He grew up in the food mecca of New York City and his love affair with food started early on.
He built a solid resume working in nearly every echelon of the restaurant world, from coast-to-coast and from the counter to the kitchen. Though he never trained professionally, Richman was able to gain invaluable on-the-job experience in the various restaurants he worked in.
Enter left, host of NBC’s new ultimate food battle show where amateur cooks in America put their signature dishes to the test against five professional chefs “Food Fighters,” a high-stakes culinary game premiering Tuesday, July 22 (8-9 p.m. ET) on NBC.
On a press call from Brooklyn, Richman said about his new show, “Basically, the home cooks bring five of their best recipes and go against five mystery chefs. The chefs ascend usually in level of sort of ability, accomplishment — and in terms of, like, training and, you know, I mean, these — the final chefs in each of these food fights are titans, true titans of culinary skill. And the thing is, as I said, they don’t know what dish they’re making until just before the food fight. And they come up with a strategy based upon that chef’s expertise. So, you see — you see the battle change, so to speak, depending upon who they’re fighting.”
Adam’s best signature dishes?
“Before I saw these guys cook, I thought I would have a better shot than I did and these guys brought the thunder, like, every episode. My signature dish — oh, that’s a — that’s a toughie. My miso roasted vegetables are pretty well-known. And I make — my pulled pork egg rolls, I think — that’s another one that people tend to really like. And I make a particular sort of spicy salmon sushi roll that some friends of mine have requested for a couple of events. So, I think — I think those are my top three. And honestly, Grandma’s sweet and sour meatballs, but that’s Grandma’s recipe. I am just — I am just a conduit for Grandma’s awesomeness.”
How does Adam manage to stay healthy? Exercise, certain foods off the table??
“You know, I think it’s sort of kind of like checks and balances. So, a lot of it is just sort of keeping sort of calorically vigilant, I guess, for lack of a better term. And I kind of pic and choose my spos.So, no, I’m still going to appreciate, you know, something fried or maybe like a baked good or something like this. But it’s about sort of being kind of shrewd when I choose to indulge and just staying relatively active. I mean, that’s the kind of cool thing with, like, all these different, like, things that can clip onto your belt or things in your iPhone or fit bands and stuff. It’s just even the difference of, you know, parking a little further if you’re driving somewhere, but just making sure you get in a certain amount of walking, a certain amount of movement, and making the right choice –it sort of allows yo a little wiggle room to, you know, have fried chicken when you’re in the mood for fried chicken because if you’ve been eating relatively healthy or clean eating, you give yourself a little bit of, well, like I said, a little bit of wiggle room — a little bit of space to still indulge”
Always one in the good graces of the people, recently Richman was in hot water over a posted photo of his recent weight loss with the controversial hashtag “#thinspiration” which is often linked to pro-eating disorder messages.
People weren’t happy and let him know it. He fired back with expletive-filled responses and called one a “c*nt” and even told another to essentially commit suicide: “Grab a razor blade and draw a bath. I doubt anyone will miss you.”Richman said he is sorry for his “inexcusable remarks.”
Richman didn’t want to talk about it on the press call as to not overshadow all the “hard work” he said people at NBC have done in lieu of the new show, but did offer apologies soon after the kerfuffle and said in a statement to ABC News, that he is sorry for his “inexcusable remarks.” And, “I’ve long struggled with my body image and have worked very hard to achieve a healthy weight.”
I’m sure NBC wasn’t happy but after all the show must go on.
Oy vey.