The great part about waiting until a few episodes of the show had aired before starting this blog is that it gives me the chance to jump in and address some of the comments and posts that have immediately popped up on boards on the internet. So for anyone who’s been wondering:
We started out by simply asking each contributor for a list of their favorite things to eat – those dishes they love, obsess over, can’t live without, just have to order, would order even when they’re paying and would go out of their way (even out of town) to get… We threw in some specific categories (such as “best breakfast” or “barbecue”) to make it easier to format episodes, but every food featured on the show was picked by the contributor who you see talking (and raving) about it, with no help or prodding from us (c’mon, I may have good taste, but “The Best Thing My Producer Ever Ate and Told Me To Talk About” just doesn’t have the same ring to it). So I assure you: It was (for example) Bobby Flay who decided to sing the praises of the French Fries at Balthazar, not any producer and certainly not anyone at the Food Network (although he got no argument from Tyler Florence, who, without knowing what Bobby had said, also fingered them as his favorite fried thing ever. Yes, they’re that good).
Over the course of the first season, approximately two dozen contributors confess their love for close to 100 dishes. The only restriction we put on them was that the dish had to be from somewhere in the U.S. (we’re a cable show, thank you), and it had to be from a place where anyone could go and get it. Which means you won’t be hearing someone say that the best thing they ever ate was “my Mom’s roast chicken”, but you could very well hear them say “the roast chicken for two with warm bread salad at Zuni Café in San Francisco.”
Feel free to agree or disagree. I know I do. (Ask Adam Gertler. When he told me, while we were shooting the pilot, that the best banana cream pie he had ever eaten was at Bandera in West Los Angeles, the first words out of my mouth weren’t, “Why?” but “For crying out loud, have you never been to the Apple Pan??”). Just know that what you see is what we got. That’s the point (and hopefully, the appeal) of the show.
The Bacon Apple Maple Donuts at Dynamo Donut and Coffee are to DIE FOR!
I so enjoyed the episode last night. My good friend recently began examining (and subsequently creating a local craze) the benefits of bacon with a blog article titled “The 10 greatest moments in bacon history.” http://swellguy.typepad.com/life_with_the_swell_guy/2009/02/the-10-greatest-moments-in-bacon-history.html
This has led to a local craving for baconnaise, chocolate bacon, bacon lip balm and much more. I found my mouth watering throughout the episode and loved how it ended with Duff and the bacon chocolate dessert. Keep up the great work!
hi can anyone tell me where the ricotta filled cannolis that alex guranshelli had eaten in the first ever episode of the best thing i ever ate thanks a lot.
Love this new show!! I was so excited to see that Duff and Bobby picked Saltlick BBQ in TX as the best BBQ they ever ate! I agree! I think it is time for a roadtrip to Austin!
This is my favorite new show on FN! It’s so much fun to see what the chefs/cooks we think we know choose as their favorites and it makes me think about what makes my favorite my favorite.
The blog’s hinky with the HTML but thanks for having this forum.
Sir, your blog is infested with wingdings (and I checked with multiple browsers and also a neighbors computer). Other than that, I enjoyed the show. Particularly how Duff transitions to another place eating fried shrimp heads.
O.K., am I the only one who can’t stand the commercial for this show? Adam, who is not a particularly interesting cook, is working way too hard to look like he belongs on any show. Not a good look to be bouncing around with his tongue poking into his cheeks. There are thousands of talented chefs in the U.S., and guess what, Food Networks “Next Food Network Star” sometimes misses the mark. Except for Guy, not much to cheer about. Do Adam a favor and let him go.
Went to NYC and wanted desperately to try the ebelsilvers at Shopsin’s. But the workers told us not to bother, they were taken off the menu. Apparently people were ordering them all the time and they got tired of making so many. Why have a business and complain because you are selling too much???
Dave F. on July 5 (2:20am)
That wasn’t Adam doing the whole “tongue in cheek” thing. It was actually that Recuse Chef Danny Broone - I’ve actually seen that part in the pilot episode.
I am looking for a recipe for coconut custard cream pie with white chocolate shavings from the show The Best Thing I Ever Ate. Thank you!
I swear to God the commercial featured Moose’s Pizza in Kalispell, MT (Alexis) — wood walls carved with people’s names, red formica tables — but Moose’s was not on the pizza show! Food Network, where was she????
Sadly, the Chocolate Hazelnut Purse dessert is off the menu at Riva restaurant in Santa Monica… and I was really looking forward to trying that…