Man v. Food Nation is the name given to the fourth season of the Travel Channel's Man v. Food, a food reality television series. It premiered on June 1, 2011. A preview episode, "The Quest Begins", aired on May 25.
In this show, host Adam Richman travels to cities around the U.S. to try the signature food dishes of their local eateries. Unlike the previous three seasons of Man v. Food, where he himself took on a food challenge at a local restaurant, in this season, Richman recruits residents of the city he visits to take on a food challenge, while he serves as their coach by giving them tips and advice on how to beat their challenges, using the skills he learned previously from his own food challenges.
The final tally for the season was 11 wins for Man and 16 wins for Food. This was the first and only season to start (and end) with Food winning the challenge. It is also the only season in which Food scored more victories than Man.
With Richman announcing his retirement from competitive eating on January 27, 2012, Man v. Food Nation would be his final season of Man v. Food. On April 11 (after a four-month hiatus), episodes filmed in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Jackson, Mississippi, were aired, marking what was then the official close of the series.
In May 2017, Travel Channel announced a revival of the series, with Casey Webb replacing Richman as host. The fifth season (and Webb's first) premiered on August 7 the same year.
Episodes Episode Episode Number Original Air Date Winner Challenge New Haven, CT 1 (59) June 1, 2011 Food Caseus Cheese Truck For the first episode of Man v. Food Nation, Adam visited New Haven, Connecticut, home to the prestigious Yale University (where he earned his master's degree from Yale's School of Drama). The first stop on his trip was Louis' Lunch, inventor of the original American hamburger. At Louis' Lunch, opened in 1895, the quarter pound hamburgers are cooked on the original vertical flame grill and served on white toast with your only choice of toppings cheddar cheese spread, tomato and onions. The restaurant, perhaps notoriously, refuses to serve any ketchup. They also serve only potato salad, no fries. Adam tried a "Cheese Works" burger, which had all the available toppings. The patties were topped with an onion slice and cooked in the vertical flame grill. Then, Adam stopped at Modern Apizza where they bake their pizzas in a brick oven at 825 degrees F. Adam visited to try a clams casino pie, a white pie featuring toppings such as Rhode Island clams, Mozzarella cheese, roasted peppers and crispy bacon. The dough is kneaded to a thin, 20-inch diameter and grande mozzarella cheese spread on top. The clams are then added, followed by red and green roasted peppers, thick cut bacon, garlic, oregano and pecorino romano cheese. Baked for just four minutes, this apizza with super thin crust highly impressed Adam. For the challenge, Adam recruited Yale student Ric Best, AKA "King Hungry VIII", to take on the Caseus Cheese Truck Challenge. The challenge requires you to eat 10 grilled cheese sandwiches (made with provolone, swiss, comté, gouda, gruyère, muenster, and extra sharp cheddar cheeses on fresh-grilled sourdough bread, all with at least one topping of his choice and weighing a total of 6 pounds). Downing all 10 sandwiches within an hour would allow him to name his very own sandwich for the menu and also win free grilled cheese sandwiches for one year. Only one person had been able to defeat this challenge prior to this episode's taping. Adam gave Ric some valuable advice, such as stacking two sandwiches on top of each other and doing "all his damage in the first 23 minutes". For the challenge, Ric chose grilled red onions as his topping. He downed the first two sandwiches in the first 5 minutes of the challenge, and then finished the fifth sandwich at the 15-minute mark. He then combined sandwiches 6-8 into one triple sandwich and went at it furiously. But, about halfway through it, he hit the food wall. Adam then handed Ric a beverage (upon Adam's recommendation) to help him swallow the food more easily. Though he managed to finish the triple sandwich at about 24 minutes in, Ric did not feel like he could continue, and ultimately declared Food the winner.Man v. Food Nation takes on New Haven This was Ric's second attempt to beat this challenge (in the first, he had eaten only 5 sandwiches, so his second attempt broke his previous personal best). Adam gave him a Man v. Food Nation title belt for his effort. Tampa, FL 2 (60) June 1, 2011 Man Davy Jones This episode showcased the "big food" of restaurants in Tampa. Adam first visited Skippers Smokehouse, where they feature Florida decor and seafood dishes ranging from smoked shark to a blackened grouper reuben sandwich. Opened in 1980, Skippers has a unique outdoor kitchen and offers alligator chili and ribs. The gator ribs are basted in "goo", a mixture of barbecue sauce, spice rub, olive oil and key lime juice and smoked in a one of a kind pressure smoker with hickory wood chips for two hours. He compared their