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You know, every time I have a hot reaction, I find myself wondering, "Huh, what's going to be the beginning clip of the YouTube video?"
Search this video
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And I have a feeling it's going to be this.
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Hey, what's going on, everybody?
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For First We Feast, I'm Sean Evans, and you're watching Hot Ones.
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It's the show with hot questions and even hotter wings.
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And today, I'm joined by gastronaut icon Adam Richmond.
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You know him from his many TV shows, including Travel Channel's Man v.
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Food, as well as his books, America the Edible and Straight Up Tasty.
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Adam, welcome to the show. Thank you very much.
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How are you with hot food?
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I always ask that, but with you, your reputation precedes you a little bit, doesn't it? Yes. Yes.
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I I think that doing Man v.
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Food, people operated under the assumption that I ate like that in my day-to-day life.
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That 5-lb burritos and like death wings were part of the staple.
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I assure you they are not in any way.
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And it's been a hot minute since, no pun intended, since I've Run into something like this. Yeah.
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My director of photography, uh, Tom Dotson, shout out to T.
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Dots, has a term called hickory hole, and I feel this is definitely This is the highway to hickory hole right here.
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I don't think it's funny that Khaled came here with his own chef.
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I had three wings, and he was out. These wings is money. The major key, son. I'm done, son.
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Hear your hinges, [ __ ] boy. That was wonderful. All right.
1:39
So, the fans would kill me if I didn't get a rundown on Man v.
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Food, so I have a bunch of questions for you.
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Of all the food challenges you did, which one was the most painful?
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The one spicy one that I lost is in Sarasota, a place with the ever-so-subtle title of Munchies 420 Cafe, open from 4:20 to 4:20, the fire in your hole wing challenge.
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He used ghost chili extract.
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Anyone can put extract in something and make it hot, but when you balance heat and flavor, that I think takes the degree of culinary skill and also that's the challenge.
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It's like, "God, it's good, but it it it [ __ ] hurts, you know what I mean?"
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So, the chef and we have it We have it, JT.
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We have it on the microphone. We do. Cuz Mike was open.
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They added it, it was jet black ghost chili extract.
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And he he and his boys go, "Just add the whole bottle.
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Let's just blow him out."
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And my director, Dan Cornfield, it was his first episode.
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It was the first episode of season 2 that we shot.
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It was his first episode out of the gate.
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He didn't know that he had the wherewithal to like stop tape, go back, or no, you can't do that.
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And the reason why I'm especially mad is not because of my record.
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I don't give a [ __ ] about that.
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It's that it's cavalier and very dangerous.
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Yeah, that's what I was going to say.
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You can't really mess around with stuff like that.
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They weaponize ghost chili extract in police grenades in India.
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They tie the actual Naga Jolokia to fences to keep wild elephants at bay.
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I was so jacked up in the bathroom of the place that my tongue had swollen, my nasal passages had swollen.
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This is not to be trifled with.
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Like, I dare not speculate what's going to happen to me and to the world.
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A lot of these places, like if you finish the challenge, maybe they'll give you 10 bucks or free meal or take a picture of you and put your picture on the wall. Right.
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What's the weirdest prize that one of these challenges had the end of it that you think back? That's a great question. Any stand out?
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Bub's Big Ugly in Carmel, I believe, in in Indiana.
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Depending upon how many of the Big Ugly Burgers you finish, you get a progressively larger picture on the wall up to a life-size picture on the wall if you finish a certain number of them.
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Presumably because it's a memorial and you've already died.
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Like, that's the last message of you that your family will ever have.
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Of all your 37 victories, which one are you most proud of?
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The hardest was that Chicken Ruth Challenge with the gigantic milkshake.
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And I remember going down to bite the sandwich.
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I was like, "Who the [ __ ] standing in front of the table?"
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It's like, "Oh, no, that's the milkshake."
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It was like eating in the shadow of like this giant dairy building.
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I remember finishing it and my sound guy Eric, he noticed.
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He said like I started taking individual slices of turkey off the sandwich.
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He said, "Oh, [ __ ] I know Adam's in trouble."
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And I did this, finished the milkshake, and I remember thinking as I walked out.
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I'm like, "If anyone pats me on the back, like like jostles me, I'm done.
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I'm going to look like a piñata."
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And I remember it was like Zen-like skill.
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I was like the debutante balancing the book.
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I'm like, "Just let me lie down. Just let me lie down."
