2 city guys hunt for food on 'Hungry'
In a week when much of the country sits down to a sumptuous Thanksgiving feast, National Geographic Channel and chef Eric Greenspan show how some home-cooked meals get to the table in the first place.
In “Eric Greenspan Is Hungry,’’ premiering at 10 p.m. Monday, the Los Angeles-based restaurateur and his college pal, Captain Mauzner (aka Hollywood screenwriter Josh Klausner), venture out of the city and into the country to follow hunters and anglers as they pursue, harvest and cook their quarry. Along the way, they pick up recipes and techniques for butchering and preparing wild game.
“In many ways, it’s about the source,’’ Greenspan explains. “We take what would be a typical travel food show and go one layer deeper, to the hunt, to the farm, to the fishing and then to the table.’’
The action in Season 1 takes place in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas, with game such as turkey, buffalo, goat and crawfish on the agenda.
In Monday’s opener, the newbies join hunters to go after Arkansas wild hog. (Warning to sensitive viewers: The episode provided journalists shows a squealing swine being tracked down and surrounded by hunting dogs, followed by the sound of a gunshot. Greenspan is then shown butchering the carcass but the sight of blood is minimal.)
Another episode takes the guys to Texas to bowfish for long-nosed gar, a freshwater cousin of the barracuda.
“I’ve never had to hatchet skin off a fish before,’’ Greenspan says. “Bowfishing’s amazing. I did not hit anything. ... And not very good eating.
“You know what? We learned anything can taste good if the guy who’s cooking it loves it. Because we had this guy Gerard who loved gar so much, and when he cooked it for us it was amazing. Everybody else was kind of like, ‘Well, I’ll cook it for you but ...’ and it sucked. But when Gerard cooked it, it was amazing. He had a way.’’
The two city guys are clearly out of their element in the wild, which they make plain throughout. In the premiere, Greenspan has trouble keeping up with the dogs while Mauzner tries his hand at splitting wood with comical results. But both are respectful of their hosts’ ways and traditions and are fascinated by them.
Both men agree that while their Southern California upbringing may be vastly different from those of the people they met on the show, they managed to find much in common with them.
“I had such stereotypes of hunting,’’ Mauzner says. “Being a city guy my whole life between New York and L.A., never hunted, always had this stereotype of what a hunter was, what hunting is. And it’s really just an excuse to hang out with your buddies. So it’s a lot of fun, a lot of chilling, meeting the people. The experience of hunting was nothing like I imagined and it was really, really cool.’’
“At the end of the day,’’ Greenspan says, “what the show is really about ... is about people. And it’s about breaking down stereotypes — our stereotypes about them and their stereotypes about us.’’
