TV Recaps Reviews

Adam returns to his home base of New York to Islip on Long Island to take on the Port Royal Grille & Pub’s Davy Jones Locker Challenge, a seven pound seafood platter that only one other competitor has defeated. Adam must finish the plate of seafood within an hour, if he wins the challenge he receives his meal for free and gets his photo on the wall of fame.

First Adam stops by Ciao Baby! in Massapequa Park for their famous Italian food. Ciao Baby! is known for their huge portions of Italian cuisine, including their enormous three pound rice balls. Adam is there to try their famed seven pound Nona’s Old World Meat Platter. Adam goes back to the kitchen to see how the chef puts this Italian feast together. The chef makes the baseball sized meatballs out of ground beef, then cooks them in wine as the San Marzano tomato sauce bubbles away for five hours. The chef builds Nona’s Old World Meat Platter with a bed of rigatoni pasta surrounded by the hot and sweet sausages, topped with softball-sized Ciao Baby meatballs, and covered in homemade San Marzano tomato sauce and melted Parmesan cheese. Adam joins the restaurant owner and his family to enjoy the platter. As Adam bites into the meatballs he comments on the depth of flavor, saying they are “Awesome, really terrific!”

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Tony travels back to one of his favorite travel destinations, India. This time Tony visits Kerala in the south of India. As Tony narrates he tells the audience India is “One of the few places in this world that I really find myself drawn to.” Kerala India is famous for its food and spices, Tony says the food in India is fresh, flavorful and delicious.

Tony and his guide visit a local food stall that features meat, a rare thing in India, which is mostly vegetarian due to the large Muslim and Christian population. In Kerala a variety of meats are available. Tony spots crispy cooked quail and with a smile on his face is ready to eat. Tony and his guide try a beef dish, the fried quail, mackerel, sardines, accompanied by curry lentil and bread to sop up the juices and spicy sauce. Tony asks his guide if the food is spicier in the south of India and the guide says yes, much spicier.

Tony arrives on set of famous South India film actor Mammootty, known for his action flicks and hounded by paparazzi everywhere he goes. Tony watches the star throw punches as bad guys fly and its all done in one take. Tony can’t believe the one take shots in comparison to filming No Reservations and says “It takes me three takes to walk into a f**king restaurant.” After filming Tony joins Mammootty in his trailer, where the paparazzi hover taking pictures as they dine on delicious food together. As Tony talks to Mammootty he realizes the star is a foodie. Tony tells the audience that Mammootty’s selection of food was very nice, and hands down, some of the best food he had on his India trip. Tony states Mammootty was generous and kind with his time.

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Chef Gordon Ramsay is bringing yet another food show to FOX with MasterChef, premiering Tuesday July 27 at 9:00 p.m. Chef Ramsey is a hit on FOX network, hosting the popular Hell’s Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares series.

Fifty home cooks who have been selected from across the country with a passion for cooking, but no formal training, will be the contestants. The premise of the show is to turn a home cook into an expert chef. MasterChef did a nationwide search for the best home cooks across the U.S. MasterChef puts these home cooks through a number of tests, and through a series of elimination rounds, will help one of these home cooks become a culinary master. Judges for the competition will be Michelin-starred Chef Gordon Ramsay, restaurateur wine maker Joe Bastianich and four-star chef Graham Elliot Bowles, deciding who stays and who goes each week, culminating in one home cook winning the competition. The prize for the winner of MasterChef is $250,000 and the opportunity to publish his or her own cookbook.

MasterChef premieres Tuesday July 27 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on FOX. Check your local TV schedule for upcoming episodes of the series.

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Adam visits Puerto Rico to partake of the Caribbean-style food of the region. Adam will travel to La Vaca Brava restaurant to face the Vaca Acosta Challenge (translation: The Sleepy Cow) consisting of eight pounds of beef steak on top of a pound of fries, topped by a rich mushroom sauce. Only three challengers out of hundreds who have tried have completed the challenge. Adam notes this is the biggest amount of pounds in a food challenge he has faced on Man vs Food. If Adam can finish the nine pound Vaca Acosta challenge in forty minutes he will win a t-shirt, his meal is free, and he will receive $100 as a prize.

