I got lucky Sunday night and caught a Sneak Peek of Food Network’s new series Food Detectives.  Your host is Ted Allen, whom you might remember from Bravo’s Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.  Given he was always my favorite of the guys, to say I was interested in the show would be an understatement, and seeing it tacked on to the end of The Next Food Network Star made me happy.

What is Food Detectives?  Think of it as Mythbusters for foodies.  They take everyday food thoughts, like the “Five Second Rule” and explore them through trial, error and science.  Sunday night they covered the aforementioned Five Second Rule, Capsaicin Relief, the Negative Calorie Effect of Celery, and Refrigerator Odor Elimination through Baking Soda.  The show is a delightful mix of food education and fact while debunking food myth.

To test some of these items they tortured Food Techs.  Made these five people eat a salsa made from Habanero peppers then test various methods of dealing with the resulting heat pain in their mouths.  I truly felt sorry for these folks, but was laughing my ass off at the same time as they chugged water, soda, beer, milk and ate bread.  The expressions on their faces were priceless, particularly since I know I’ve made that face before.

Food Detectives premieres tonight (Tuesday July 29th) on Food Network at 9 pm Eastern.  It’s quick and quick witted; only 30 minutes long and something I can see devoting myself to.  Being a bit of a foodie myself it was fun to learn things about these food myths that are out there.

And what did we learn on Sunday’s episode?  Well, I can’t tell you that now can I, it would spoil the fun of the show.  Let’s just say that I’m off to the pet store to pick up some activated charcoal and call it good.  I hope all the foodie readers will tune in and share their thoughts on Food Detectives with us.

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