Food! I say that with an exclamation point because it is not only something we all need to survive but a part of life which most of us enjoy. There are many food based shows whether they feature high end cooking or cakes or Nailed It! type competitions and Fresh, Fried and Crispy is an entry into an already healthily populated television/streaming genre. The host of this show is a man who is already known on YouTube for his food reviews. Daym had built up quite a following for his fast food reviews. A kind of everyman take and food type. In this series he brings with him his love of deep fried food but elevates it at the same time.
In season one there are eight episodes and the theme running though is fried food from different parts of the United States. Each episode he features a different city and with each city it brings forth the types of dishes it is known for. Whether it be seafood, different meats or veggies. The cities he travels to this season are St. Louis, Savannah, Las Vegas, Baltimore, San Diego, Denver, Birmingham, and Cleveland.
Each city he goes to three different restaurants (or even the restaurant owners’ homes at times) tries a couple of their dishes and then decides on the one he likes best. So there is a kind of competition going on here. Each dish he tries to, with words and even his facial expressions, describe what they are about as best he can since we are not eating them along with him.
There are ups and downs with the series. One of the pluses is the man himself. Daym is very likable. He has an easy going demeanour, likes to joke and definitely enjoys food. You get that all from him in mere minutes. Easy to watch a guy who is not putting on any airs and just being himself. Another plus is the food. Even though it is certainly meat/seafood heavy I definitely got hungry watching. All the food looks delicious. If not a little bit too much.
Downsides include that it is obviously that while Daym is a lover of food he is obviously not an expert, so there is not much that the watcher learns other than if they like the dish they see where they can go to get it themselves. But not much is learned about what goes into the making of each dish. I guess each restauranteur wants to protect their recipes, though.