Foods Adam Richman Won't Eat

When Adam Richman graduated from the Yale School of Drama in 2003 with his master's degree, it is unlikely that he knew that he'd become famous, not for acting in movies, but for turning comfort food dives all over the country into his own personal Roman gladiator-caliber contact sport areas. He did just that, and because he accepted so many food challenges as the original presenter of "Man v. Food," he ate lion-sized burritos for breakfast on his good days and got beaten like a wildebeest by spicy chicken wings at lunch on his bad days. He is "Man v. Food," even though he hasn't been central to the show since 2012. 

This isn't to say that he's hung up the trusty fork and admirable appetite that made him famous. Oh no. Nowadays, you can still find him chowing down in the name of all things foodie entertainment on "Adam Eats the 80's." Pizza Hut's pan pizzas, food court medleys, and Chuck E. Cheese restaurants are all in a day's work on his new show. Given that he has jumped from one foodie lovefest to another, you'd be forgiven for asking if there's anything that Adam Richman wouldn't eat. As it turns out, Mr. Food Challenge himself has his own preference for foods he'd rather eat and foods he'd rather toss. Here's the scoop on all the foods that Adam Richman won't or can't eat.

Here's a frightening stat for the foodie frequent flyers among us: According to Vogue India, the gas trapped in the human body can expand when we fly. Some stats indicate that the gas in our bodies expands by as much as 25% when we're jetting through the clouds, and heavy foods in the tummy make travel all the more uncomfortable because of the extra gas in the system. In light of that, it's best to think of our tummies as bird-sized on travel days, both before and during the flight, if we want to avoid the discomfort caused by all that excess gas. 

So, what's this got to do with foods Adam Richman won't eat? Just this: It appears that he learned this lesson while he was traveling and doing foodie challenges. He told The Sydney Morning Herald, "You need to eat very light on travel days." For him, that means sticking with foods that would make his mom proud. The Vogue article is a bit more specific about what that type of fare mom might approve of; fresh fruits like bananas, smoothies with almond milk, or some eggs offer good options for travel days. Adam Richman saves eating the heavy foods for when his feet are finally heavy on the ground, and he's ready to face a mountain of hot dogs (or what have you...). Otherwise, he's spending his travel days eating mom-approved food and very little of it.

Adan Richman's diet is a study in nutritional contrasts. On the one hand, he's known for devouring foods like the 2-foot banh mi sandwich and all the marinated pork and pork shoulder therein during a foodie challenge. On the other hand, he's a person who's well aware of his Jewish heritage, which includes rules about eating kosher. However, given his career of choice, his feelings about subsisting on a diet of gefilte fish alone are nuanced, to say the least. In an interview with the Jewish Chronicle, he explained his decision to eat kosher primarily at school and at synagogue this way: "I feel like God is too big to fit into any one definition."

More plainly speaking, he believes in many of the fundamental tenets of his faith, including being a good person and being generous at temple. He also made a pilgrimage to the Western Wall in Jerusalem. And he admitted on Instagram that he left the wall "feeling very different" than he had when he approached it. That he embraces non-kosher food may be attributed to the social aspect of food and, more specifically, to the connection he feels to others when he shares food during his travels. Wherever he goes, he has to try what's there. It's part of his foodie signature and one reason why his shows are so widely accessible. He once said, "Food is wholesome, good, and made by good people."

During the course of "Man v. Food," Adam Richman walked a tricky tightrope between beating the food challenge of the moment at any cost and turning his nose up at food that, if he had his druthers, he wouldn't touch with a mile-long stick. He also adhered to a strict policy of trying not to portray the food he ate or the establishments he ate at in a less-than-stellar light... at least not while he was getting paid to take up the fork of any foodie challenge. 

Once the show ended, however, he admitted he's no longer fond of downing oysters. And who can blame him? When he sat down to the oyster challenge at the Acme Oyster House in New Orleans, Louisiana, the job in front of him was to wolf down 180 oysters in 60 minutes or less. His tools? A lot of sauce and a teeny-weeny oyster fork that looked like a Ken-doll-sized version of the pitchfork from Grant Wood's "American Gothic." Richman even went as far as calling the mountain of oyster-laden plates his "Everest."

In the end, he conquered that beast. But when the crowd started calling for "two dozen more," the toll of the challenge came to the surface when he let loose a string of colorful adult retorts indicating that he certainly did not feel up to eating more oysters.

Cultural delicacies are interesting. For example, word has it that some visitors to the U.S. think that peanut butter is "vile," corn dogs are indecency, and that the expression "best thing since sliced bread" makes no sense. We bring all this up to remind our dear readers that when it comes to the foods we grew up with — the foods we believe represent the best of us — there are those who think these American delicacies are, at best, "meh," and at worst, vomit inducing. This attitude isn't limited to foreign visitors. Plenty of Americans, like Adam Richman, don't like the cultural delicacies from other shores, even if it's their job to love such things, or at least pretend to.

For Richman, the dish in question is a Japanese dish called chawanmushi. In principle, it shouldn't be an issue; it's just savory egg custard in a cup. However, there is an addition — a garnish on top, if you will – Shirako, usually called milt in America, which essentially comes from the manhood of male codfish, or occasionally from squid, salmon, or pufferfish. In all fairness, this delicacy in cooking isn't limited to appearing as a topping on a fluffy, eggy custard — it's sometimes raw or tempura-fried, probably with much pomp and circumstance to go along with it. Among the toughest "Man v. Food" challenges ever, eating Shirako ranked right up there among those Richman wouldn't try again.

Some hot peppers should come with a warning label, like, "Caution: May be hot. Sometimes used in police grenades. Write your will before eating. On second thought, don't eat." Such is the case for ghost chili peppers, which make the lowly Jalapeňo taste like something out of a Gerber jar on a good day. And during one "Man v. Food" challenge, unbeknownst to Adam Richman, the chef at the Munchies 420 Cafe in Sarasota, Florida, decided that putting a whole bottle of the ghost pepper extract into the show host's 10-wing challenge plate was a good idea.

The challenge is called "Fire in Your Hole," and the gist of it is the challenger agrees to try to eat 10 hot wings without drinking anything for the duration of the challenge. Until the Carolina Reaper came along, the ghost chili was considered the hottest chili in the world. It should also be noted that the addition of the extra chili extract was done on the sly, making it a cheat for the restaurant at best and a dangerous risk at worst. In fact, the chilis nearly closed off the show host's nose and throat. And for people who have certain underlying conditions, eating too much of these chilis can bring on seizures and heart attacks, and even death on some occasions. Needless to say, it is a challenge that Adam Richman doesn't remember as one of his most enjoyable.