[audience cheering]
I'm in Richmond, Virginia,
Station 2 to climb the Ladder Burger Challenge.
Anything you would have done differently?
Maybe stayed home.
[Casey] If I could down this three and a half pound meat potato feast,
I get a free T and a dessert on the house.
Let's go, Casey!
[audience cheering]
Hey, ladder burger.
You can't tame this fire.
[Casey] For years, food's army has grown unchecked.
Oh, my God.
- [Casey] Bigger. - Wow.
[Casey] Spicier.
[Casey] Bolder. What is that?
[Casey] But a hero rises.
It's tremendous.
[Casey] Ready to taste the nation's most epic eats.
[Casey] I'm Casey Webb.
Yes.
[Casey] Holding the banner of man and armed with years of experience
in the restaurant industry.
[audience] Casey, Casey!
[Casey] I go into battle.
We have to stay.
[Casey] Food, your days are numbered.
It's going to be a wild ride.
[Casey] The mighty Casey has a taste for victory.
This is Man vs. Food.
My epicurean expedition brings me to Richmond,
Virginia, for a phenomenal pie.
Layers of latkes and a burger challenge that towers above the rest.
This will be Richmond, Richmond, Richmond.
[Casey] Richmond, the capital of Virginia
is among America's oldest major cities.
Over the centuries, the city has evolved into a diverse destination
for history, parks, gardens and globally inspired cuisine
for anyone seeking a rich experience.
This is Proper Pie Co., the new titans of the Richmond lunch scene.
Here, they've mastered the art of sweet and savory to create
a star studded roster of hand-held delights.
[Casey] Proper Pie Co., brings a little slice of New Zealand to Richmond,
Virginia, with their hearty hand-held savory pies and their colossal slices
of sweet pie satisfying anyone pining for something special.
This is a hearty pie. Right.
We get them together all the time
and take them to the park and eat them.
Is there anything left for the birds?
- No. - [laughter]
You got skinny birds here.
[laughter]
[Casey] From the Banoffee Pie with its layers of rich toffee,
sliced bananas and whipped cream to their ever changing
roster of savory pies with unique flavors like mango chicken curry.
Proper Pie Co., makes it properly difficult to choose.
So where do you start sweet or savory?
I typically go for the savory first.
I go dessert first, make sure that I fill up on what I love most.
[Casey] But the pie I'm here to try is the Pork Chile Verde.
It's filled with tender house roasted pork in a savory Chile Verde sauce
inside a fabulously flaky pie crust.
Who's the star of the show?
It's the filling?
- Is the crust? - I think it's both.
I was hoping you're gonna say me, but you didn't say me.
[Casey] I head to the kitchen to meet Neil the New Zealander
and learn the proper way to proper pie.
Hey, Neil.
Oh, hey. How you doing?
- Nice to see you. - Nice to see you.
- Yes. - I got to say it smells amazing in here.
Oh, thanks.
Our main stick is our New Zealand style savory pies.
[Neil] There are hand-held five inch pie, that you kind of eat them
like a sandwich.
[Casey] So what are we making today?
So we're going to be making savory Pork Chile Verde pie.
[Casey] Oh, my God.
Which is a bit of a fan favorite around here.
Start with some pork butt.
[Casey] We generously seasoned the pork with ground oregano,
minced garlic, cumin, diced onions and a little water.
[chuckling] I'm happy to meet you.
[Casey] We popped the pork in the oven to braise for three
to four hours at three 325 degrees.
And in the meantime, I'll learn the secrets behind their perfect puff
pastry pie crusts.
So what's the elaborate rolling and folding that allow it to rise?
Yeah, yeah.
No, there's no leavening.
[Casey] Lesson number one in puff pastry butter.
Neil and I grate six pounds of butter and mix it with flour
to keep it from clumping together.
Oh, my God. Oh, it's coming.
I feel like Lucille Ball.
[Casey] We add the grated butter to the orbital mixer
with more flour, water and a tad of lemon juice.
It looks like Quasimodo's face, doesn't it?
I'm not an animal.
[Casey] We roll out the dough and then give some butter
a quick massage.
