Man vs Food star Adam Richman is in town for meaty BBQ bus tour
Man vs Food, Yank vs Food, Manc vs Food or Manc vs Yank vs Food. We can do this in loads of different ways; but the story is that Adam Richman, the American food-obsessed host of the Travel Channel’s Man vs Food series, is in town.
He’s come over as a guest of the Manchester-based sauce company Meat Lust, to help launch their upcoming Sauce and the City tour. This will be a 10-day event, featuring twelve tours around the city on a special meat and beer packed double decker bus.
Starting on Thursday 20th July, the tour will begin at B.eat Street on Deansgate, before visiting some of Manchester’s favourite food spots including Hip Hop Chip Shop, Sugar Rays and Northern Soul Grilled Cheese. Each venue will prepare some exclusive miniature dishes for passengers using Meat Lust sauces; Sugar Rays have produced a special hotdog using their new ghost chilli sauce and Crazy Pedro’s Part-Time Pizza Parlour will be offering their Lucky Lucky Katsu pizza.
On board, Richard and James from Spinningfield’s restaurant Beastro will be manning a custom-fitted Primo grill on the top deck, producing various barbecued meaty bits smothered with yet more sauce. To wash it all down, Meat Lust has also teamed up with some of Manchester’s favourite independent breweries: Shindigger Brewery, Tickety Brew and BrewDog, which will be stocked in the on-board bar.
During his three day visit, Adam Richman has been taken on a whistle-stop tour around Manchester, spending fourteen hour days meeting, greeting and eating. So what has he learnt about Mancunian food while he’s been here? “I haven’t had one bad dish to be honest, but curry sauce on chips, I didn’t even know that was a thing.” What?! So you can get almost any kind of obscure food from all corners of the globe in New York, but you can’t get chips with curry sauce?!?
“Well firstly, we call them fries, but ketchup is still ketchup, which is the lay of the land, even if you go to one of those hoity toity Belgian places. Curry sauce is like the next level up!”
We felt it was our duty to enhance Adam’s Mancunian food experience, so we dashed over to MIF Festival Square before our interview, to pick up an Eccles cake and a wedge of Lancashire Cheese from Paul Heathcote’s stall to see what he made of it.
"Curry sauce on chips? I didn’t even know that was a thing"
As we rummaged around in our bag, he looked reluctant, “it’s uncanny how many reporters will try to surprise me. You know you’re totally putting me on the spot. I reserve the right not to eat this, ok?” Once it was clear we had no intention of offering him a dinosaur egg wrapped in hippopotamus meat, he relaxed a little and took a bite, “aah”, he said, relieved, “it’s super flaky, like a croissant. Wow, like all of the butter in Devon is in this pastry.” (We felt that until we could confidently locate our Alabama from our South Dakota, it would be churlish to correct him.)
His professional eater persona kicked right in, “it’s like a cheese board. Like the bruschetta is the pastry, the way you would get dried fruit on it. It’s like a cheeseboard pastry.” So he liked his little Mancunian gift then? “Resoundingly,” he conceded, “that’s really quite delicious.”
So what else did this food-loving American make of our fair city? “This whistle stop tour has really given me a taste of Manchester, as well as the warmth and the kindness of the people. I mean I’ve seen 24 hr Party People and heard about things like The Gooch, from back in the day. ..”
Oh, so you were under the impression Manchester was all about gangsters and gangs? Perhaps our tourist board need to work a little harder then.
“Well I didn’t think it was like this apocalyptic place that Tom Cruise was going to have to jump in and save or anything, but obviously I knew of the industrial nature of the city. There’s a vibrancy around Manchester that echoes back to the music roots and the Haҫienda.”
“I’ve met such passionate people who don’t have a background in food production, have never had a business before and now they have a loyal following; guys that are close to selling half a million pints of beer, which they started by brewing in their uni bathroom.
"I have fallen in love with this city. I knew I would like it, I did not know I would love it"
“I love the synergy between local products and the support of one another. I love the way people have been just so generous. New York is not a very supportive community and the rivalry between businesses can be deeply cut throat and negative. But here, I haven’t heard anybody slag off anybody else.
“More Americans should come here. I can tell that the North does things distinctly differently from the South. It reminds me more of Brooklyn. People are capitalising on opportunities and it’s really exciting. There are some great things happening and it’s like you’re on the cusp from a pronounced wave.”
So does he think he’ll return?
“I can tell you without question I will be back. I have fallen in love with this city. I knew I would like it, I did not know I would love it. There’s still so much to take in.”
Good times @CrazyPedros with @AdamRichman
See you Friday Brother! pic.twitter.com/CyRMLIXnhh
— Lyndon B Higginson (@Captain_Lyndon) July 12, 2017
For further details on how you can get on board, visit sauceandthecity.co.uk, or visit Meat Lust on Twitter: @MeatLust Facebook: /MeatLust or Instagram: @MeatLust and follow the Hashtag: #CitySauce
