Recently, popular food and lifestyle YouTube channel, First We Feast, hosted Adam Richman on their show Hot Ones. The show’s format is simple: Host Sean Evans interviews celebrities while they consume wings dipped in increasingly hot series of sauces.
For the uninitiated, Richman is most famously known as the host of the show Man v. Food (A play on Bear Gryll’s insanely popular show Man vs Wild). He has also done other food-related shows, like Supperman on UKTV, and Adam Richman’s Search For The Best YouTube Channel. He is also the bestselling author of books like America: The Edible and Straight Up Tasty.
A bit on the unconventional side, this interview, instead of being face to face, was done over video conferencing (thanks to a certain rampant pandemic). Richman, being a second time guest on the show (and a world class foodie), was pretty at home with the format as he breezed through the initial hot sauces without breaking a sweat. The questions were primarily directed around how he saw the pandemic impacting the American hospitality industry.
Richman made an interesting remark when he stated that he thinks the impact is going to be as significant as World War II on the eating habits of the Americans - staying in more, spending less, even buying less food in general in order to make ends meet.
He also pointed out, with respect to restaurant businesses adapting to pandemic restrictions, that the solutions need to apply all the way to the farms (who are losing money and product due to lowered demand and transportation), and not just on the point of sale at the restaurant.
Early in the interview, Evans asked Richman to name three culturally important restaurants from his hometown that need to be protected at all costs. Being a Brooklyn native, Richman couldn't pick just three, and instead listed his top five Brooklyn food spots:
- Brennan and Car
- Junior’s
- Randazzo’s
- Spimoni Gardens
- Nathan’s
Even better, though, for those who live in other areas besides Brooklyn: In a pinned comment at the top of the comments section, the channel asked viewers to name some of their favorite places to eat in their own areas, and to list where they are. What resulted is a comment chain full of awesome restaurant recommendations for areas across the entire United States. If you were curious about good restaurants near you, you'll definitely want to Ctrl+F the name of your city and see what people have commented.
The interview went on to discuss Richman's fanboy moments with Keanu Reeves, Jeff Goldblum, and Noel Gallagher (he even pulled off a cool impersonation of him), on his show. All this while, mind you, Richman was eating wings dipped in hot sauces measuring 1 million on Scoville scale, while remaining cool as a cucumber.
Richman closed off his interview throwing a hilarious shade at Post Malone, saying “Musical talent aside, you should check yourself a bit because you’re taking a lot of [food] advice from someone with a lot of face tattoos.”
Hot Ones posts new interviews every Thursday.