taste to pork ribs. He then spent time watching professional wrestling tag team The Nasty Boys in training before trying a Cubano sandwich at Aguila's Sandwich Shop. Located close to nearby Ybor City, Aguila's has been in business since 1986. They make their Cuban sandwiches the traditional way, with boiled ham, roast pork, pickles, mustard and Swiss cheese. The pork has been cooked for four hours, hand pulled and marinated in mojo sauce, a blend of citrus, garlic and sour onion. After the meat and toppings are loaded on a loaf of authentic Cuban bread, the sandwich is pressed on a plancha. This was all before Adam visited Rapscallions in Land o' Lakeshttp://www.baynews9.com/article/news/2011/may/253780/Pasco-County-hot-wings-challenge-to-be-featured-on-Man-vs-Food?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4de2bdbdf50b213c,0 and recruited Nasty Boys member Jerry Sags (a self-professed spicy food fan and habanero grower) to take on the Davy Jones Challenge. The challenge consists of eating 10 chicken wings doused in a sauce composed of roasted garlic and habaneros, chile de árbol, hot sauce, orange juice, red wine vinegar blended together. Spicy capsaicin extract known as "the Blood of Davy Jones" is then added along with a cup of red pepper flakes and cayenne pepper. The wings were to be completed in 30 minutes or less, with a 5-minute afterburn period. Sags' wrestling partner Brian Knobs would be among the spectators. Out of hundreds that had attempted this challenge prior to Sags, only nine challengers were successful. Adam advised Sags to keep his hands clean and "go to his happy place" to survive the intense heat. Adam also advised Sags to strip the meat off the bone to reduce the chances of the intensely hot sauce touching his lips. Taking Adam's advice, Sags was able to eat all the meat from the wings in only 6 minutes, but clearly suffered through the pain of the afterburn. Ultimately though, he managed to survive the afterburn period and became the 10th winner of the challenge. He received a t-shirt, a picture on the "Wall of Pain" and a Man v. Food Nation title belt.
Post-episode update: According to the food blog Dan vs. Food, Rapscallions permanently closed in July 2012. Nashville, TN 3 (61) June 8, 2011 Food Big Roost Adam sampled the best food Nashville had to offer. His first stop was Prince's Hot Chicken Shack to try their signature fried hot chicken. Opened in 1941, Prince's soaks in its top secret marinade and then is coated in flour mixed with spices (notably cayenne, while most of the other spices are kept secret). It is then deep fried for 20 minutes and doused in the spicy sauce, topped with pickles and then sprinkled with more spices before being placed on a slice of white bread. While finding it spicier than he anticipated, Adam decided to pour some honey on the chicken, a move that the restaurant's owner said she never saw before. This segment also featured a special guest appearance by former Nashville mayor Bill Purcell. After introducing the viewers to this episode's challengers, Nashville-based country duo the LoCash Cowboys (Chris Lucas and Preston Brust), and paying a visit to the Grand Ole Opry, Adam ventured to the Pancake Pantry where they serve 23 different varieties from the banana and coconut Caribbean Cakes to the Swiss Chocolate Chip to the Georgia Peach. Adam tried their "Village Smithy" pancakes, crispy cornmeal pancakes filled with cheddar cheese, bacon, and green chiles while topped with salsa, sour cream, butter, and maple syrup. He also learned to not pat these pancakes as they were being prepared. Eggs, oil and milk are mixed with cornmeal instead of flour, giving it a unique texture. The cheese, bacon and chiles are added before flipping. After a second visit with the LoCash Cowboys (and a song they wrote, which they dedicated to their challenge), Adam went to Rooster's Texas Style BBQ and Steakhouse to guide the pair through the Big Roost Challenge: a platter featuring a 72-ounce sirloin steak, a baked potato, a salad, and 2 slices of Texas toast.LoCash Cowboys get carnivorous on 'Man v. Food Nation' The four inch thick sirloin is butterflied and sprinkled with their secret spice rub. It is then seared on both sides before being placed on the hickory smoke grill. Beer is poured over the steak as it is grilled for 15 minutes on each side. The duo, each of whom had their own platter to deal with, had one hour to finish the entire challenge, which prior to this episode had been undefeated. Adam's advice for the challenge was to break up the taste of steak with the salad, the potato, and even a glass of red wine. The duo started off strong by consuming nearly a third of their steaks in about 10 minutes. However, at the 30-minute mark, they started to get "food drunk" and began to slow down with the challenge until the arrival of country music superstar Vince Gill inspired them to keep eating. Ultimately, time ran out on their challenge after each valiantly consumed about three-quarters of their steaks and half of their sides, and the challenge remained undefeated.