It's me and Neil playing handsies in the butter thing.
[Casey] We then evenly slather the softened butter
onto one side of a pastry sheet.
All right.
You like that?
So looking at this, how many pies did we make?
Out of here a couple of hundred tops out of this.
[Casey] After a little time in the blast cooler, Neil passes the dough
through a sheeter and rolls and folds again and again until as many
as 1,000 layers are created in the dough.
The pastry sheets go back into the blast cooler before
we can fill the pie tin, but our piping hot pork is ready
to come out of the oven.
So so good.
[Casey] We strain and drain the braised pork and save the pan drippings
for proper pies housemaids Salsa Verde.
[Neil] Just regular green chilies, cilantro, onions, garlic.
[laughs]
It just goes on forever.
[Casey] We mix in a mouth-watering Salsa Verde.
And now it's time for some proper size personal pies.
In goes a Pork Verde and cheddar cheese.
Then we seal them with a pinch and a push.
Something like that.
I've seen worse on a first guy.
- That's not too bad. - [Casey] Oh, good.
[Casey] These pies cook at 325 degrees for 30 minutes.
My countdown to handheld heaven has begun.
Oh, look at these?
All right.
That's how we serve the pies here.
No plates.
So just dig in.
The crust is so flaky the Verde is just juicy,
and as it melts in your mouth.
It's buttery, it's flaky, it's delicious.
It's a bursting little pocket of love right now.
Thanks.
I'm pining for these pies, but a three-tier burger tower looms large.
This is more food than I could eat in like three days at least.
Station 2, see you ladder.
[music]
[Casey] I'm in Richmond, Virginia, where I'll soon suit up
and try to climb the three and a half pound ladder burger challenge.
But first, I'm taking a tasty trip through traditional Richmond.
I'm at Perly's, Richmond's one stop shop
for everything Jewish and delicious.
For 60 years, they've been spinning classic deli favorites
into out of this world comfort food creations.
You gotta see to believe.
[Casey] Perly's opened in 1961, as one of Richmond's
very first delicatessens.
When owner and Chef, Kevin Roberts took over with the help of his wife
Rochelle and her Jewish roots and recipes, they transformed it
into a one of a kind deli blending classic Jewish flavors
with traditional deli fare.
Is there anything else like Perly's here in Richmond?
I don't think so.
I feel like Perly's puts their own spin on things in a way
that is really kind of unique.
[Casey] Perly's take on a classic Richmond sandwich is the Jewish Sailor,
served open face on Jewish Rye with Hot Pastrami, Smoked Beef Sausage
and a smear of chopped chicken liver.
This sandwich is insane.
This is the best Pastrami I think I've had in my life.
I'm just in heaven every bite.
Another fan favorite is this Cinnamon Babka French Toast,
topped with maple syrup, stewed apples, golden raisins and pecans.
So Babka by itself is delicious.
They're making French toast...
I don't think you can go wrong.
[Casey] That dish I have to try is the Benny Goodman.
Two Latkes top with latkes, poached eggs, dill hollandaise
and salmon roe, according to the locals, "it's the stuff of dreams".
Dreams come true.
Dreams do come true.
Just you got to wake up and go to Perly's, right?
Mmm-hmm.
I head to the kitchen to meet Kevin and make some
of those lovely Latkes.
Kevin!
- Hey, how's it going? - It's going great.
- Uh... Man, this place is amazing. - Thank you.
I really feel like I've gone back in time.
It has that like delicatessen kind of New York style,
- Jewish deli feel? - Right.
And that's kind of what you were going for for that authenticity?
That's exactly. Exactly what I was going for.
So more excitingly, what are we making?
So we're going to make the Benny Goodman.
And that's our version of the Eggs Benedict instead of the English muffin.
We're going to sub out latke potato latkes.
[Casey] I was hoping you're going to say that.
[Casey] Kevin pulls out some pre-peeled russet potatoes and we get to work.
All right. I'm gonna grate.
All right, gotta hurry up the process.
[Casey] Once we finish grating the potatoes, we soak them in water
to help draw out the starch.
