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Chef Mon Jun 14 2010
Sunda Chef Is TLC's "Food Buddha"
Tonight was the premiere of "Food Buddha," a new TLC show featuring Chicago's own Rodelio Aglibot, head chef at Sunda. The premise of the show seems way over-the-top, but Aglibot's easy-going nature makes it work: In each episode, he visits a different city and hits up three different restaurants. At each restaurant, he orders one of everything.
Yes, you read that correctly: "OOE," as Aglibot says. One. Of. Everything.
By ordering OOE, Aglibot says he gets the restaurant's whole story. (It also prompts some very funny reactions from the chefs in the restaurants he visits, including eye-rolling, swearing and momentary panic.) At the end of the show, he selects the dish that most inspires him and brings the recipe home to Chicago, where he puts a twist on it to serve as a special at Sunda.
I watched the first episode of the show tonight, in which Chef visits New Orleans. One of the restaurant's he dines at is Squeal, a pig-focused joint that serves pork cakes -- kind of like crab cakes, but way worse for you because, uh, they're made out of pork. And filled with cream cheese. Oh, yeah, and they're also deep-fried. The Sunda version was still pork-a-licious, but it was considerably lighter, with braised pork belly, no cream cheese filling, and a pan fried, not deep fried crust.
Food TV addict that I am, I'll definitely tune into "Food Buddha" again. Aglibot is so good-natured, he actually makes it fun to watch a person eat his way through an entire menu. No small feat indeed.
Corinne Peterson / June 14, 2010 10:22 PM
Awesome premiere! Very entertaining and made you hungry for each of the dishes. Been to Sunda and yum!