INTERVIEW: Adam Gertler looks for late-night meals on ‘Last Call Food Brawl’

Adam Gertler, a runner-up for Next Food Network Star and host of several food programs, is on a quest to find the most scrumptious and sometimes weirdest late-night concoctions in the United States. His new competition series, Last Call Food Brawl, airs Sundays at noon on Destination America.

For Gertler, living in a burrito world filled with burgers, fried chicken and macaroni and cheese seems perfectly fine. The people who venture out after 10 p.m. for some good eats are his type of people. Comforted by the moon, the competitors he sees on the road need to keep away the yawns and up the culinary ante.

Gertler landed the Destination America gig thanks to executive producer Donna MacLetchie, who worked on Next Food Network Star. “We kind of remained really friendly, and we talked, you know, constantly over the years,” Gertler said recently during a phone interview. “And when she told me that she was working on a late-night food show, I was like, wow, that is so much more up my alley than, say, candy, which was the subject of my last show. … As someone who works in restaurants, works in food, I mean I can’t tell you how many times I’m looking for dinner after 10 o’clock.”

The TV host said he’s not the person who would pull into a drive-thru presumably for some common fast-food eats. He likes his meals (at all times of the day and night) to be “good.”

“I just love the idea of the show. It was like, wow, this could be like my dream show, traveling around the country, drinking, eating late at night, going crazy with people, cutting it up. I mean I was really, really desperate to get the show, so much so that I kind of went out and I made my own audition tape out here in Los Angeles.”

Making the audition tape in a restaurant was an arduous process. “In L.A., people don’t let you do that because everybody is so savvy about the industry,” he said. “Nobody’s going to just let you roll in there without agreements and without paying for the place.”

Gertler pleaded with a restaurant manager until he came around and let the filming crew on premises. In short order, Gertler had his audition tape and the producers were impressed.

When filming on the series began, the competition was stiff in each city. “If people are going to sign themselves up for a competition in the modern climate that we’re in, you got to think that people have some idea of what they’re getting into,” he said. “My expectations were pleasantly met, let’s just say, as far as the quality of the cooks. I think the more surprise comes on the hands of the competitors who are sometimes great cooks but have never competed like this before.”

Last Call Food Brawl puts a lot of pressure on its contestants. They’re expected to produce a lot of food on strict time constraints (such as one hour to feed 35 people). The chefs work in food trucks, not state-of-the-art kitchens, and their pantry is a grab bag of ingredients. “I was pretty shocked at how good some of the food was considering, you know, all those factors,” Gertler said. “And then in the first round of the competition they only have a half hour, and sometimes those were some of the best tasting things.”

One of Gertler’s favorite dishes was fried chicken from an Atlanta chef that was made in 30 minutes. Coincidentally, that same chef also cooked one of Gertler’s least favorite dishes: fried macaroni and cheese balls that used liver and graham cracker flour.

“[He took] something, you know, which I hold probably dearest in my heart of all comfort food, and that being macaroni and cheese, and then absolutely defiling it in the most heinous of ways. So there was a lot of that. It was like a lot of, wow, on one hand, this is amazing, and on the other hand, that was colossally awful.”

As host, Gertler is neither competitor nor judge. This gives him the enviable power of commenting on the dishes but not deciding on the ultimate fate of each chef. “So I kind of had the best of both worlds,” he added.

Gertler said Last Call Food Brawl strikes a balance between Dave Attell’s Insomniac, where the comedian drank into the morning hours at different bars, and a twisted version of Chopped, Food Network’s cooking competition series.

“We really were shooting in places that were bars and restaurants, and we really were with a crowd that is enjoying their night as the competition goes on — and imbibing accordingly,” Gertler said. “I also love the idea that the competition was based on each city. You know, like seeing who’s in that city, so you get to see the kind of food that’s in the city, and then you get to see people compete on the same playing field rather than bringing people in from different places.”

Some of Gertler’s favorite cities on the show: Nashville, the land of America’s music renaissance; New Orleans during Mardi Gras; and Memphis and its world-famous barbecue.

“The way they talk barbecue in Memphis is like how they would talk about world news or politics or anything like that,” he said. “[T]he judges in the final round of the Memphis episode are two actual pitmasters.”

Being around two pitmasters, Gertler said, is like semi-pro basketball players hanging out with LeBron James. “I mean I consider myself a barbecue master, but I’m like a barbecue amateur compared to those guys,” he said. “So that was really cool, I mean, because I’m genuinely a nerd about this stuff. … Unfortunately I’m not as into museums as I am into, you know, stuffing my face. So it kind of is exactly what I’d be doing for fun anyway.”

Admittedly, the late-night menu items on Last Call Food Brawl are not the healthiest options. Gertler said he watches his diet so that he can enjoy these midnight-hour feasts.

“You’re just craving what you’re craving, and all your inhibitions are down,” he said. “To me late-night food is not something that I’m eating with a knife and fork. It’s in burrito form, taco form, burger form, pizza form, one of the many fabulous hand-held forms that we have.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

• Last Call Food Brawl airs on Destination America at noon on Sundays.