Foobooz’s Kristen Henri was on Throwdown! with Bobby Flay on the Food Network last night. She served as a judge, alongside Drexel University’s Adrienne Hall, of the competition of our age… Bobby Flay vs. The Pretzel Boys:
A few months ago, I got an email from a production company asking if I would appear as a ’soft pretzel expert’ on a new, unnamed, host-free Food Network show that traveled the country, focusing on local specialties…
So I showed up at Drexel’s hospitality school for this mystery show and while we were waiting for the producers to do something with us, my fellow judge Adrienne Hall, chef-instructor at Drexel, told me that her culinary students–who were in the next room with the Pretzel Boys–suspected what I had not: that this was a Throwdown!
I don’t have a TV, so I didn’t know what Throwdown! was. I was a tiny bit mad because I don’t really like surprises (note: except champagne, that’s always a nice surprise). My options were to bolt or to suck it up. I was already miked, had signed a release and didn’t want to be a bad sport, so I sucked it up.
Sure enough, Throwdown! it was. Bobby Flay walked into the next room and the culinary student crowd went wild. While the Flay team and the Pretzel Boys went at it making their product, Adrienne and I had to talk to the camera about our pretzel preferences. Here’s where it got ugly.
The producer wanted us to say what we thought made a great Philly soft pretzel. They asked us to mention something about ‘cheese sauce.’ I protested. A true Philadelphian would NEVER EVER sully a pretzel with cheese sauce. We clothe our pretzels in mustard and mustard only. You want to argue about what type of mustard, fine, but not cheese. Never cheese. I’m a purist.
He insisted, I frowned.
Read more here.
Me and Bobby Mc… Flay? [Foobooz]
