Guy Fieri, I’m coming for your secret beef jerky stash.
The secret ingredient for Iron Chef isn't so secret.
In reality, chefs get three possibilities as to their secret ingredient so they have time to prepare a menu and grocery list for each. The show will then buy ingredients for the chefs based on the lists they write. The challengers find out which of the three possibilities they're cooking with right before the battle in Kitchen Stadium.
Food Network
Also in Iron Chef, the chefs know who is being challenged way before the show airs.
Challenging chefs will choose their competitor weeks in advance, so they can do all of the planning stated above. In the episode, the rest of the challenger's possibilities are just silhouetted stand-ins. The other Iron Chefs aren't even there.
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Mario Batali cut himself on his first day of his first show.
Mario Batali butchered his knuckles on a cheese grater during his first day on Molto Mario. To cover the blood, he shoved his hands in a bowl of tomatoes.
Food Network
Food Network once accidentally aired porn.
In 1997, during the cooking show Two Hot Tamales, Food Network accidentally cut to a tape that showed hardcore porn to viewers across the country. The error lasted about a minute, but the network says there was only about 10 seconds of "uncleared and inappropriate footage."
Food Network
Rachael Ray once set Emeril's kitchen on fire.
Ray was filming the pilot for 30 Minute Meals on the set of Emeril Live when she went to put oil in a skillet. However, she didn't know the skillet was preheated for her. Huge flames shot up, and she almost set Emeril's set on fire.
CBS
"Bam" was invented to wake up the set crew.
Emeril Lagasse's restaurant schedule meant that he was filming eight Essence of Emeril shows a day. After lunch, his crew would end up nodding off because of the long hours and intense work schedule, so he started bamming to wake everyone up. Bam!
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There is a lawyer on the set of Cutthroat Kitchen to ensure that the game is real.
In an interview with Chef Joe Arvin who was a contestant on the Thanksgiving episode in 2014, he said, "We had a lawyer on-set to ensure that all rules were being followed and there was nothing too 'fake' about the contestants."
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It takes over 14 hours to film an episode of Chopped.
Even though the show is just a little over 40 minutes, chefs get to the set at 5:45 a.m. and can sometimes stay until 8 or 9 p.m. depending on how far they get in the competition.
Food Network
Guy Fieri gets spray painted on the wall of every diner, drive-in, and dive he's eaten at.
Adam Sappington from the restaurant The Country Cat told Thrillist that he was originally mad about the location of Fieri's stencil placement, but he's ultimately happy that people come in to take pictures with it either as tourists, or as part of a Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives restaurant crawl.
pharkin07 / Via instagram.com
Alton Brown's very first time on camera was for the pilot of Good Eats.
He didn't want to host Good Eats at all. He wrote the script and wanted to direct it. But his pitch was so enthusiastic that the production company told him they'd only do the show if he hosted. He said yes, and Good Eats hired a different director.
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Restaurant: Impossible host Robert Irvine once paid six months of rent for a restaurant owner whose house was being foreclosed.
The owner had gotten the eviction notice the same day their overhauled restaurant was to be revealed. Irvine took the $10,000 budget for the episode and gave it to the restaurant owners and their eight kids for rent. He then matched the money for their restaurant overhaul out of his pocket.
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Chopped contestants plate four dishes, despite there only being three judges.
The fourth plate is used to photograph when they present the dish or if they get chopped.
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Ina Garten orders her trademark button-downs by the dozen.
The shirts are from Land's End.
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Nicholas Hunt / Getty Images
Anthony Bourdain and Food Network have some major beef.
In an interview with People, Bourdain said, "Their brand is really, I think it’s clear, not chef-driven. For a period of time, the last thing they wanted, it seemed, was anyone who actually worked in a restaurant or cooked professionally or was authoritative on the subject of food."
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Capitol / Via youtube.com
William Shatner was originally the Iron Chef host.
When the show first came to America, Food Network turned it down and UPN picked it up. William Shatner was the host, but the network decided it lacked culinary knowledge, and it was canned. It was offered to Food Network again, they took it, and the rest is history. Allez cuisine!
UPN
Finally, Guy Fieri hides a stash of beef jerky behind the rice on the set of Guy's Grocery Games to eat in between filming.
Why he would tell us his secret hiding spot I have no idea.
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Do you know a cool little fact about the Food Network? Have you competed on one of their shows? Tell us all about it in the comments below!
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