Heat Seekers

[mojoeater]

I am sure others have seen it, yet see no posts. So here goes:

Why, oh why would they have Aaron Sanchez run around the country eating hot food? Just because he is a Latin chef? Didn't he prove time and time again in Chef vs City that he can't handle spicy foods? He would be sitting there practically crying while his partner, Chris, would be wolfing down whatever they had been challenged to eat! So now there's an entire show dedicated to watching his eyes well up with tears as he and his friend talk smack to each other. Sigh.

[hueyishere]

Just watched "Heat Seekers" in Santa Fe, these guys should be eating twinkees instead, they pretent to eat and like comida enchilosa but they can't handle the heat, they barely taste the food, especially Aaron.

[LurkerDan]

The problem with this show isn't really the hosts. It's the concept. They eat hot food. And sweat. And say "ooh this is hot". Then they go somewhere else and do it again. How can this show possibly sustain itself?

[dolly52]

because some people really enjoy eating spicy food.

[chris2269]

Agreed if it was more about the place, the Chef, the making of said food. It's not.
As someone who loves spicy (as long as it has flavor as well) this show has no appeal.

[LurkerDan]

You missed my point. chris2269 gets my point. This show isn't about spicy food, it's about 2 guys eating spicy food. Which doesn't seem like a sustainable idea, it seems more like the idea for an episode, not a series.

[paulj]

What they showed on Cooking Channel was, I think, a one episode pilot. They visited spots in various cities. Evidently someone liked it enough to expand it into the current set.

[dolly52]

I thinkhe talks so much because he sure is not eating much of the hot stuff, he makes a big fuzz but I notice that his plate is almost full. One bite and that is it. This guy cannot eat heat, nothing against that, but he is not a good choice for this program.

[gingershelley]

I thought this show had it's moments, but seriuosly - by the time it was over - NOT SO MUCH... If in the first episode, 'the heat seekers' FAIL at the wing challenge, then where do they go from there? Nowhere but down, er, up?
Also, I am a Seattleite, and both the asian resto, and the diner they went to are at best, second or third rate places... Wingdome is just a chain and more known locally as a place for beer and watching the game, not so much that they have the best wings (tho that 7- alarm challenge is well known here). where did the producers come up with these locations and dishes?
I love Aaron, but this is not a well done show....

[jgg13]

I liked the idea of the show but it was yet another bomb, up there with meat & potatoes and the over the top food show hosted by one of the NFNS rejects in terms of unwatchability. As others have mentioned, the show was 80% the two hosts bro-ing it up. I thought the choice of having a latino and a black guy as the two hosts seemed dubiously stereotypical. I disliked how Sanchez was over the top with his spanish accent on everything - I've seen him talk with more of an american accent, I know he can do it. "Thai chee-lay" just sounds weird :)

Nothing about that show made me want to go to the places they went to, nor do I even remember what they were.

[DavidPalmer]

+1

[paulj]

The stereotyping may be more at your end than at theirs. I don't really think of Mooking as 'a black guy', but I was introduced to him via Every Day Exotic, his Canadian FN cooking show, that has been on Cooking Channel for the past year. On that show he focuses on spices, but I don't recall anything particularly hot.
http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/roger-mooking/bio/index.html
http://rogermooking.com/home/

The Heat Seekers pilot was on CC earlier this year (March?) Who's the producer for this show - I haven't paid enough attention to the closing credits, and IMDB only lists the names of the 2 hosts.

[jgg13]

I actually wasn't sure if he was actually black, particularly since Sanchez called him "Rog", which sounded like "Raj". Granted, he didn't look Indian either. I assumed he was caribbean in background and thus the heat seeker stereotype.

[paulj]

From the Wiki bio: (born in Trinidad and moved to Canada at 5 yrs. old)

While some FN shows clearly are the brainchild of some production team, and the host a mere hireling, I suspects these 2 hosts have been in on the planning from the start. But I haven't seen any inside scoop.

[DiningDiva]

I agree with you on almost everything. I really, seriously, do not like this show. Showing 2 grown men oohing and aahing over spicy preparations and them showing them with is smeared all over their faces is pretty much a turn off for me. I like hot food and I like spicy food, didn't find the show about hot and spicy all that engaging.

The one thing I do disagree with you about is the "chee-lay" thing. I would actually like to see him use his Spanish more and chee-lay really is the pronunciation of chile in Spanish. I do travel a lot in Mexico and am used to hearing it pronounced this way, so it wasn't odd to me, but I do understand how it probably did sound weird to those that don't hear pronounced that way.

Frankly, I'd really rather see Aaron doing a show about contemporary Mexican cuisine than trying to choke down a bunch of incindiary products.

[jgg13]

To me it sounded like he was being over the top with the pronunciations, granted everything that show was over the top.

[DiningDiva]

:-) too true

[paulj]

Heat Seekers is produced by Highnoon Entertainment which has shows all over cable, not just FN
http://www.highnoonentertainment.com/shows.php

http://eatmoreheat.com/2011/07/heat-s...
is a review of the show from a professional - in the hot food industry

[paulj]

Why the focus on the hosts? Why no mention of the food itself?

[chris2269]

Most of the show was shots of Sanchez sweating and makiing "this is way to hot" faces which is just ironic. The shows focus was not on the location ...history...chef.. whatever. I could not name one place after watching unlike a show like DDD or Man V.S. Food.

Sanchez comes off as a nice guy nothing against him. I only know him from Chopped but every thing out of his mouth on that show is "If your going to use a chile I want to taste it" Then he tastes it and is a little baby.

[inaplasticcup]

Yeah. There's a lot of macho posturing and really not much focus on the food except that it's hot and that it's invariably going to make Sanchez suffer...

[mojoeater]

Ok. It is on right now. I switched to it and Aaron is licking the outside of a glass of milk. He just said his lips and mouth are numb. He has food smeared around his mouth. Now he's eating an ice cream sandwich without his hands. It is just gross and stupid. They did not mention the flavor of the food at all.

[inaplasticcup]

That's about how I remember it. :)

[hueyishere]

The way he carries on you would think he really is into spicy food, poor guy.

[inaplasticcup]

I'm with you. Sanchez's hammy, overwrought and seemingly manufactured un-PC smacktalking gets old fast. His partner seems not to try so hard and is, for me, much easier to watch.

[ipsedixit]

Sanchez and his partner, Roger Mooking, are a bad pairing. Sanchez is too tall for Mooking (or, depending on your perspective, Mooking is too short for Sanchez)

[chris2269]

Which is totaly funny because on Chopped he always complains about lack of spice or heat.