Eva Longoria Goes to France for New Season of NCS Travel Show

Eva Longoria thought she knew France fairly properly.

The actress and producer has been touring to the nation repeatedly for greater than twenty years. She speaks French. She was married to French American basketball star Tony Parker for three years. “I’m definitely a Francophile,” she says. “In a past life, I was definitely French, because the minute I visited for the first time, 25 years ago, I said, ‘My God, I want to speak French and I want to be here.’”

So it’s not precisely surprising that Longoria selected France as the most recent vacation spot for the third season of her NCS travel collection.

In Eva Longoria: Searching for France, premiering April 12, Longoria explores the nation’s vaunted culinary heritage and present eating scene throughout eight episodes and a number of areas, together with Provence, Brittany, Alsace, Bordeaux and Burgundy. There’s even a complete episode devoted to delectable pastry and bread in Paris, sampling creations by star abilities like Nina Métayer, Cédric Grolet and Mickaël Reydellet of La Parisienne. “This is my dream job: traveling the world and eating. To be able to do it in one of my favorite countries — how can life get any better?” says Longoria.

Longoria — who beforehand explored the cuisines of Spain and Mexico on her NCS present — speaks to The Hollywood Reporter about what she realized, ate and loved essentially the most whereas making the most recent season.

What are some areas of France that you just explored whereas making the present that stunned you essentially the most?

I had been all over the place in France besides Alsace. Alsace is on the German aspect, which was fascinating and lovely. It’s not French and never German, it’s Alsatian. And Brittany — the Bretons are a novel folks as properly. They’re not a lot French and never a lot English. They’re Breton. These regional identities are so robust, and that was stunning to actually uncover and expertise.

What have been some distinctive meals from these two areas that stood out?

The winstubs are previous, hidden eating places from World War II, when Germany was occupying France and had to function in secret to protect French tradition, French meals and French wine. And the menus are superb — often very comparable to one another and with differing kinds of sausages, which you’d assume that’s German, however it wasn’t. It’s onerous to clarify.

And then in Brittany, we acquired to expertise seafood that’s distinctive to that [area]. The blue lobsters — we really went diving for them, and so they have been stunning. There are solely a choose few folks allowed to fish them as a result of they really need to defend the inhabitants.

You took a MasterClass in the course of the pandemic to find out how to make croissants. What was it like assembly some of France’s greatest bakers and pâtissiers?

The French take croissant-making and baguette-making very severely. And look, I’m so remedial in my croissant-making expertise as compared to them. I used to be asking, “Does this really matter?” They’d say, “Absolutely, the temperature of the water matters, and where the flour comes from matters.” Every ingredient is very regulated within the sense that it’s sacred.

I had loads of enjoyable making baguettes [in France] as a result of the croissant-makers are slightly too severe for me. You actually don’t contact that recipe.

On your podcast Hungry for History with Maite Gomez-Rejôn, you latterly explored the profound affect of chef and restaurateur Auguste Escoffier on not solely French delicacies however all of eating. Can you speak a bit about how France formed how so many individuals eat?

We owe a lot of advantageous eating to the French. The coursing of a meal, forks, knives, dinnerware, the café, the brasserie, souffle, sommelier, all of it. And then there’s Escoffier [creating] the bible of mom sauces [such as] béchamel and hollandaise. His ebook [Le Guide Culinaire] remains to be in each single kitchen I visited, from Michelin-starred eating places to a scrappy chef in Marseille. Even the rule-breakers would say, “You have to know the rules before you break them.”

The brigade system, how to set up a kitchen, from sous chef to the meat station to the fish station, that got here from Escoffier, too. He was within the military and introduced that order again to the kitchen. And not simply the kitchen, he codified the [front of house] construction: the maître d’, the hostess, the pinnacle waiter, the sommelier.

Were there some other areas of France that actually stood out for you?

The most shocking factor was Provence. I don’t need to use a damaging phrase as a result of it’s a constructive factor, however they’ve a chip on their shoulder with reference to the remainder of the nation. Paris and Lyon get all of the limelight, however Provence actually opens its arms to the remainder of the world, so their meals has very totally different influences that don’t observe the foundations of conventional French cooking. I keep in mind saying, “Let me guess, you’re going to use butter?” And the chef mentioned, “No, only the north uses butter. In the south, we use olive oil.” And then you consider it, it makes full sense. And then to actually uncover the Greek influences and the way they settled Provence traditionally, and that’s the place the niçoise salad and olive oil come from. They get very offended that everybody is breaking the [niçoise salad] guidelines. There is not any lettuce in a niçoise salad. Please cease placing lettuce within the niçoise.

Are there cooks who’re immigrants to France and redefining what it means to be French?

All of them. But Mory Sacko [of MoSuke] is so value mentioning. He’s West African, solely 33, already a Michelin-starred chef — essentially the most well-known superstar chef in France proper now. He grew up in Paris in an Asian neighborhood, fell in love with Japanese cooking, and opened a restaurant that’s a combination of French, West African and Japanese delicacies. He’s simply beautiful and actually defines what it means to be influenced by many cultures, not simply your personal.

Do you could have a meal or two that also stand out from making the present?

In Paris, Le Cheval d’Or, or golden horse, is that this French-Asian restaurant within the historic Chinese district run by an Australian-Filipino chef named Hanz Gueco. The menu isn’t the identical, and he had a shrimp toast croque madame that was insane. That’s what I really like about this collection: It exhibits you the foundations after which exhibits you who breaks them.

What philosophy do you depend on when selecting tasks by means of your manufacturing firm, Hyphenate Media Group?

I really like to produce with function — what am I attempting to say, what do I need to evoke emotionally? The Searching for collection began with Mexico as a result of U.S.-Mexico relations have been fairly strained, and meals is a good cultural connector. If persons are doing Taco Tuesday and margaritas, possibly they’ll have extra affection towards the tradition that birthed that.

Are you cooking something now that you just realized to make in France?

I’m making my very own baguettes at dwelling now, it’s simpler than you’d assume. And my very own butter. You pour heavy cream in a jar, shake it for quarter-hour, and et voilà, you could have butter. Honey butter, garlic butter, salted butter. It’s not fairly the identical because the butter from Brittany and Normandy, the place you may style the grass and the spring rain, however the course of is equivalent.

What is one meal that also stands out from whenever you have been filming?

In Bordeaux, Vivien Durand at Le Prince Noir is a big rule-breaker and tremendous modern. He made this beef with a play on the Bordelaise sauce. And chef Philippe Etchebest [of Le Quatrième Mur] made one of the best duck I’ve ever had.

This story seems in The Hollywood Reporter’s 2026 Travel Issue. Click here to read more.