Curtis Stone walked into grocery stores and then into our hearts on Take Home Chef and now he's back to get you in the mood for tasty waterside dishes and exploration on his new show, Beach Eats USA. Wednesday night's at 10:30ET/PT on Food Network, Curtis will be on the hunt to uncover picturesque locations serving up the perfect beach grub. He'll also be showcasing his daring side taking part in paddle boarding, helicopter riding, and zip-lining along the way. Talk about a fun gig! We wanted to do some exploring of our own so we chatted it up with Stone to find out about his new job, his old job, and his restaurant. Oh, and to question him about Katy Perry.
OC Weekly (Ali Lerman): I need to get this out of the way immediately. I noticed that you follow Katy Perry on Twitter. Big Katy fan are you?
Curtis Stone: [Laughs.] Oh that's hilarious. You know what, I actually quite like her music but I'm not sure I have a good excuse as to why I'm following her on Twitter. I have no idea how I did that! [Laughs.] I have no decency as a human being. That's funny.
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Glad we cleared that up. I loved Take Home Chef because we learned to cook a great meal and got to watch you troll for hot ladies. With Beach Eats USA, you get to eat great food in great locations. How much are you living the dream?
I mean, are you kidding me? How lucky can one man get? The first show they paid me to do, I got to wander around grocery stores, pick up chicks, and offer to take them home. [Laughs.] Now I get to wander around some of the best beach resorts in town. The show was a lot of fun to film so I think it'll be a lot of fun to watch as well. At least I hope it will! You know truthfully what's so great for me is, the beautiful exploration around the country. I get to see so much diversity through the food too. You can't really top it. I also get to listen to Katy Perry all around the country in my headphones.
I see you're trying to rein in the KP fans. Not a bad move. I like that you recognize Take Home Chef was you picking up chicks because I would always think they'd never let a beast go home with them. But Curtis Stone? No problem! So funny…
It was hilarious right? I remember them pitching it to me and me thinking, is this even a TV show? Then 140 episodes later, you just never know what's going to happen in your life. When I got offered Beach Eats USA they asked, would you be at all interested in doing this kind of TV show? I was like, uhhh, yeah! There isn't even a question! Of course I'd like to do that TV show! The cool thing is, I spend my life in fine dining restaurants and the nature of this show is potentially the opposite of that. It's like, showing up to a restaurant, maybe with shoes on or maybe not, and eating the perfect fried fish sandwich. We're just letting the food be what it is. Super satisfying and super delicious.
Do you think when the second season rolls around you'll do “Beach Eats” outside of the US?
I think there are so many incredible coastlines in America and so many cultures and cuisines to discover that the show could be done here for a long time. If you think about America, there are so many different cuisines within the states. People have this stereotype about what American food is like when you're outside of the country but really, there are so many different choices.
I totally agree! I want to hear about your restaurant Maude. The menu focuses on one key ingredient monthly? Do I have that right?
Yeah, exactly. What we wanted to do was think about it like farm to table where we take an ingredient, treat it really simply, and serve it. We take that one ingredient and sort of put it under a microscope and think, how many things can we do with this ingredient? By the time we're done, we've got about 30 or 40 different applications for it. So for instance, the menu item right now is fig so you might find a fig ice-cream that has very little to do with the flavor profile of a fig but, we've come up with another way to use that fruit.
That's such a cool idea! Well done! Before I let you go, I was browsing your on-line store and was wondering, what's the weirdest thing you've ever bought on-line?
[Laughs.] Oh god! I don't do a lot of shopping on-line to be honest. Let me think…I don't really buy anything on-line but I should, shouldn't I? Oh you know what? I did buy a…wait no, I didn't even go through with that one! [Laughs.] I think I've only made one on-line purchase ever now that I'm thinking about it. It was a workout DVD and I've never even taken it out of the package! I guess I'm a crap on-line shopper!
Be sure to tune-in for Beach Eats USA on Food Network Wednesday nights at 10:30|9:30c. For more info on the show, go to www.FoodNetwork.com. For more on Curtis, check out his website www.CurtisStone.com, become a fan on Facebook, follow him on Instagram, and on Twitter @CurtisStone. If you're in the LA area, do yourself a solid and make a reservation at Maude.
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Ali Lerman knows much about comedy, basketball, and celebrating Wu-Tang Wednesday. She’s been writing for sixteen years and still calls her mom with grammatical questions.