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Well, that's how you know you left everything out on the court.
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You know what I'm saying? I did.
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Then I left the rest of it in the restroom upstairs in the restaurant. Mhm. So good.
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So I want to stay on the topic of Man vs.
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Food because I think that there are a lot of connections between Man vs. Food and Hot Ones.
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Caught one in the throat.
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Yeah, don't mug like a British urchin in in the Christmas Carol while eating.
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Wow, pride cometh before the fall.
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Realistically, how long do you think I have doing this before I just spontaneously combust on set? You don't apply. I've been watching you.
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I think you're a little bit like Bishop, the guy in Aliens that like secretly has been an Android the whole time.
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You find out you're like, "Not bad for a human." That I watched you.
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You're a big fan of this. Yes. The Miyagi thing?
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Because I'm a table pounder and I'm I just saw like the whole Bennigan's high top thing that we have here and I'm like, "Oh, I needed to bring like an obelisk or a plinth or just something to pound on like Judge Wapner."
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Wouldn't you agree big fat person? Okay. Going in.
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I haven't had aardvark for like any kind of like um roast meat sandwich.
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If you do like a steak sandwich or prime rib, it has just enough heat to cut through richness. All right, it is good. Mhm.
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So, I know that you're a big fan of both brands of football, whether it's the NFL or the English Premier League. Go on, my son.
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On a fan level, what's the difference between going to a game and seeing, you know, Tottenham Hotspur versus the Miami Dolphins? Okay.
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Jets-Dolphins is like maybe Yankees-Bosox.
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Whereas Tottenham-Arsenal is more like Palestine and Israel. It's deeply tribal.
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You can have a Packer fan sitting next to a Bear fan at Soldier Field.
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They'll exchange words, but usually not much else.
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At a British football match, there's a separate entrance for away fans.
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There's one corner essentially dedicated to the away fans that's lined by two lines of police officers.
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I know friends in England that are like, "No, my dad supports Norwich. I support Norwich.
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My son will support Norwich." And that's it.
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Like, and that's that's the way they think.
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That's the way it's taught.
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So, supporting that's who like you pledge your allegiance to and then you can like kind of like the others, but it ain't the same thing. Exactly.
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I did a show with Hot Ones alum Charlie Sloth, and he was saying, "Americans have to learn you got to type the word and out of the sentence, who do you support?"
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You eat it and instantly make a face like Eric.
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You're like, So, you have the distinction of having wrapped on Sway and you shared a stage with Warren G.
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I know that you're very much a hip-hop head. Yes.
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What's your New York MC Mount Rushmore? What's your top four. Uh, huh.
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Nas, Biggie, can I count Phife and Q-Tip as one?
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Can they kind of share one tribe called Quest?
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One tribe thing like Shaheed and and and Jarobi, just jam them all together into one. I would put Tribe.
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And then, I'm going to say Method Man.
8:00
If you could pick any artist to co-host a food show with you, who would it be? Uh, Donald Glover, man. Childish Gambino.
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That guy just blows my mind.
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He's just the ultimate polymath.
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Put him on stage in a comedy thing, killing it.
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I remember hearing Camp, hearing Bonfire off of his first album, and I was like, "That's Donald [ __ ] Glover?" Like, "Oh my god." I'm I'm I'm about it.
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I'm I'm I'm team Gambino.
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A childish that is, not like the growing up got it style. No. Mhm.
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I'll be with the bomb stir-fry sauce.
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Enoki or Pioppini mushrooms, some of that, some green onion, maybe some like slivered peanuts. Bye. All right, Adam.
8:43
So, we have a recurring segment on our show called Explain That Gram, and what we do is we do a deep dive on our guest's Instagram.
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We pull interesting pictures that need more context.
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So, I'll just show you the picture, and then you just tell me the bigger story. Yes, sir. sound good? Mhm.
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For the people who don't know, Ah, the Tim Tam Slam.
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You drink a hot beverage through it, and as it begins to cave in, you eat it, and it liquefies the inside into like a custard or a ganache.
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It's so dank, but I'm convinced it is the most fattening cookie.
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Like, [ __ ] love handles, like full-on love banisters. Worth it? Absolutely.
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Oh my god, one of the best tastes of Australia. Hands down. That and chicken salt. Diplo. You and Diplo.
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Seems to be a bromance between you and Diplo.
