‘Fast Foodies’ returns for Season 2 with more repartee and reimagined dishes
Anyone who has found their curiosity piqued by the reimagined dishes on truTV’s “Fast Foodies” can actually try a few – if they happen to be in the St. Paul, Minn., area, that is.
That’s the home of the Handsome Hog, the Southern cuisine eatery owned by Justin Sutherland, one of the chefs on the show. On the Thursday nights the series airs, he has watch parties featuring the dish he’s creating onscreen as that night’s special. It’s a clever bit of entrepreneurship that he reports has paid off.
“Last season every Thursday was standing room only ...,” he notes. “This season, we definitely are going to do a lot more now that we know the demand for it and are a little bit more prepared. We’ve got some dishes planned out. I don’t know the episodic breakdown yet fully, so once I figure out the order of episodes, we’re definitely going to plan some dishes to coincide with our watch parties.”
As the second season kicks off Thursday, Jan. 27, Sutherland and fellow chefs Kristen Kish and Jeremy Ford again put their imaginations and culinary chops to the test creating reimagined fast food dishes for celebrity guests to sample and choose which is best. This season, they include comic Nikki Glazer (“Blind Date”), actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson (“Modern Family”), comic/actress Natasha Leggero (“Another Period”), “Saturday Night Live” player Bobby Moynihan and NBA commentator Baron Davis.
In Thursday’s season opener, Glazer is the show’s guest diner, someone who Sutherland says he has always admired. And the chemistry is evident as the repartee between Glazer and the three chefs is easy and entertaining.
Keeping up with stand-up comics, people who make their living being fast on their feet and funny off the cuff, can be challenging for some. But Sutherland says that kind of interplay has proven stimulating for him and his castmates.
“It’s great. It keeps the energy up,” he says. “It gives us something more to do than just cook. And I think honestly, it’s a lot of back-and-forth. I think there’s moments where we’re keeping them on their toes and from the majority of the guests that we’ve had, I think it’s been a really good backand-forth of all of us making each other laugh and keeping each other on our toes. ...
“But at the end of the day, it’s our show,” he continues, “and we’ve got to balance being the host of our show and kind of maintaining control (with) also playing off of their jokes. And yeah, I think we’ve all gotten better at improv and keeping the things moving.”