Not your typical first day on the job for S. Philly native

Harvesting caviar in the swamps of Louisiana is just another day on the job for South Philly’s Adam Gertler. In fact, it’s just one of many jobs.

“People are going to be shocked that some of these jobs exist,” he said.

It’s Gertler’s mission in his new Food Network show, Will Work for Food, to showcase overlooked jobs of the food industry. On the show, which premiered last night, Gertler combines comedy with his passion for food to give an accurate depiction of what these jobs entail.

“People can expect to see me do every kind of job in the food world imaginable, from working on a lobster boat to milking goats to make cheese,” Gertler said. “I have that first day [on the job] repeated and repeated and repeated.”

Gertler, 31, said food was always more of a hobby than a career goal. He grew up on Long Island and went to Syracuse University, majoring in theater. After graduation, he moved west to Los Angeles to give showbiz a try.

“I didn’t really choose food as a career,” Gertler said. “It was my passion, my hobby. I always thought I was going into performing arts. But I made more of a living doing cooking than my job as a performer.”

In 2004, an opportunity arose for Gertler and his brother to open a restaurant in Philadelphia. The Smoked Joint, located at the Academy House near 15th and Locust streets, quickly became a popular destination.

Gertler moved back east to South Philadelphia and served as the executive chef at the Center City restaurant, which served as his “grad school,” he said.

Craig LaBan, restaurant critic at the Philadelphia Inquirer, had few negative things to say about the cuisine in 2005.

“Good barbecue is all the draw an establishment like the Smoked Joint really needs, and it delivers,” LaBan wrote in his review. “Considering the recipes here were conjured by a bunch of childhood friends from Long Island, where, as Adam Gertler says, ‘the only rib places we knew were Chinese restaurants,’ it is not surprising that the food mixes and matches barbecue traditions rather than sticking to any specific regional style.”

The Smoked Joint closed in 2006, however, and Gertler put his food career on hold. It wasn’t until another opportunity arose that he pulled out his barbecue spice rubs again.

Gertler was one of 10 finalists on the fourth season of The Next Food Network Star, a reality competition where contestants vie for their own cooking show.

“It was just very exciting, an enormous amount of fun,” Gertler said. “I’m more comfortable performing than not. In a show like that, you’re asked to be on all the time.”

His cooking chops and personality propelled Gertler to the final three. His demo, called Hungry in Philadelphia, was an interactive show where viewers submitted questions to Gertler while he prepared meals. Ultimately, though, he lost to Camden native Aaron McCargo, Jr.

Gertler returned to Philadelphia after the show and waited tables at Amada in Old City. Shortly after the finale of TNFNS aired, Bob Tuschman, the network’s senior vice president of programming and production, called Gertler to offer him Will Work for Food.

“It was very exciting to hear from them. Imagine your life’s dream coming true in front of your face,” Gertler said. “My expectations were pretty much gone. To be offered Will Work for Food, I wouldn’t have imagined it in a million years.”

Tuschman, who also served as a judge on TNFNS, said the network had been discussing the concept of WWFF internally, and Adam’s “quick humor, guy-next-door quality and willingness to try anything made him the ideal host.”

“We were lucky to find several great new talent during season four [of TNFNS],” Tuschman said. “We wanted to do a ‘food jobs’ show for some time, but we couldn’t move forward until we found the perfect host, which was Adam.”

Now, Gertler travels across the country, exposing the food jobs typically overlooked by consumers. On the show, he has collected truffles in Oregon, created ice sculptures using a chainsaw and harvested caviar from Louisiana swamps.

“I will have varying degrees of success with these jobs,” Gertler said. “It’s the kind of thing where you’re not trying to goof off for the audience in any way, but a lot of humor and fun comes out of the fact that I’m dealing with masters and trying to tackle that job in a day.”

The only difference, though, is that the cameras are always rolling.

“When I make an ass of myself,” Gertler said, “it’s for the whole world to see.”

For Gertler, it’s just another day on the job.

Chris Stover can be reached at stover@temple.edu.

‘Big Daddy’ on TV

“If you see me eating foie gras, that’s not Big Daddy,” said Aaron McCargo, Jr., the newest star on Food Network. “That’s a double.”

“Big Daddy” is the alias of McCargo, a Camden, N.J., native who won season four of The Next Food Network Star. McCargo beat nine other contestants to earn a six-episode series on the show’s namesake network.

That series, Big Daddy’s House, premiered in August and resonated with viewers. Its second season premiere is slated for January.

“I’m able to cook and teach people and enjoy it,” McCargo said. “It’s a big party.”

McCargo, 38, first got the cooking bug at the age of four through his mother’s Betty Crocker cookbooks. His parents encouraged him to experiment in the kitchen.

“I always had a big appetite for life and for food, but every time I looked at the table, it never seemed there was enough for me,” McCargo said, laughing.

His parents recognized McCargo’s interests and talents and encouraged him to follow through with them.
“When I was seven, my dad told me I’d become a chef,” McCargo said. “I never knew what it was to become one until I did.”

After studying for a year at the Academy of Culinary Arts at Atlantic Cape Community College, McCargo worked at many restaurants in a variety of positions, from sous chef to executive chef of his own restaurant in Camden.

Most recently, he was the executive chef of catering at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. While working there, his wife pushed him to apply for The Next Food Network Star, and McCargo was chosen as one of the 10 finalists.

“I had a great job at Jefferson doing something I love to do,” he said. “But this is what dreams are made of, and you have to go for it.”

McCargo said he continues to keep in touch with the other contestants on the show, but would he do it again?

“No,” he said. “It was work. A lot of work.”

A panel of three judges, consisting of two network executives and celebrity chef Bobby Flay, chose McCargo to carry his own show.

“Aaron adds a burst of oversized personality to Food Network,” said Bob Tuschman, senior vice president of programming and production for Food Network. “His passion for big, bold flavors takes center stage in all his down-home food that our viewers crave.”

The six-episode run of Big Daddy’s House garnered more than 4.9 million viewers. Tuschman said the premiere was one of the highest-rated debuts for a cooking series the network has seen.

“Big Daddy got a big welcome from our viewers,” Tuschman said. “Viewers tell us that Aaron just makes cooking fun and approachable. He’s funny, he’s passionate, and his recipes are easy to recreate at home.”

It’s no secret that McCargo regards his family highly. His children – sons Joshua, 15, and Justin, 4, and daughter Jordan, who will be 2 next month – are frequently featured on his show.

“The boys are loving it,” McCargo said. “I don’t think it’ll be too long till they have their own show.”
Tuschman credits McCargo’s combination of expertise, pedagogy and “high-octane personality” as the reason for his success on Food Network.

“He had a warmth, generosity and likeability that endeared him to the judges, the viewers and even the other finalists,” Tuschman said. “In the end, that is in fact why his co-finalists gave him the nickname ‘Big Daddy.’”

McCargo’s is not a typical Camden success story. He found his achievements in a city once pegged as America’s most dangerous.

“I always tell people the three keys to success – a good prayer life, believing in God and myself,” McCargo said. “It’s having the great support from my church family and my immediate family and having a passion for what I love to do. And that’s cooking.”

He admits he’s not perfect – “I’ve been burning a lot of things in my life, and Big Daddy’s gonna keep burning things on the show,” he joked – but McCargo does give viewers a taste of his food and his life in every episode.

“This is how I do it,” McCargo said. “I’m the real deal, not frontin’. I’m just doing me.”

Chris Stover can be reached at stover@temple.edu.