Bacon! Steaks! Burgers! Chef Todd Fisher is ready to travel the ‘United States of Food’

Oh, the wonderful glories of bacon.

Chef Todd Fisher knows what America wants to eat, and now he has a national outlet to showcase his guiltiest culinary pleasures. On Destination America’s new series, United States of Food, Fisher tours the country on the lookout for places that any meat lover would die to experience.

His “bucket list” is chockfull of down-home restaurants with dedicated clientele and a history of excellence. Fisher promises one thing to viewers: “There’s more bacon than any man should be able to consume in an hour on the first show,” the chef said of the July 8 premiere. “I take care of everybody so no one has to suffer through like I did. Wink wink.”

A former restaurateur himself, Fisher has been cooking food professionally for nearly quarter of a century. Now he wants to share his favorite places and dishes to the TV-viewing public. “Obviously, the food’s great,” he said. “Getting to see the chef, that’s fulfilling for me. But meeting all these great people is fantastic.”

The three-episode special, which also includes burger and steak installments, will focus on a wide variety of establishments. There’s the restaurant that served the very first burger in the United States, plus a restaurant that has a veritable bidding war at lunch time for its world-famous cheeseburgers. Plus, there are a lot of surprises along the way.

“I’m not a trained TV guy, so occasionally I go outside the norm and grab my camera guy and we go running off to go look at something that catches my eye,” Fisher said. “It’s kind of like watching a sports event going down at the same time, where my cameraman is running behind me as we go to chase people in parking lots. … It’s random at times; I won’t lie.”

Fisher chose many of the places that appear on the show, with some help from researchers and producers who knew of America’s hidden culinary corners. No matter the restaurant, the chef wanted to focus on quality food that would appeal to the average person. “My goal, just like my style of cooking, is to be comfortable for everyone,” he said. “I can do super high-end if I need to, but that’s not my favorite place to be. I like experiential dining, and it’s definitely an experiential show as well. You could definitely pack up the family … and take off for these places and do the bacon trail or the burger trail.”

With a mission to demystify many of the featured dishes, Fisher said he believes United States of Food will help families that are heading out into the backyard, getting ready to barbecue and enjoy some alfresco dining. One suggestion could come from a restaurant on the show that couples ground beef and ground bacon for a perfect (and perfectly fattening) cheeseburger. “This burger blows away any bacon cheeseburger you’ve ever had,” he said.

Fisher is no stranger to the world of bacon and meat. He grew up in a very “meat-forward family,” but he never forgot the value of vegetables. “My dad was in the wholesale produce business,” he said. “We eat a ton of vegetables, but we’ve always been a meat-focused family.”

The TV host said one can’t go wrong with adding some bacon to every meal. Whether it’s waking up in the morning to the smell of sizzling meat or raiding the refrigerator for a late-night BLT, pork runs deep in Fisher’s blood.

 

FROM THE KITCHEN TO REALITY

Fisher admitted he wasn’t expecting the long, arduous hours necessary to produce an episode of reality television. “We would be on location anywhere from eight to 12 hours for six to eight minutes of television magic,” he said with a laugh. “It blows me away. I keep telling people when they ask how it’s going, ‘You know, I’ve never been so inefficient in my life.’ In that it takes me 12 hours to get six minutes of television. Producers want so many options to look at, that they can try it this way and try it that way. It was a lot more hours than I thought it would be, but man am I having a good time.”

Citing United States of Food as a “dream come true” for his professional career, Fisher said he’s conscious of the reality TV competition in the marketplace. Shows like Diners, Drive-ins and Dives and Destination America’s own Fast Food Mania also follow hosts around the food-packed highways of the country. What sets Fisher’s show part is his “likability” and unique personality.

“My director, even my camera guys, and some of my sound guys were like, ‘You need to go sit in the corner and be quiet, so you’re ready to go again when it’s time.’ … I found myself going, ‘No, I don’t like turning the switch on and off.’ I like to stay in that social atmosphere. So I was walking around the dining rooms talking to people. That’s what I do as a restaurateur. You get out to the table. You touch the table. You talk to people, and you start feeding on that energy. It’s such a better vibe for me to stay social.”

Of the places he remembers most fondly from the first season of the show, there are two indelible highlights.

“One was a bacon place that was in Austin, Texas, called Bacon. The bacon Reuben was incredible. The flavor was intense, and they cured the pork belly like you would corned beef. … It was really amazing, because it had that bacon kind of fatty succulence, but it didn’t have the smoke of bacon.”

Another top establishment was Doe’s Eat Place in Greenville, Miss., a restaurant Fisher has known for almost 20 years. “It’s just a little house that serves up probably the best steak I’ve ever had,” he said. “The place is rather downtrodden and definitely there are layers and layers of beef juice on the wall. It’s definitely got the amazing years of usage on it. But man this steak was incredible.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

• Click here for information on Chef Todd Fisher.