Gourmet magazine's last issue is on newssstands but editor Ruth Reichl still has a food journalist's dream job: taking classes at cooking schools around the world. And we (and the occasional celebrity) go along for the ride in her new PBS series "Adventures with Ruth," which makes its Pittsburgh debut at 4:30 p.m. Saturday on WQED.

The first episode takes Ms. Reichl and pal Frances McDormand to Blackberry Farm in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, where chef/owner Sam Beall has assembled a capable crew who clearly love what they do, growing, harvesting and preserving the earth's bounty in a beautiful setting.

At Blackberry Farm guests sample life and work, so the women gather honey, pick peas, pull root vegetables and catch rainbow trout (Fran, comfy in her skin and in her overalls, catches a trout; Ruth catches ... something else). Then they work with Mr. Beall and his staff to prepare dinner, which included Sugar Snap Pea and Cheese Curd Salad; Braised Lamb Neck with Wilted Creasy Greens; Trout with Watercress, Roe and Herb Broth and Radish Beet Terrine with Baby Arugula. (Find recipes and previews at gourmet.com.)

Through it all, Ms. Reichl conveys a sense of wonder and discovery about local ingredients and the relationship between food and culture. Future programs in the 10-episode series take her to Seattle for the opening of the Copper River salmon season and to the mountains south of Mexico City for classes taught by local women at Cocinar Mexicano.

With Dianne Wiest, Ms. Reichl learns to bake bread with Richard Bertinet in Bath, England; they also travel to Venice where Italian Countess Enrica Rocca takes them shopping in the Rialto market, then brings them home to her 16th-century palazzo for cooking lessons. The show also takes us to Morocco, Brazil, Laos, China and back home to Ms. Reichl's native New York, where she makes Indian food with Julie Sahni at her cooking school in Brooklyn.

This is Gourmet and WGBH Boston's second food/travel show, a successor to the fast-paced globetrotter "Diary of a Foodie," and it's good to see a woman at the helm. While the production company, Zero Point Zero, is the same as Tony Bourdain's, safe to say there will be no conspicuous consumption of nasty bits.

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