Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with Raid the Fridge’s Dan Ahdoot

Dan Ahdoot is a multifaceted creative who has made a name for himself across mediums. He’s an actor, author, host, podcaster, producer, standup comedian, and writer whose list of credits include Cobra Kai, Shameless, and Workaholics. He’s also developed programming for major networks like Fox, CBS, NBC, and Freeform. If that wasn’t impressive enough, his podcast Green Eggs and Dan became the number one food podcast in America.

This January, he can be seen hosting the must-see food competition series, Raid the Fridge.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to chat with Dan about this exciting new venture and his upcoming book with Crown Publishing.

PC: How did you discover your passion for the arts and comedy?
Dan: I feel like I’ve always been a class clown. Growing up and going to high school, I was a good student. I got all A’s, but I got all U’s for my behavior in class, like unsatisfactories. Much to my luck, my high school had an improv program. This was twenty-five years ago—no one was doing improv. This was before Whose Line Is it Anyway? and all that stuff.

It was really cool that I fell in love with this art form and comedy. I used to lie to my parents and say that I was going to my friend’s house. I would get on the train, go to the city, go to comedy clubs with my fake ID, and watch standup. I would watch Dave Attell with my buddy—we were obsessed with him.

When I went to college, I got into improv and loved it. I started doing standup in Baltimore, where I went to school. I was in love with it from the beginning. I didn’t feel that way about medicine, which is what I was studying—I liked it, but I couldn’t get comedy out of my head. I still can’t.

So, I took time off before going to med school. I moved to New York. I started doing standup. I never saw a plan B. I never saw another option. That’s how I got into it.

PC: Who or what has had the biggest influence on your career?
Dan: I’m a huge, huge fan of mentors. It’s probably the most important thing in any career. I’ve had a lot of subpar jobs, acting-wise. I was on a Disney show, and I played a character named Falafel Phil. It was a really hacky thing ten years ago. It was kind of acceptable, but it’s something that would never happen now. It was definitely a blow to my pride while I was doing it. I’m always a fan of trying to make lemonade out of lemons, though. I became friends with the writers and producers—we’re buds.

Dave Bickel was one of the writers on that show. He was one of the original writers on Kings of Queens. He and I became friends, and he basically helped teach me how to sell TV shows and pitches. Marcus Wiley is another one. He used to be the Head of Comedy at Fox, and I met him at the Montreal Comedy Festival. I kept in contact with him—we became buds. I sold my first TV show with him. Right now, I’m developing a show with another friend of mine that I met on another show that didn’t go, but he was a writer on it. His name is Andy Gordon. He writes for a lot of Chuck Lorre projects. He and I are developing a show together.

So, I feel like you need people to show you the way in this career because there’s no school for it; there are no classes. It’s like you literally have to know people who have gone through it and can share their wisdom with you. I’m a huge fan of keeping up with those contacts, sending gifts to everyone, being a good person on projects, and being someone that people want to work with, because they’ll teach you.

PC: You’ve had a lot of success throughout your career across mediums. When you look back, is there a moment that stands out to you?
Dan: I’ve got to say this past year has been the most shocking because I got a book deal. I’ve never wanted to be an author. I never ever thought I could be an author or write in that medium. It came out of nowhere. It was insane. How it happened was crazy, too.

I was on a podcast, and I was talking about hunting. I’m not the hunting type, but I do hunt. It was a food hunting podcast. My manager listened to it, and she was like, “This is really cool. You could write a movie about it.” I tried to outline a movie, but it didn’t work. She was like, “Why don’t you start free writing about your relationship with food. Why are you so obsessed with food?”

I started writing. I wrote a story about my childhood. She was like, “This could be a chapter in a book if you got a couple more in you.” I was like, “Yeah, I can come up with a couple more.” Out of nowhere, we wrote these three essays. There’s a book agent at my agency, whom I’ve never worked with. I never thought I would ever be working with them. She liked the essays, so she pitched them to these publishing houses, and there was a bidding war. We sold this book, and suddenly, I was like, “I have to write this fu*king book.”

It was this really insane experience, where the next eight months of my life looked like nothing I could have ever imagined. I was sitting at home for hours. It’s not fun to write a book either, by the way. I’m not saying this was a joyous thing for my career; it was probably the most torturous, heavy thing that I’ve ever had to do. I just turned it in last week, so I can speak about it fondly now, in retrospect. But that was such a shocking, weird thing that I did not have on my vision board going back twenty years.

PC: You’ve also got a new series out now, Raid the Fridge, and it’s inspired by your podcast, Green Eggs and Dan. What has it been like for you transitioning and adapting that initial concept for the Food Network?
Dan: It’s been pretty awesome and very natural. I’m a huge food nerd; I’ve always been obsessed with food. I’ve always been obsessed with Food Network, too, even as a kid. Growing up, I was so into that network. It still carries such a huge cache for me. It’s always been this dream in the back of my head—I wanted to get a show on the Food Network. I’ve tried many times and it didn’t work out. So, I decided to create this food podcast called Green Eggs and Dan. It’s a comedic food podcast, which no one really had ever done before.

