It helps that he is 6-foot-1 and maintains the character  and the outfits  offstage. (When Mr. Fornal met Ruben Diaz Jr., the Bronx borough president, recently, he introduced himself as Baron Ambrosia.) The Baron’s hamminess comes naturally. Handed a bottle of hot sauce, Mr. Fornal will reflexively act as if his fingers are burning. He mugs ceaselessly, making faces like an old-time movie villain: clownish, dastardly, suave. His eyebrows are almost permanently arched.

“You see these owners joking with me, and I’m acting like a buffoon,” Mr. Fornal said.

In “The Chitlin’ Rapture,” which includes his recipe for a potlikker martini, the Baron proselytizes about the soul-healing virtues of the titular food in the cadence of a Southern Baptist preacher. “Hallelujah, amen!” the patrons at Berzet’s Soul Food yell gamely.

But no scenario is too preposterous if it helps advance his goal of demystifying the Bronx and its cuisine. Crossing racial, social and class lines in search of, say, the borough’s best cuchifritos  and convincing others to do the same  is what he is proudest of.

“People have written to me and said, ‘I’m West African, and I’ve never gone to an Albanian restaurant until I saw it on your show,’ ” he said.

After lunch  Mr. Fornal took the leftovers; doggie bags are his stock in trade  the two-person crew headed to the next location, Casa Amadeo, a historic record store that specializes in Latin music.

Plot break: Mr. Fornal got the idea for “Joe Bataan Stole My Girlfriend” when he met the musician after one of his concerts and later took him to lunch. (The Baron is very persuasive.) The story, roughly, begins with the Baron and his Dominican girlfriend sitting on the hood of the P-Rex in a romantic moment. “For the first time in the series he is truly in love,” the script reads, “as she makes the best pernil he has ever tasted.” But his lady only has eyes for the dapper Mr. Bataan.

Image He helps to film his television show. Credit... Michael Nagle for The New York Times

Heartbroken, the Baron visits Casa Amadeo to learn more about his rival, and discover his weakness. Enter the cemita de milanesa. At some point the mariachi band from Xochimilco gets involved  the Baron stuffs them into his trunk  and the episode ends with a climatic game of chicken between Mr. Bataan and the Baron. The winner gets the girl, or maybe the pernil.