After 10 years on the back burner, a Loudonville man is hoping his testosterone-fueled food show will hit it big with the networks.
Christopher Wilk, 45, formerly of Kentucky, screened Guyfood, to members of the Fuller Road Fire Department Tuesday, Nov. 13. It’s the final step before he ships out what he has filmed at his Loudonville home and various destinations throughout the state to large television networks in hopes of it running as a series.
Firefighters gathered around the firehouse bar, feasting on `Guyfood’s` `flatulence-free` chili, watching what Wilk has put together so far.
After a night of `quick drills` for the fire company, the 30-minute pitch episode, with its off-color one-liners and scantily dressed `Guyfood Girls,` was a hit. So was the chili.
`It’s a cooking show for men to teach them how to cook. Something tells me we got something here,` said Wilk, over a bowl of his chili piled high with shredded cheese.
A year-and-a-half ago, the father of two sat down and scripted eight scenes for his cooking show and sent them out to a friend of the family. That friend happens to be a producer for the Food Network.
Wilk was told to get something together.
He called in barbecue big guns, area women, cameramen and rented production equipment and got to work over the summer. Most of the work was done on a volunteer basis, said Wilk.
`I think it is a fantastic idea. I really think the show will go far. He has a passion behind it as well,` said Carrie Barown, 28, and area physical education teacher and one of several Guyfood Girls appearing in the episode.
`There is nothing like this on the Food Network. It’s exciting to be included in something like this because it is a positive for this area.`
The production is the apex of a slow-growing culinary passion Wilk had been pursuing for years. It began with a spice rub recipe and grew into a cookbook. Once he pitches his show, he said, he plans to get back to finishing his cookbook, which mirrors the foods and content of the Guyfood show.
`It’s all things. The closest thing it would come to is a new basics cookbook for men only with things like chicks on bikes, hunting and guns,` said Wilk.
Just because it’s man food doesn’t mean it’s laced with dripping fat, he said. The recipes in the book and on the show are healthy for the most part, and they taste good. Hence the flatulence-free chili.
Wilk’s first episode is titled `New York Barbeque` and features grilling and smoking how to’s as well as Wilk’s homemade barbecue sauce recipe.“