‘Fast Foodies’ Recap: ‘Nikki Glaser’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains some spoilers for the season two premiere of ‘Fast Foodies’.
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We are taught from a very early age, to cherish big moments in our lives… simply because they will never come again and that is a lesson that quickly sticks with us. Because it is absolutely and utterly true, and it does not take long for us to learn that moments are fleeting and the ones, we can hang onto, really do stay with us throughout our travels in life, and while deep down we know we can never recreate them, we certainly try to invoke the emotions they generated the first time around. Which is why we often revisit something familiar about those moments and surprisingly… food is a wonderful way to do that. 

Because meals are often associated with important moments in our lives and that’s why the truTV series, Fast Foodies, is so incredibly special. For this is a series that knows exactly how to remind us of the power of food and how the right meal can unlock wonders in our minds and thankfully, this magical series is now back on the air for its second season, and it just so happens, that our intrepid chefs were tasked with one of their greatest challenges regarding the recreation of a memory. For this week’s guest, Nikki Glaser, put quite the twist on the table. For while she revealed that Chicken McNuggets and Fries from McDonald’s were a meal that brought forth warm and joyful memories for her, recreating them exactly here would be no simple task.

For Nikki no longer eats meat. So, to light up that part of her memory center, the chefs would have to create a powerhouse vegan version of this meal and thankfully, they were up to the task. Since each of them had unique ideas on which various meat substitutes and spices should recreate the magic of a classic McDonald’s meal and well, it turns out that some of these recipes managed to unlock the magic of the past. For Jeremy was able to properly create a vegetarian nugget that matched the wonder of the Chicken McNugget and Kristen was able to create the fries to a tee, giving Nikki that perfect recollection of those wonderful memories and once that trip down memory lane was complete… is when new ones were created.

For this is of course, a bit of a cooking competition show as well, and it was now up to the chefs to offer up their own unique take on Nuggos and Fries and this was just magical to watch. Because the sky was the limit for this part of the competition and each and every one of the chefs… outright created art. Because each and every one of these dishes just took Nugs and Fries to a whole new level. After all, who would have thought you could add touches of Southwestern to the dish and make them into a taco? Well, Justin sure did. But in the end, there can only be one winner of these mini-competitions and it turns out that Kristen was the champion of this challenge with her amazing risotto, and not only did she get an awesome trophy to celebrate this win… she got some vintage Chicken McNugget toys to go with it.

In the end, this was just an epic way to kick off season two of this wonderful series. Because having to take an American Fast-Food classic and vegan-ize it, is an incredible challenge for a chef and it is simply amazing that Jeremy and Justin and Kristen were able to rise to the occasion and create such unique nuggets and it was just as incredible to see them reinvent the dish in such stunning ways. But what matters most, is that this premiere once again reminded us of what food does for us and how it ties us to important memories and allows for us to re-live them to the best of our abilities, and it will be wonderful to see what other joyous moments from the past this series unlocks for both the guest and the audience as season two continues along. Until next time.

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