So in my job as professional foodie, I immerse myself in food – recipes, blogs, magazines, websites, and even TV shows. Luckily I don’t have to eat everything that I write about or I would be the size of a house.
Adam Richman
One show I came across has me seriously addicted – it’s called Man v Food. Adam Richman (judging by the Star of David around his neck he seems to be an MoT) hosts this show where he travels the US of A looking for “pig-out joints” and tries to beat certain restaurant challenges. We just finished watching our way through the second series on Netflix. We are watching Adam gain weight from episode to episode.
He eats things like a 12 inch high burger – 12 patties with cheese and veggies on a bun; wings so hot you can see the steam exiting every single pore on poor Adam’s face; eating a burger covered with sauce so hot it’s called “Shut Up Juice”! And those are just the challenges – each episode Adam visits two restaurants for their unique cuisine and a third restaurant that has a competition. Eat this signature dish within the time limit and you can win a tee shirt or something equal. We watched Adam plow his way through a 72 oz steak in 35 minutes, try to eat 50 chicken wings in 30 minutes, eat so much ice cream that I suffered an ice cream headache, and we saw him attempt to demolish a 7 lb burrito in an hour.
His quest is to find the best junk food in all America, and not the McDonalds and Burger Kings. He is visiting the mom and pop restaurants along with the most popular eateries in each town he visits. As we watch, his cholesterol is rising, his waistline is increasing. Regular portions are not enough for him – everything needs to be supersized.
It’s like a train wreck – you can see destruction and devastation happening but you cannot tear your eyes away. Truth is I love hearing about all the different signature dishes, and I enjoy watching Adam devour amounts of food that normal men could only dream of consuming.
Adam, this yiddishe mama worries about you, and I want to feed you some healthy food. But I do have a challenge for you. Do a kosher episode. Come to our neck of the woods and let’s go to ETC Steakhouse in Teaneck – let them make you a kosher 72 oz steak to eat in 60 minutes, or maybe Shalom Bombay can make you a curry so hot, it will put “shut up juice” to shame. Or even, take my KoD up on his suggestion – how much cholent can you consume in 60 minutes?? Adam – what do you say? Kosher food will go down so much easier I am sure!!
Go Adam Go!! Man v Kosher Food – sure to be a winner!!
In the Pink 
I think this is a great idea. I am fascinated by the amounts of food Adam is able to consume (I think in my younger days I might have been able to conquer some of these challenges).
It would be nice to see some ethnic challenges, including kosher food. Though I dont know what would be really unique about a kosher food challenge making it different from the regular challenges (would eating a 72oz kosher steak be any different than the non-kosher version?) but maybe 3 loaves of gefilte fish with chrein, or the largest pot of cholent (pick a size), or something similar can be thought of.
This sounds like a disgusting type of show.
As a principle, I find eating competitions disgusting.
Kosher food? Are you trying to poison him? 🙂
My girls and I love the show (although now they have Carnivore Chronicles, which seems to be a ‘best of MvF’ and doesn’t interest us).
There are times I’m annoyed that he admits to being a nice Jewish boy from Brooklyn… mostly when he’s kvelling over pork and snarfing down treif.
When I watch his show, I often wish I had access to the type of restaurants he goes to. Then my already large waistline thank me that I don’t have access to that type of food.
So I recreate a Kosher version, like when I topped my monster burger with crispy salami and a fried egg…
My son, 25 years old, 5′ 5″ and under 100 pounds has a T-shirt attesting to the fact that he once, while in Israel, ate a 1kg (2.2 pounds, for the metrically challenged) burger at some restaurant. So an very occasional pig out need not make one fat.
Great idea! Don’t limit it to NY area though, how about a kosher week, where he travels to kosher restaurants around the country? We’d love to have him at Dave’s Gourmet, in Detroit.
what challenge would you come up with for Adam? (Kosher Week is a great idea!)
I have some ideas based on things that my customers have actually ordered before, including one known as the “death burger” , but I’m still thinking of some ideas. I want to have some challenges here, even if there’s no chance of getting Adam here.
Don’t do it. It’s Un-jüdisch.
a. I dont think he is fat, nor does he grow at every show. on his site he mentions that he has a strict exercise regimen and he prepares for every show and has a team of doctors and health people to prepare him to eat the vast amounts of food without gaining weight.
b. he says that they only consider restaurants that have long standing challenges in place. they dont just go to any restaurant that makes up a challenge for the purpose of getting on the show. Maybe they would make exceptions for an ethnic series.
I would love to see a Cholent challenge. That is a very “Jewish” food. Gefilte fish, kugels, p’tcha, chicken soup… Shabbos fare like the food served in most of the restaurants in Williamsburg.
have you ever eaten p’tcha, Z?
I love this idea! I can hardly watch Adam as digs in, but I would absolutely have to watch him eat a crockpot full of cholent! What fun!