Adam Richman is best known for his gut-busting challenges on Man vs Food, the purpose of which is exposing the tastiest mom-and-pop joints around the country. Of course, those plate-cleaning contests earn Adam a somewhat sullied reputation among culinary titans, even turning off his idol Alton Brown. Sadface. Thus, we can’t say we were surprised to learn that this Yale-educated actor landed his Man vs Food hosting gig as an indirect result of a bad breakup. Because what better way to channel your emotional eating?
“A girl really just ripped the heart out of my chest in a really bad way. It really busted me up. And I guess I’ve always had a tendency or a flair for the dramatic, and so I bought these moleskin blank books to write some poetry in,” Adam told Squid Ink. “I used to go for drives and I found this amazing little place which sadly is no longer there, called Virginia’s. And I went there and started writing.”
While we’re sure Adam intended to write heart-wrenching free form prose-poetry and somber sonnets, what came out instead was a well-chronicled dining experience. He traveled from restaurant to restaurant doing this, until he became known by friends as the go-to source for hidden spots.
“Then when I started doing regional theater after Yale, I began just to add onto the journal,” Adam continued. “So when I auditioned [for Man vs Food], I had a better knowledge of regional food around the country than most because I traveled and I chronicled it.”
See? Your flair for the dramatic and/or achy breaky heart can have useful entertainment value, too! Not that getting called out by your roommate for having dried Nutella on your face after eating it out of the jar with a spoon while marathoning Dawson’s Creek isn’t an equally entertaining breakup recovery process. But wouldn’t it have been awesome if you could turn your impressive Nutella consumption into a TV series?
Our personal oversharing aside, Now that the breakup is long behind him, are there any foods Adam can’t stomach after four seasons of MvF?
“The hamburger has become in so many ways so demystified to me because I’ve had burgers all over,” Adam dishes. “If I go out to a diner, the first place I’m always invariably looking is ‘Salads.’ I know that’s kind of boring or whatever, but I realize that kind of stuff, that comfort food stuff, I don’t crave that anymore.”
We guess a two-foot long burrito is enough burrito for a lifetime. We shudder to think what would happen if Adam ever went through a divorce. Worst case scenario: wind up on CNN.
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