Man V Food.

We’ve never reviewed cooking shows on the Armchair Assassins before. We’ve never really seen the need to be honest. There all pretty much the same. A chef in his kitchen or in Sophie Dahl’s cases somebody else’s kitchen, knocking up a bit of food and telling us how amazing their dish tastes and how it’s so easy to make. Of course what these chefs forget to tell us is that they have someone to do all the washing up for them whilst their eating, they have someone to look after their kids whilst they spend hours cooking and they also don’t tell us (although we can figure it out) that they have ridiculous amounts of money so they don’t need to worry about spending an huge amount of money making a goats cheese tart. And if it’s not just those cooking shows either, there are now about a 100 different competition cooking shows, where a bunch of melodramatic adults tell us how much cooking means to them and how winning this cooking show will change their life. Blah Blah Blah.

But this cooking show is different. This isn’t just your typical, smug cooking show on the BBC no this is a cooking show for winners... This is Man V Food. That’s right our new obsession right now is a cooking show. Not Boardwalk Empire, not Downton Abbey not the X Factor but Man V Food.

A huge hit in the states Man V Food is the story of one man’s eating challenges and thanks to Dave us Brits are now getting the opportunity to watch 4 episodes a week (who knew Dave actually showed things other than Mock the Week)

Man V Food’s premise is simple. Adam Richman New Yorker and food enthusiast travels around the US sampling the best foods his country has to offer. Every week he’s in a different city eating in the best restaurants he can find. But these aren’t your typical fine dining restaurants these are gritty about gritty American joints where only the food of champions is served. Ribs, steak, burgers, pulled pork, seafood, doughnuts, pancakes milkshakes and anything else you can think of. Jamie Oliver would literally have a stroke if he saw how much food Adam eats per episode. And to top it all off at the end of every episode Adam takes on a HUGE eating challenge. I’ve only seen a few episodes but so far I’ve seen him take on a 7 pound steak, 140 oysters and a 12 pound hamburger.

We just don’t get stuff like this in England and that’s what makes this show so good because it’s so different to what we are used to. It’s so refreshing to not see Adam walking around a host walking around his garden picking his organic vegetables. Screw that he’s eating grilled cheese sandwiches with jam! It really is mental!  

The show is self is brilliant but what really makes it so good is Adam. Without him the show wouldn’t work at all. He brings humour and fun to Man V Food turning what could be just a simple food show into a thoroughly entertaining half hour. It just goes to show you don’t need huge Hollywood stars and a budget of 4 million dollars per episode to make a hugely entertaining show. Boardwalk Empire take note.