9:26
Holy [ __ ] So, we were filming Man Finds Food Vegas.
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I went to Club XS, and I met I knew the security guy, this guy Andre.
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I mentioned I said, "Is Wes here?"
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Cuz calling him by his real name."
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Like, "I'm sorry, is is is Diplo here?"
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He's like, "I know where he went."
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Now, I'm not going to say where that picture was taken cuz I'm going to respect Wes's integrita, but that was a long night.
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That was one of those nights.
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I was with my whole film crew.
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We were at an establishment. We opened it.
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It was like the Las Vegas.
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SUN WAS LIKE, "SINNER, YOU'VE BEEN OUT ALL NIGHT."
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LIKE it was like that the end when like the vampire accidentally walks out into the sun. That was that night.
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So, this is Dirty Dick's. Aggressive brand name. Yeah, really. Okay.
10:15
I'll tell you this, I'm trying to be like thorough with it.
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But one of the most clever bites Oh, see it.
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That one going to wake you up a little bit. Mhm.
10:24
I would say Post Malone had some very good attacks.
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I noticed that he would have kind of bite and pop it pop it in very wisely. I'm not I'm not as wise. I'm not as wise. Yo, Post.
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Now, I just want to say congratulations.
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So, you're really a man's man, a bro's bro, and that shines through in your cookbook, you know, with recipes for Frito sloppy joes or easy ass salsa.
10:47
Can you give me the Adam Richman ultimate hangover cure sandwich in as much detail as possible?
10:56
This is something that actually exists.
10:58
Um I call the the ultimate hangover egg Sammy.
11:01
[ __ ] egg whites, we're doing whole eggs.
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Uh in a pan, I do an omelet and I mix in Samuel Adams cream stout or a good cream stout into the eggs. Parsley, garlic, salt.
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I do sun-dried tomatoes, and I get the ones that are packed in oil for this sandwich.
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Deliberately, I use some of the oil actually into the egg to flavor it.
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And then I get mozzarella, and I'll do it on I like a toasted Kaiser roll, so I do mozzarella, sun-dried tomatoes, cream stout eggs on a roll.
11:29
Like Max Payne when he takes that drug, like, "I'm ready."
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Like Super Saiyan, you know? You're back. I'm ready. Yeah, exactly. Zombie apocalypse. Okay.
11:42
So, this one's been a staple here for a while. Yeah, sure has.
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Wasn't Nick Kroll that wondered cuz their heads were exposed if zombies would eat their own brain? Mhm.
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Very Nick Kroll train of thought right there.
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I actually used to audition opposite Nick Kroll back when I was coming up.
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I came out of Yale Drama in '03.
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And there's a cast who I feel that [ __ ] now, but I shouldn't have it. Just get this one down. Oh.
12:07
The proper zombie apocalypse [ __ ] man.
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But taste buds are going Carl. Carl. Woohoo. Mhm.
12:19
So, if you ask me, Travel Channel's heyday with No Reservations and Man vs.
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Food and Bizarre Foods, yeah, it really just ushered in this whole new era of celebrity chef and TV food personality.
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And then you even posted that one picture you called you, Anthony Bourdain, and Andrew Zimmern the gang of three. the gang of three.
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Travel Channel really kind of had a very something very special because you truly were able to hit, especially the food uh realm, from so many different standpoints because you have someone like Anthony, so deeply acerbic, deeply polarizing, zero filter, confrontational to the point of caricature at a point, abrasive to the point of caricature to a point. Then you had Andrew.
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He doesn't have the sharp edges that Tony does.
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And Andrew brought in a sort of shock factor to it, but the reason it kept from being jackass is because Andrew would imbue it with a degree of heart and a degree of culinary anthropology and a degree of sort of a learned nature, which is kind of endemic to Andrew as a man.
13:17
And then generationally, there was an opportunity for me, culinarily, there was an opportunity for me.
13:23
No one was doing just really kickass chili parlors.
13:25
No one was doing food challenge programming at all.
13:29
So, I feel that there was that was the chemistry.
13:31
It was that Tony had the wizened Jonathan Swift with a you know, with like a cookbook.
13:37
Andrew was a little bit more warm and friendly, family vacations to the unknown, Willy Wonka-ish, and I just wanted to be your friend. Love the technique. Love the technique.
13:58
It's all coming back to me.
13:59
Oh, this is good old fashioned. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm.
