the absence of a paywall that really appeals to him.

“One of my favourite things about doing Everybody Loves Raymond was that it was on free television,” he says. “So I kind of love this.” It also means a different way of making the programme. Banijay and Phil’s production team will work with sponsors and tourism boards to fund the series, while building the Phil Rosenthal World YouTube channel with additional content ahead of the arrival of the new episodes.

But the first taste is already there. A 17-minute mini episode takes viewers inside Max & Helen’s, the Los Angeles diner Phil opened with celebrated chef Nancy Silverton in memory of his late parents, who became much-loved regulars on Somebody Feed Phil.

Max and Helen Rosenthal never needed exotic locations to steal a scene. Their appearances – often via video call as Phil reported back from wherever he happened to be eating – became one of the show’s most endearing recurring features. Naming the restaurant after them makes it feel like an extension of the Rosenthal family story. And the food follows suit. Max’s famously fluffy eggs are even on the menu.

Family has also taken Phil into publishing. He and his daughter Lily have written the bestselling children’s books Just Try It! and Just Try It! Someplace New!, encouraging young eaters to be a little more adventurous.“We just sold another one too,” Phil reveals. This time the subject is finding the right thing to do after school – further proof that the Rosenthals’ interests aren’t confined to what is on the plate.

And anglophile Phil hasn’t forgotten us. He is collaborating with Fortnum & Mason on a peanut-butter version of one of his favourite chocolate biscuits. It will be sold at Fortnum’s new Biscuitorium, the Piccadilly store’s celebration of all things biscuit which has just opened, and Phil is particularly tickled by another distinction. “I’m their first collaboration,” he says.

The biscuit is due to appear in December, giving Phil another reason to return to London – although admittedly he has never required much persuading. So, after eight seasons, Somebody Feed Phil hasn’t really ended at all. It has simply changed address. For a man who made a second career out of wondering what he should eat next, Phil Rosenthal has an impressively full plate.