When I went to try and sell it, I got a lot of noes from every single podcast network; they said they didn’t see a market for this. Then, a small network called The Podglomerate took a chance on it. Within four months, we became the number one food podcast in America. The Food Network took note. They were like, “We have this project about fridges. You do a podcast about fridges. Let’s combine forces.”

When I try to mold something into what I know the industry is looking for, it never works. When I look into “What does Netflix want? They want this type of show? I can do a workplace comedy,” it never works. But if I’m following the passion and following something that I can’t get the idea of out of my head because I love it so much, even though I know that the marketplace isn’t calling for it, and I just do it, that works 90% of the time. Trying to find something that the market wants never works for me.

That’s been a running theme in my career: believing in my instincts versus what the marketplace is calling for, because the marketplace is so fickle, right? Right now, Succession is doing really well. Every network is like, “We want a show that has a lot of family drama.” It’s so fickle, and it’s so random. If you stick to your guns, eventually, the cycle’s going to come around and look for exactly what you’re selling.

P-C: This is Food Network’s first competition series with a comedic twist. What can fans expect when they tune into the series? Did you feel any pressure being the first for the network?
Dan: This is a lot of firsts for the network—it’s the first comedic food show, I’m the first Iranian host that they’ve ever had…a lot of groundbreaking over here. But the reason I really love this show is that it’s very different from every other food competition show in that it’s not super-duper dramatic like all the other ones. They all have these dramatic names, like Welcome to Kitchen Genocide Death Battle Royale. It’s like, “Why is the lighting like a UFC fight on this show?” It’s like, “You’re not curing cancer. You’re curing salmon.”

It’s very light. It’s fun. It’s funny. The way that it works is that each chef gets a mystery fridge. They have no idea what’s inside the fridges. My friends watch the show and they’re like, “You told them what’s in it!” But we don’t. They really have no idea. They open the door of the fridge, time starts, and they have to make insane fine dining things out of a recreated real fridge—it’s someone’s fridge in America. It’s pretty cool because you get to see what potential your fridge actually has…then you get pretty depressed because you realize how you’re not using it nearly to its fullest potential.

But, because it’s a funny show doesn’t mean the chefs aren’t serious—these are award-winning chefs. They’re amazing. They’re restaurant owners. They’re fantastic. It’s the food show of my dreams because it has comedy, it has levity, but it also has serious food chops. It’s really, really fun.

PC: That’s the perfect segue to this next question. The contestants have no idea what’s inside the fridge, and it varies from episode to episode. If you had to describe your own fridge, what would it be?
Dan: My own fridge is so boring. It’s funny because I always post on Instagram photos of when I’m at restaurants and eating the craziest foods; they’re very meat-heavy and nuts. My fridge is pretty vegan. I’m not a vegan. I like making fun of vegans because when it comes down to it, I might be a closeted vegan. I like the lettuces and condiments that will never die, that will outlive me and say nice things about me at my funeral.

I’ve been getting a lot of free stuff lately because of having a show on the Food Network, which is the coolest thing ever. LaCroix has been sending me flavors that they’re testing out, which is cool. They’re like, “What do you think about this guava garlic.” I’m like, “I don’t think it’s going to work, LaCroix.” [laughs] But yeah, I’ve been getting Truff Hot Sauce—that’s like eighteen bucks a bottle. They’re just throwing bottles at me. I’m telling you, Kevin, if you need anything, I got you. But yeah, my fridge is pretty boring. It’s not as exciting as a lot of people probably imagine.

PC: You touched upon this earlier, but you shared on social media that this project has been a dream come true for you. Has the experience lived up to everything that you hoped for? Can you share a little bit more about your background and your connection to the Food Network?
Dan: No, it hasn’t lived up to it, and I’ll tell you why: I’ve always dreamed of having a show on the Food Network, but I never actually thought it out. [laughs] It was the hardest gig I’ve ever had. We filmed six episodes in six days. We were shooting from 9:00 AM till 10:00 PM. I’m also the person writing on the show; we don’t have a writer’s room. It’s comedic. Basically, I was living on like four and a half, five hours of sleep every day. I’d go in, shoot, rinse, and repeat.

By day six, I was like a shell of myself, living on caffeine. It was nuts. I mean now, to be able to sit at home, have a glass of wine, and watch the episodes. It’s very fun, but it was the hardest job I’ve ever had in my life.

PC: There are so many different facets to your talent. As we look ahead to the rest of 2022, what can fans expect from you?
Dan: 2022 is going to be an exciting year. Cobra Kai is going to be coming out with Season 5, which we’ve already filmed. I play Anoush in the car dealership for those of you who haven’t watched. Then, the book is coming out. It’s called Undercooked with Crown Publishing in 2022. Hopefully, we’ll get a thousand more episodes of Raid the Fridge so that there’ll be a lot more of that to watch, too.

To keep up with Dan, follow him on Twitter and Instagram. Watch Raid the Fridge every Tuesday at 12/11c on the Food Network.

Photo Credit: Robyn Van Swank