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Private Notes
Adam hits the high seas to learn the job of a Maine lobsterman. Starting at the crack of dawn, he baits, hauls up, and unloads 200-plus lobster traps. Surrounded by pungent odors, rocky seas and snapping lobsters, Adam attempts to hold on to all his fingers (and his lunch). Then, in the sweltering heat of Southern California, Adam cautiously smokes and opens up the hives of three million bees to learn the ropes of honey harvesting for Ashurst American Honey.
Adam works as a caviar producer in the Louisiana bayou country swamps, netting and cutting a haul of bowfin fish
then extracting their $110/pound black roe. Then, Adam spends the day with 88 goats as chief milker and cheese
maker on Nettle Meadow Farm in Thurman, N.Y.
Adam joins Washington's Taylor Shellfish crew for an exhausting, dirty day of geoduck clam harvesting in the Puget Sound. He blasts water into sand holes to unearth the two-pound mollusks to reach the crew's goal of a 1,000-pound haul. Next, Adam teams up with world-champion flair bartender, Rodrigo Cao, at Las Vegas' Kahunaville for a lesson in bottle tossing and cocktail mixing. Whether pouring, shaking, flipping, or serving, Adam enjoys this spirited gig.
With a straw hat and high-waisted trousers, Adam prepares a traditional 19th century meal at Old Sturbridge Village (a living history museum in Massachusetts) that begins with milking cows, chopping wood, churning butter, and preparing chicken, all without any modern conveniences. Adam then visits Las Vegas' Aureole where he scales a futuristic four-story wine tower as a "wine angel." Quickly learning the ropes, he retrieves countless bottles of wine and entertains guests.
Adam loves his BBQ, but no one does barbeque quite like Texas. At Louie Mueller’s Barbeque, Adam proves he can stand the heat as he fires up the pit, preps hundreds of pounds of meat, and begins slow cooking just after midnight. Up next, Adam gets trained in New York City by the eating elite – Crazy Legs Conti, Pat Bertoletti, and Tim ‘Eater X’ Janus – to prep for his first competitive eating contest. Ten minutes on the clock, and lots of pizza to eat!
Flipping, tossing, cooking, and entertaining his way through, Adam joins Benihana executive chef Chris Kuwayama for in-depth teppanyaki lessons and access to the restaurant's signature recipes before serving guests that evening. Next, Adam works alongside sustainable mollusk expert, Brad Buckley, as an abalone farmer. From harvesting kelp to sorting out abalone by size, Adam grills off and enjoys this costly seafood delicacy with a new appreciation.
In Castro Valley, Calif., Adam mixes, rolls, and tosses his way to pizzaiolo success whipping up 300 fresh pizzas alongside pizza-making and pizza-tossing world champion Tony Gemignani. With some 500 gallons of cider sold daily during apple season, Adam assists the fast-paced production at Dexter Cider Mill in Michigan by grinding apples, laying cheesecloth, smoothing mash, and pressing 160 bushels of apples into gallons of cider.
First Adam endures cranberry boot camp in Rochester, Mass. Next in New York City, Adam works with ice artist Shintaro Okamoto and his son, Takeo, to create a unique food display out of a 300-pound block of ice for an event.
To create a high-performance, temperature-controlled wine cave, Adam works with a construction company in Napa Valley, Calif., where he uses a road-header to excavate, a mucker to carry out debris, and a wild cement spraying hose - all for a good vintage! In the rocky waters of Houma, Louis., Adam gets a tough and messy lesson in oyster harvesting from the back-breaking haul to the cleaning, shucking, and banding of this high-priced delicacy.
Adam plays mother hen to a new brood of chicks at Wisconisin’s MacFarlane Pheasants where he trays the eggs for incubation, cleans the brooder barns, and wrangles the pheasants for feeding and care. In Monrovia, Calif., Adam learns the tricks of the trade to beautiful food styling for book photography alongside a 25-year industry veteran. The food looks mouth-watering, but the secrets hidden beneath will shock viewers.
From scooping skills and cake-decorating tips,, Adam learns the ice cream trade at Baskin-Robbins' accelerated ice cream school. Then, Adam spends a day with Star Fisheries' champion fish filleter in San Pedro, Calif.
Adam helps designer Gregory Gale and chocolatier Richard Capizzi from Thomas Keller’s Bouchon Bakery design, create, and fit a beautiful dress for a New York City fashion show. The material? Chocolate! Adam pours his passion for dessert into this very difficult task! Then, Adam visits The Honest Kitchen in San Diego, Calif., where he whips up healthy dog food from ingredients FDA-approved for human consumption. Based off the traditional Thanksgiving dinner, the canines (and Adam) gobble up his tasty concoction.
Without using dogs, pigs or GPS, Adam takes to the cold mud of Portland, Ore., to learn about truffles. He digs up the edible black gold while learning about different species, truffle mating and reproduction, and ultimately serving techniques. Adam then works as a Hollywood food make-up artist where he shops for the best food products and learns to use them in gory cinema make-up. Adam even shows off his "wound" skills on a model ready to play dead.