We'll harvest the potato starch that settles to the bottom,
and that'll help work as a glue to keep the latke together.
[Casey] We strain the spuds, then come white and green onions
and our preserved potato juice starch.
Look at the bottom.
The starch is gathering as Kevin mentioned.
Look at that?
[Casey] Kevin adds eggs and salt, then a Jewish staple.
So this is Matzo Meal and Matzo Meal was a result of taking
traditional Jewish unleavened bread, which is Matzo.
And it's a common binder in Jewish cuisine.
[Casey] Then I get to mix it by hand.
- You know by feel? - Yes.
So what should I be feeling?
Not emotionally necessarily?
You want it to feel like it's just binding.
It's okay for us to fall apart, but not our lives.
Yes.
[Casey] We let the mash sit for 15 minutes, then press palm-sized patties,
then throw them into the deep fryer.
[Kevin] All right, so our latkes are looking nice and brown.
We're going to pull them out of the oil, let it drain.
Whoa.
You hear the sizzle.
It's like a seashell made of potatoes.
[Casey] So is it time to build our Benny?
[Kevin] It is time to build our Benny.
We're going to start with our chive sour cream.
This is going to glue the latkes to the plate.
[Casey] We add a spring mix on the side.
Smoked salmon, poached eggs and no Benny would be complete
without hollandaise.
[Kevin] That's a thing of beauty.
[Casey] And finally, we top it all off with some salmon roe.
Eggs on eggs on eggs.
[Kevin] And then that's our finished product.
- [Casey] Benny Goodman. - [Kevin] Benny Goodman.
It's almost so pretty Kevin, I don't want to dig into it, but I'm going to anyway.
This is a big one, Kevin.
[Kevin] You can do it.
[blowing kiss]
[Casey] The latke is so crunchy, but so creamy in the middle.
The hollandaise steals the show.
Lemon dill notes coming through.
This is all the Jewish flavors I love in one big bite.
- Knocked it out of the park. - Thank you!
I've had a lot of latkes, but a meaty mountain lies ahead.
Climb that ladder!
Ladder challenge rang the alarms because I'm coming for you.
I'm at Station 2 in Richmond to take
on the Ladder Burger Challenge.
If I finish a burger tower with fries, chips and tops totaling three
and a half pounds in just 15 minutes,
I get a shirt and a free dessert.
Ladder burger, I only have fries for you.
[music]
[Casey] Located in Richmond, second city owned firehouse built in 1899 Station 2
dishes out American comfort food with gourmet burgers big enough
to feed a hungry firefighter.
You got every animal on the farm over there.
- Yeah. - It's called that the old McDonald's special.
[Casey] See that they're even bigger when you pick them up.
You want to hold it and feel how heavy it is.
It looks like, you know, honestly, it looks like a little you
hold a little baby.
So three and a half pounds of burger and fries and tots and chips,
is that something that you would ever do?
No, not me personally.
No, no, no, no. Not me.
Have you guys run into burning buildings, literally?
But three and a half pounds...
- You gotta know your limits. - Yeah, right.
The thing is it's only 15 minutes.
So you were, were you still eating at 15?
- Yeah. - [Casey] Oh!
I was I was nibbling at that point just.
Anything you would have done differently?
Maybe stayed home.
[Casey] Sitting this one out isn't an option.
So I run right into the fiery kitchen to meet Daquan and find out
how to make this firehouse favorite.
Hey, Quan. How are you doing?
I'm doing good, man. Thank you for having me.
Yes, sir. Thank you for coming.
Yeah.
How many ladder burger challenges have you made?
- Uh-huh... - [Casey] A lot?
- A lot. - [Casey] A lot.
What's the actual percentage of people winning?
Is it low or is it...?
Very low. Very low.
I say one in 10.
[Casey] So what do we start with first?
We must start with the garlic aioli.
All right. Let's make some aioli.
You bunch of aioli's.
[Casey] These glorious garlic cloves have been soaking in oil overnight
before we roast them in the oven for 30 minutes.
You know, your roasted garlic is ready when you can easily
pierce it with your knife.