First Adam visits local restaurants to try out the delicious foods offered in Puerto Rico. Adam visits Restaurant Raices where big meat is the order of the day. Raices features humongous sized meat dishes on pizza sized platters, including a steak and shrimp Tornado, and Mofongo, a mix of grilled meat and mashed fried plantains. Adam is in search of Raices infamous Chuleta Kan-Kan, featuring a deep-fried pork chop ringed with its own crispy pork rind. Adam joins the chef in the kitchen to watch him create the Chuleta Kan-Kan. The pork chop is huge, with part of the pork belly attached and ready to become pork rind when fried. The pork chop is marinated in garlic, cilantro and local spices. The pork is baked in the oven, then fried until the pork belly section is crispy. Adam looks at the enormous golden crisp pork chop and says “I know this dish is supposed to be shared by two, but I’m an only child”. Adam digs into the pork rind of the chop and is in heaven.

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Tony in his blog states he’s been to eighty or ninety countries in his travels. Tony describes the Liberia episode saying “It was hard for me”. Tony tells the audience that no place has depressed, inspired, confounded, amazed, sickened, intimidated, horrified, exhausted him as much, or shown him how wrong he was about Liberia. Tony is conflicted about the history of violence, the myriad of natural resources available that are not used enough for the benefit of the country, and the changed status of this once violent country that at once inspires him and depresses him. Tony tells the audience about the history of Liberia, supposed to be “Little America”, that fell into a civil war with child soldiers, guns, drugs and where a quarter of a million citizens died in battle. Today Liberia is the first African nation with a woman president. Personal safety is still an issue here, requiring Mr. Bob, a security consultant, to roam with the film crew. The people of Liberia are hopeful that this extreme violence is in their past, not their future.

The story begins in Staten Island, New York as Tony visits Liberian expat Joe Dugbo. Joe left his children during the civil war and has not seen them since, telling Tony stories about the war and his survival during the conflict. Tony learns about Joe’s son Rochford, who is completing his schooling in Liberia, and agrees to meet with him when he visits Liberia. Tony sits at the kitchen table with Joe as his wife serves them pepper soup, crawfish with rice, palava sauce, fufu made from cassava, and pig’s feet. Tony discovers that Liberian food often features crab, meat, dried fish, hot peppers and palm oil.

Tony arrives in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia where he tells the audience its hot here, “really, really, really hot”, with no hint of wind, noting Liberia has bad roads and poor infrastructure. Tony travels to Duala Market, where women tend to hold the most power. The market features Liberian foods such as kissimmee snails, cassava, monkey meat, hot peppers, palm oil, and palm nut. One of the local market women shares with Tony that the final battle of the civil war ended at Duala market, where the women there stood up to the soldiers, ending the conflict. Tony meets Mr. Sinaray, president of the Scrabble association. Tony sits in the meeting room of the association where the men talk politics, drink chinese tea and play scrabble.

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Adam travels to Phoenix, Arizona to take on the five pound Ultimate Slider Challenge consisting of a platter with a circle of twelve sliders filled with beef brisket, topped with potato pancake covered in melted Monterey Jack cheese all on Challah rolls. The circle of sliders is accompanied by a mound of fried onion strings in the center of the platter. Adam must down the twelve brisket sliders in thirty minutes to win a t-shirt and his photo on the Chompie’s Wall of Fame, otherwise if he loses the challenge he will find his photo on Chompie’s Wall of Shame. Thirty-six challengers have attempted the Ultimate Slider Challenge, but only one challenger has won against the infamous sliders.

First Adam visits the place with the biggest hot dog in town. Adam visits Alice Cooperstown, owned by rock icon Alice Cooper. Alice Cooperstown serves up BBQ, burgers and hot dogs with cold beer. Alice Cooperstown is famous for its Big Unit, named after former major league pitcher Randy Johnson, who has been a pitcher for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Adam heads back to the kitchen to find out how the Big Unit is made from the kitchen’s chef. The Big Unit is a twenty-two inch, three-pound Vienna frankfurter, topped with cheese sauce, chili, bacon, grilled onion, beer soaked sauerkraut, jalepenos, relish, tomato and topped with grated cheddar cheese, all loaded into a fresh baguette. Alice Cooperstown’s Big Unit is served to Adam by Alice Cooper himself, who sits with Adam to attack his own Big Unit hot dog. Adam and Alice ready themselves to dive into the mega hot dog by playing extreme air guitar to a rock song on the hot dogs. Adam and Alice bite into their hot dogs, and Adam relishes the taste, telling the audience the hot dog tastes more like a flavorful sausage than hot dog.