14:11
I just want the bite to be over. Oh, wow. Wow.
14:16
So, Mario Batali, he might be known for his Crocs, but I think that in the TV food personality game, you're maybe the most celebrated sneakerhead.
14:21
When you think about the times that you spent an absurd amount of money on shoes, do any stand out?
14:28
Watch the Throne Lebron 9s.
14:28
Yeah, I Ali from Undefeated came into my boy's shop, and he explained that there were three generations of them, and that the gold check was like the most elite hyperstrike that they were Well, to me 40 pairs made.
14:40
That you know, you always have to be careful the burps and the coughs in this game.
14:46
That's that's the one, cuz the burp, when it comes up, that's what leaked out at Chernobyl.
14:52
Honorable mention to the King Pusha T ones, the black ones, the fish scale, but those are dope.
14:56
Those are the first kick that my mom actually gave me props on.
14:59
My mom was like, "That was a lovely. You know? I like, what is this?
15:01
It's like alligator, like reptile on the heel? Lovely."
15:05
I'm like, "Yeah, they're they actually came in a bag that smelled like cocaine, and it's named for a guy named Pusha T."
15:11
I don't need to know that.
15:20
[ __ ] I I I know that you're going to do the final dab with this one, so I'm just going to muscle through it. [ __ ] Mhm. It's working in. Mhm. Oh, give me some peace. Singes the nostrils. Yeah.
15:59
Are you remembering what it's like?
15:59
It's like the end of 2001.
16:01
It's like I'm like an old man in a room somewhere.
16:07
[ __ ] you I call McGlocklin as like a [ __ ] walking backwards.
16:09
Yep, that's my arms bent back.
16:13
And Pete's reference, I didn't date a lot in high school. You know what?
16:17
It's So, some of your more casual fans might be surprised to learn that you graduated from the Yale School of Drama.
16:24
So, it's called the Yale School of Drama.
16:26
And then you had small roles in Law & Order and All My Children before Man vs. Food was ever a thing. True.
16:34
Was the show business dream always about 72-oz steaks and gargantuan meals, or could it have shaped a little bit differently?
16:43
I had already been acting and I love performing, but I also [ __ ] that's the one.
16:50
Yeah, I by the way put some sauce right here just now. Oh, dude.
16:52
How does that drama background help you when you're in a career where you're sort of restaurant hopping from kitchen to kitchen to eat those meals?
17:00
So, it was my passion for food, my passion for performing, and that was the thing like I realized at Yale that there was a significant difference between being a good performer and a good actor.
17:09
And hosting was actually really quite perfect for me.
17:11
In terms of the acting training, sure, man, you have to like keep track of the shape of a show.
17:16
Show is in a four-act structure.
17:18
You have to push narrative.
17:20
When I've got long voice-over, that's all breath support.
17:24
Raising the stakes of the challenge cuz at the end of the day, it's a 4-lb plate of nachos. There's no Right. So, you need some drama. Exactly.
17:30
So, you have to amp it up, but you also have to keep it within the realm of semi-reality.
17:36
Why is my right I didn't put any finger or even chicken wing in my right nostril.
17:42
If I squirted this in my nose, it couldn't burn more than that right nostril. Like it's bad.
17:48
It's like I'm like a Hilton sister circa like 2006.
17:53
I kind of pull out You'll drip.
17:58
Like this all Scott Disick in here. All right, Adam Richman. It's that time. The dab. I won't do it. I won't I won't do it. I won't do it.
18:12
So, this is Hot Ones the Last Dab.
18:12
This is made with Pepper X. Have you tried Pepper X? I have tried this sauce. On wings? On what?
18:21
On wings and just straight mainlining it.
18:23
Anyway, so it's not the easiest to dab with, which might be an issue going forward, but there you go.
18:30
All right, on a flat no less.
18:30
So, this That's the thing when you have the flats, the flat necessitates full-on lip action. exposure.
18:38
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, totally.
18:39
Like you're going to have to go and take like a Silkwood shower and like There's nowhere to run Nowhere to run. No. No, no, exactly not.
18:48
Is that enough for That's that's good. That's good.
18:50
Cuz I feel it's like a little bit of a [ __ ] one compared to yours.
18:53
If you want to go If you want to go there, Adam, you can go there. match. They should match.
18:58
That's a Latin warning for y'all. Heat level 10 of 10. Caution.