[Casey] We puree the garlic and whip it with mayo,
cream and black pepper.
I'm going to try it if that's all right.
It's great.
[Daquan] Thank you.
[Casey] We gather the piles of potatoes I have to eat
and drop them in the fryer later one-by-one.
When we pull those out it's important that we want to seize them
right away because there's still residual oil once we shake them out.
So our seasoning will adhere to the actual chip tater totter fry.
[Casey] We fire up the charred grill and throw on three huge
seven ounce burger patties.
[Casey] It's 21 ounces of beef?
Yep.
21 ounces of beef, you hear that?
It's a lot of beef.
[Casey] We melt the cheese on the patties and build
the ladder step-by-step.
Bun, mozzarella patty, crispy chips, bun, pepper jack patty,
onion straws, bun, cheddar patty, bacon and finally,
the aioli's smothered top bun.
But what makes this a five alarm challenge
are the three types of potato size.
There's not enough room Quan.
I gotta make more room.
I'm gonna be thinking about that one.
I'm trying to eat this.
You gotta make more room.
Oh!
I don't know where the potatoes begin and the burger ends?
[audience cheering]
[applause and cheering]
These guys are obviously ready, so let's quickly go over the rules.
You have 15 minutes to eat everything on that plate.
When you finish we've got a Station 2 shirt with your name on it
and your choice of dessert...
- [Casey] Yeah. - Just to make the rest of your evening cool.
Three... Two... One.
Go!
[applause and cheering]
[Casey] This garlic aioli perfectly pairs with these beefy burgers,
so far this ladder is a joy to climb.
[applause and cheering]
[Casey] Every second is crucial in this challenge.
Fortunately, it's so delicious that my bites keep getting
bigger and the crowd has me feeling like I got this.
[audience cheering]
- Five minutes down, 10 to go. - Oh, no.
You are doing great, man.
You got it right.
He's got it right.
Yeah?
[Casey] But as I keep climbing, I'm losing a bit of steam.
And in order to reach the top, I'll have to climb the carb filled potato peak.
The hardest part is probably trying to get down
to all those potatoes.
You got fries, you got chips, you got tater tots.
Don't remind me.
[audience laughing]
There's tons left quite frankly.
Quite frankly.
[audience laughing]
[Casey] Sound the alarm because this is definitely an edible emergency.
[Casey] I'm in Richmond, Virginia, scaling
the Station 2 Ladder Challenge.
I have just 15 minutes to topple three and a half pounds of burgers,
fries, tarts and chips.
He's doing great.
He's almost got the burger done.
He's almost halfway through.
He's got this.
[Casey] After a fast start, I'm feeling great.
Casey! Casey! Casey!
[Casey] And with nine minutes left, I'm over halfway done.
Halfway! Halfway! Halfway!
[Casey] But the potato trio is feeling formidable.
Whoa!
A lot of potatoes, a lot of chips, I don't know if he can get through it.
Casey, five minutes left.
You're basically through.
How are you feeling?
I feel like you're lying to me.
[Casey] My climb has slowed to a crawl and I can feel all these carbs
catching up with me.
[audience cheering and applauding]
[Casey] With just four minutes left, it's looking like potato peak
is just too steep to climb.
Unless I can find something inside me, some part of me
that just won't quit, no matter what.
He just needs to find his inner firefighter and extinguish that burger!
[audience cheering and applauding]
[Casey] That's right, my inner firefighter.
Let's go, Casey!
[audience cheering]
[Casey] Always ready to answer the call.
Never say never, fight till the end.
[audience cheering]
I've got two and a half minutes to take this challenge down.
[audience cheering]
Casey, one minute left.
You keep pushing, we're supporting you, all right?
[audience cheering]
Casey! Casey! Casey!
[Casey] These fans are pushing me to give it all I've got.
I just don't have the time for this climb.
Three... Two... One...
[audience cheering and applauding]
Casey, great effort.
This is a ton of food and very few people climb the ladder.
Unfortunately, in the battle of Man vs Food?
Food won.
[audience sad]
But I still love you Richmond.
Whoa!
[audience cheering and applauding]