TV Dinners: September 17-23

What’s worth watching on food-TV this week?

Tonight on No Reservations (10pm on the Travel Channel), Bourdain goes to South Carolina. He’s also got an upcoming holiday special that features Queens of the Stone Age (wearing Christmas sweaters from QVC, no less). We can’t wait for that one. Read about it in Rolling Stone.

On Top Chef, Episode 12 airs Wednesday at 10pm (Bravo). The guest judges are Sirio Maccioni and Andre Soltner. Grub Street finds last week’s episode boring without Howie, and Adam Platt calls Bourdain “the lord of world-weary diners.” You can also read the Serious Eats recap of the episode here.

Martha Stewart airs all new episodes again this week (1pm, NBC). On Monday, she’s got pastry chef Elizabeth Pruitt (of Tartine Bakery in SF); Tuesday, pastry chefs Judy Roll and Elizabeth Martin make rugelach, and Wednesday features pickle expert Rick Field.

On PBS Sunday afternoon (4-6:30pm, Ch. 13), we’ve got Chef’s Story, featuring Suzanne Goin of Lucques, followed by Complete Pépin on shellfish, and then The Best Recipes in the World with Mark Bittman with a wine epsiode. Read the Amateur Gourmet’s ode to Bittman—he calls him “food tv’s unsung hero” here. Lidia Bastianich’s Lidia’s Italy is next with an episode on mac and cheese, then Daisy Cooks! With Daisy Martinez on empanadas.