19:03
All it takes is a dab to turn Hot Ones guests and fans alike into stuttering, fire-breathing lunatics.
19:08
That's good copy, Schonberger. Did you write that?
19:11
It's among the world's hottest, but there's pleasure in the pain thanks to a healthy hit of mustard, ginger, and do you say turmeric, turmeric, or turmeric? Turmeric. That's what I say, too.
19:22
And it says it's a tough one. And it's in quotes. It's a tough one. All right, Adam. It's going down. All right.
19:31
Shall we I always see you guys toast?
19:33
I feel it's a long tradition. Cheers.
19:40
I'm trying to get as much chicken in to cancel out. Got mustard.
19:49
It's all kind of going in. I got the first salvo.
19:53
I got the first opening salvo. Mhm. Mhm.
20:02
So, that's what swallowing a sewing needle would be like. Got it. Mhm. Mhm.
20:10
I Well, you know It's literally like you put a needle through my tongue.
20:20
Like it's like the worst Lollapalooza piercing ever.
20:22
It's like you pierce my tongue and my throat.
20:24
Like that got straight through.
20:28
To quote Kristal Lea, my my [ __ ] just went All right, Adam.
20:33
We just have one more question for you.
20:34
You know, you're a guy who's been to the top of the mountain.
20:38
You've stared down the biggest burgers.
20:40
You've eaten the hottest chilies, but now it's time to let the people know what they really want to know.
20:43
Where does Hot Ones rank on the pantheon of great food challenges?
20:48
Are we a formidable opponent?
20:50
Are we just another half-assed bar challenge that your producers would just wouldn't even do in a heartbeat?
20:56
No, I think this is actually really clever.
20:58
I think number one, when so much of your mind is dedicated to surviving, that you're going to get a kind of honesty out of people.
21:07
I mean, that's kind of the brilliant conceit.
21:10
It's why I watch the show.
21:11
Wow, I'm like the dog in Turner & Hooch right now.
21:16
Wow, I am really the drool factor is deep.
21:18
But no, uh I think that's brilliant, but also that you've really chosen sauces that have The Bomb is the most devoid of flavor, I think.
21:28
That one is just meant to hurt you.
21:30
But you've chosen really good sauces with flavor.
21:33
To me, like the biggest problem, it's already starting now, is the small like supernova, the small like celestial body.
21:41
If I like went to a barbecue and just like popping coals back in like M&M's.
21:48
But this is a good challenge.
21:48
Like cuz there's flavor and there's heat. And it goes up.
21:52
Like there's a there's a story.
21:54
It's not just like let's put battery acid in a burger and see if it hurts somebody. There. Mm. Ooh.
22:03
Yeah, so how do you recommend people use that?
22:06
Like how do they use that on food?
22:08
Like do you like drop it like you put like a drop in your kitchen once?
22:10
Like just anywhere in your kitchen will flavor everything for a year.
22:14
Adam Richmond, you made it through. You cleared the board.
22:17
I had a feeling you would.
22:20
This camera, this camera, or this camera, let the people know what you have going on in your life. Uh it's awesome.
22:25
I feel like a member De La Soul. This is plug one.
22:27
All right, so follow me on social media @AdamRichmond.
22:32
Snapchat is OG Adam Richmond.
22:32
My first book is called America the Edible, a hundred history from seed to dining seat.
22:37
My second book is called Straight Up Tasty and it's a really cool cookbook, meals, memories, and mouthfuls from my travels.
22:43
The least douchey cookbook you will ever find.
22:44
Plus it has the entire history of chocolate as a rhyming poem and ways to teach you to cook in haiku.
22:50
And um the charities I support are Clear Path for Veterans. Check them out.
22:54
And I'm hosting a bunch of pop-ups for Common Threads, a charity devoted to helping um underprivileged kids live healthier lives. That was awesome.
23:07
I was I mean, you know what's weird is I'm burning in the most unusual places. Here, Yeah.
23:14
this nostril and like half of my tongue. It's crazy. Hello world.
23:22
Sean Evans coming at you to say thank you for watching.
23:24
If you like what you saw, please subscribe.
23:27
We're hovering around the 3,000th ranked YouTube channel in the world.
23:31
It has been a childhood dream of mine to be somewhere in the mid-2s. We're so close.
23:37
Help make an adult bald man's dreams come true. Please, please, please. JK, JK, no pressure.
23:43
But if you do subscribe, I appreciate it.