{"id":27047,"date":"2014-09-28T09:32:11","date_gmt":"2014-09-28T01:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=27047"},"modified":"2014-09-27T20:33:23","modified_gmt":"2014-09-27T12:33:23","slug":"epic-meal-empire-youtube-stars-serve-up-gut-busting-fare-on-new-tv-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/09\/28\/epic-meal-empire-youtube-stars-serve-up-gut-busting-fare-on-new-tv-series\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Epic Meal Empire\u2019: YouTube stars serve up gut busting fare on new TV series"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"epic_meal_time_by_plpo-d52v182\"<\/a><\/p>\n

TORONTO\u2014The four guys behind \u201cEpic Meal Empire\u201d have devoured cheeseburger-stuffed lasagna, pizza cupcakes and Tex-mex sushi. So what\u2019s the grossest thing they\u2019ve ever eaten?<\/p>\n

\u201cDried apricots and dried papayas,\u201d says founder Harley Morenstein with disgust.<\/p>\n

The Montreal-based kitchen crew genuinely loves calorie-laden comfort food. And after racking up 600 million YouTube views for their \u201cEpic Meal Time\u201d videos, they\u2019re bringing their passion for gut-busting concoctions to the small screen.<\/p>\n

In \u201cEpic Meal Empire,\u201d airing Mondays on FYI, the gang moves to Los Angeles and cooks up artery-clogging fare for \u201cextreme-food clients\u201d\u2014i.e. anyone with an excuse to consume meals that should probably only be eaten once in a lifetime.<\/p>\n

The crew, led by \u201cSauce Boss\u201d Morenstein and his friends Josh Elkin, Ameer Atari and Dave Heuff, sees moving from YouTube to TV as a natural progression.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t mind saying that I like \u2018Epic Meal Empire\u2019 better than \u2018Epic Meal Time,\u201d\u2018 declared Morenstein, 29, in an interview.<\/p>\n

Back in 2010, he was a substitute high school teacher in his hometown of Montreal when he began experimenting in video production. \u201cEpic Meal Time\u201d was born when he and his friends created an elaborate \u201ccheat meal\u201d\u2014ironically, amid efforts to promote health and fitness.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the first episode, I substituted the following week. The show had gotten a lot of traction,\u201d he recalled. \u201cThe kids were like, \u2018Oh sir, I saw you drinking on the Internet!\u2019 … I kind of lost the children that day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two weeks later, the number of online views were so staggering that Morenstein quit his teaching job. After hundreds of episodes, two cookbooks and six million YouTube subscribers, the crew turned their attention to TV.<\/p>\n

Morenstein said several networks were interested, but in the end they chose \u201ccontemporary lifestyle\u201d channel FYI, a recent rebrand of Shaw Media\u2019s Twist and A&E\u2019s Biography.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey let us do what we want, which is the best part of being on FYI,\u201d he said. \u201cThey were the ones that really put the trust in us. They picked up 16 episodes right off the bat. That was enough for us to want to commit to that network.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, the show is exactly what we want. It\u2019s something we\u2019re proud of. It\u2019s hilarious. I think it\u2019s an awesome show.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the first episode, a second-grade teacher invites the guys to make her students a \u201cfantasy meal,\u201d a break from eating boring old healthy food. They build a \u201cTaterbot,\u201d a giant robot made of Tater Tots, licorice and grilled cheese.<\/p>\n

Other wild concoctions in the show: a Cinnabon battleship with a cream cheese frosting churro cannon, an eight-foot chicken (made of chicken tenders and 100 eggs) on roller skates and an edible car they also claim is \u201cdriveable.\u201d<\/p>\n

A bigger budget allows the guys to be more imaginative with their meals, but network television has its drawbacks. The Jack Daniel\u2019s-guzzling foursome can\u2019t drink on camera, which they flout in the premiere by taking a shot off screen.<\/p>\n

And to balance out the heavy dose of testosterone, Natalie Forte of the Cooking Channel\u2019s \u201cAmerica\u2019s Best Bites\u201d has joined the crew as their \u201cliaison\u201d to clients.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the network was concerned when we first started the show that we\u2019d be a little too gross for TV\u2014just disgusting men,\u201d said Heuff. \u201cSo she brings a little bit of beauty and elegance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The guys, who all met in Montreal, say they\u2019ve been given a surprisingly warm welcome in Los Angeles, the land of kale and juice fasts. They still tend to eat bacon and Big Macs on their days off, although Elkin exercises regularly and Morenstein will occasionally \u201cblast the biceps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their rise to fame has been unusual, to say the least. Heuff joked that his parents \u201cteeter on the edge of disappointment most of the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut my dad turned to me and said one day that there\u2019s no other chance of me ever being famous or being popular. So I should probably pursue this career.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TORONTO\u2014The four guys behind \u201cEpic Meal Empire\u201d have devoured cheeseburger-stuffed lasagna, pizza cupcakes and Tex-mex sushi. So what\u2019s the grossest …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":27048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-food","mauthors-laura-kane","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}