It seems I’m the only guy in America that doesn’t have a reality show. So I came up with an idea to get one.
A little background is necessary. My reality show would be food-based. I’m not the pickiest eater in the world, but I’m in the top 1% for sure. A while back there was a show on one of the cable stations called “Freaky Eaters” that made me look more-or-less normal, but I’m far from it. My pickiness goes back my entire life. As most kids go through a picky phase but eventually grow out of it, I never did.
My pickiness developed into a sort of phobia. I sometimes have people who think they’re going to convince me to change, but they miss one key element of my pickiness. The most recent example was in February, while on a group trip to Israel. One guy (who meant well), thought he could talk me into trying local foods. He was making comments at nearly every meal for the first few days. Eventually I had to explain it in a way that he could really understand who I am in regard to food. I explained it like this: some people are afraid of the dark, others are terrified of heights, I really don’t like trying new foods.
There’s a caveat to it though. People can live long, relatively normal, and healthy lives avoiding heights and overly-dark places. However, eating only a few different foods, of marginal nutritional value, eventually catches up with a person.
So my reality show idea is to pair people like me up with world-class chefs that can make trying new foods far less scary or intimidating. Of course, it would mean the chefs would have to have a certain level of ability to not take things personally. As a person trained in Architectural design myself, I know that creative people need a fairly thick skin to be successful.
Off the top of my head, I’d love to be paired up with a guy like Gordon Ramsey (who has several reality shows going at any given time), or Graham Elliot (one of the judges on “Master Chef”).
To add a level of interest, it would be fun to not only be introduced to good foods by people who really know food well, but to be taught how to make things that I would end up liking. Ironically, as picky as I am, I do like to cook. I really like to learn to make the things I like, as well as a restaurant would make them.
This show doesn’t have to revolve around me, or around me and the chef. It could feature different chefs, along with different picky eaters. I think it would be interesting to have a few chefs paired up with a few picky eaters, and show segments of each pair every episode, and all the pairs are on for an entire season.
I just have no idea who to pitch this show idea to. If anyone in a TV production company happens to trip over this post, and this sounds interesting, shoot me an email. You can do so by emailing my first name (Andy) at this website address.