The former 'Food Fighters' host learns from his father to respect all culture's cuisine and credits his upbringing with helping to expose him to a huge range of foods.
- Oct 8, 2023
AceShowbiz - Adam Richman was taught by his dad to respect all cultures' cuisine. The 49-year-old television host, known for his extreme eating challenges on shows like "Man v Food", says his late father Jeffrey Mark Richman "immediately shut down" his moaning about choices such as chicken feet on a Chinese menu when his dad took him for dim sum at a restaurant near his law office in New York.
"My father had a law office near Chinatown, and I'll never forget the day he took me for dim sum. This place had things like chicken feet, and I remember going, 'Ick!' My dad immediately shut that down. He said, 'How many things do we eat that these people might not like? It's disrespectful,' " Adam told InTouch magazine.
The former "Food Fighters" host added how growing up in a diverse neighbourhood in Brooklyn meant he was exposed to a huge range of foods - from classic Italian dishes to Syrian staples and Irish baked goods.
He said, "My dad's philosophy was, 'You don't have to like it, but at least you have to try it.' We were exposed to all these flavours in my Brooklyn neighbourhood. The Agostino family would be pressing eggplant and making caponata; the Sultan family would have kibbeh and tabbouleh; and then the Irish immigrant family had colcannon and potato bread."
As a result of his culinary education, Adam has always been happy to sample anything - almost. He said he draws the line at "those bright atomic red maraschino cherries" and hates a Japanese fermented bean product named natto.
Adam added, "I am 'natto' going to eat that! It looks like someone else ate it, didn't want it, and went, 'Enjoy.' I'm not trying to yuck someone else's yum or malign Japanese cuisine, but it's not for me."
He also said the most surprising thing he has learned from his eating experiments is "eating bananas before spicy food will help you later."