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Tony opens this episode confiding to the audience his respect of heartland chefs and restaurants. Tony has had a number of “one night stands” for food, as he calls them, as he traveled across country for book tours and filming.

Tony visits the School Craft College, in Livonia, MI. Tony tells the audience that Chef Brian Polcyn is the authority in charcuterie nationwide. Chef Polcyn can write his own ticket to anywhere, instead he is chef at Forest Grill, and teaches culinary students all about charcuterie. Tony visits with Chef Polcyn as he prepares a wonderous plate of charcuterie for Tony to taste, a variety of smoked venison sausages and a venison terrine, all of which Tony devours with gusto. Chef Polcyn tells Tony he cooks for himself first, and Tony nods in agreement.

Tony and Chef Michael Ruhlman sit in Kihachi Japanese Restaurant, Columbus, OH, a restaurant located a mall within a mall in the middle of nowhere. Tony and Ruhlman wait at the sushi bar as Chef Mike Kimura prepares his traditional Japanese cuisine. Tony and Ruhlman dine on abalone, briny sea squirt, a sashimi of Japanese mackeral, then crunchy fried skeleton of fish. Chef Kimura brings them a tuna collar, which Tony says is one of his favorite things. Ruhlman claims the tuna collar rivals pork belly for deliciousness.

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Adam travels to Salt Lake City, Utah, to take on the Hellfire Challenge at Kobe Sushi restaurant. Adam is a trained sushi chef so he knows sushi. The six piece sushi dish looks harmless enough, but the tuna rolls are packed with Kobe’s fiery hot sauce. The challenge has no time limit, but it does require that the challengers complete level four, five and six hot sauce bites before taking on the level seven challenge. Out of four hundred people, only twelve have won the Hellfire challenge. If Adam completes the challenge he wins a t-shirt and his photo will join the others on the wall of challenge champions.

First Adam visits Crown Burgers, known for their Greek food and burgers. Adam is at Crown Burgers to try their famous “meat on meat” two patty cheeseburger. The restaurant owner shows Adam how the Crown Burger is made: two quarter pound grilled beef patties with melted American cheese, onions, lettuce and tomato coated with their own fry sauce on toasted bun. What makes this burger special is that it is topped with a huge portion of Crown Burgers own in-house spiced pastrami. Adam bites into the burger and says “That’s awesome!”, and agrees, the fry sauce is the best.

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Thursday morning’s 2010 Primetime Emmy nominations included a whopping 19 Emmy nominations for freshman show Glee, gaining the most nominations for any series. Another freshman show, Modern Family, earned 14 nominations. Mad Men, winner of best dramatic series for two consecutive years earned 17 nominations, while perennial favorite 30 Rock, winner of best comedy series for the last three seasons, was given 15 nominations in all. Conan O’Brien and Team Coco should be smiling today since the short-lived The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien earned a nomination in four categories, while Jay Leno’s Tonight Show received no nominations. HBO garnered the most recognition for channels, receiving 101 nominations. See the full list of nominees here: http://www.emmys.com/nominations

The 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards airs live on Sunday, August 29th at 8:00 pm ET/5:00 pm PT on NBC.

2010 Primetime Emmy Awards nominations list:

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Season 7 premieres with Tony visiting the Grenadine Islands in the Caribbean. Tony tells the audience he has been to the Caribbean many times before and is glad to have a chance to visit the Grenadine Islands. Tony mentions that in the Grenadine Islands there is no TV, no airport and no communication, just the way he likes it.

Tony visits a remote beach accessible by boat, and enjoys lunch with friends at Beach Bar & Eat. The proprietor grills up fresh marlin served with a veggie slaw and plenty of rum punch, followed by margaritas.

Next Tony visits L’Auberge de Grenadines for a meal created by chef and owner Vanessa, a CIA-trained Vincentian, who cooks a wonderful menu of christophine au gratin seafood casserole, conch gratin tart and Yardie coq au vin.

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