Hot Sauce On A Banana, What REALLY Happens on Man Vs. Food, and Casey Webb's latest venture!

🔥 HOLY MOLY! We just sat down with Casey Webb from Man vs Food, and things got SPICY!

In this EXCLUSIVE interview, Casey reveals:

✅ Behind-the-scenes secrets from 90 episodes of Man vs Food
✅ Why he put hot sauce on a BANANA (yes, really!)
✅ His journey from dishwasher to TV star
✅ The REAL truth about those insane food challenges
✅ His NEW homemade hot sauce business (Casey Webb's Inferno)

PLUS:  Casey's hilarious reaction when he tries hot sauce on a banana LIVE! You never know what will happen on the Burnt Hands Podcast. Thank you to the World Food Championships for having us again in 2025!

🌶️ TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Casey Webb enters the chat
2:30 - Man vs Food behind the scenes
8:45 - THE BANANA HOT SAUCE MOMENT
12:20 - Casey's new hot sauce business
18:00 - Future plans revealed

Follow and Connect with Casey Webb:
Instagram: @iamhuskyforlife
Hot Sauce: Casey Webb's Inferno (New Jersey only - for now!)

#ManVsFood #CaseyWebb #HotSauce #FoodChallenge #BehindTheScenes #foodshow #foodpodcast #cheftalk #podcast

Welcome to the show! Burnt Hands Perspective

Chapters

• 0:00 Meet Casey Webb At WFC
• 1:39 Man Vs Food’s Impact On Restaurants
• 4:04 Finding Community After Covid
• 6:54 Industry Roots And Front-Of-House Shift
• 10:04 Comfort Food And Regional Barbecue
• 13:44 The Challenge: Hot Or Huge
• 16:44 Family-Friendly TV And Wholesome Humor

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:58

All right, action it is. We are it's always action anyway, but we have a we have a great guest today, man. I've been waiting to talk to you. Waiting to talk to you.

SPEAKER_02: 1:05

Smile Wave, boys.

SPEAKER_00: 1:07

Smile Waves. Y'all may know him. You may have seen him on TV once, twice, or a hundred times, depending on how much um you watch TV. So tell us a little about yourself, brother.

SPEAKER_03: 1:16

Casey, bring it in.

SPEAKER_01: 1:17

Casey Webb, man versus food, here in Indiana. This is my first time at World Food Championships, which I'm really excited about. I'm here with my buddies with MSH, which is Meet So.

SPEAKER_02: 1:27

You can say it on here, it's fine. It's totally fine here.

SPEAKER_01: 1:30

And yeah, doing some judging. You know, we did film an episode here in Indianapolis in like 2017, 2018, which is great. So I got a real taste of the town back then. And every time I come to town, you know, we're hitting St. Elmo's, and which is classic here. Uh yeah, you know, I just I'm lucky I to be able like yourselves to be in this universe because we know being in the restaurant industry my whole life, your whole lives, as you told me, is um there's a community here that's really like no other. And like I'm always in church of community. It's hard sometimes, especially with COVID, getting back to coming together, you're and spending time together.

SPEAKER_00: 2:05

For sure. And it's like, how are we getting back to each other?

SPEAKER_01: 2:07

You know, and um being on a show like Man vs. Food, that's exactly what I was doing. I was out in the field working in restaurants, and you know, I don't know if you're familiar with the show and how the you know how we film it, yeah, but it's three restaurants every episode. So whatever city we go to, and we repeated a lot of cities depending on what part or a lot of states, and um, you know, we feature three restaurants, and like for me to look back at the body work, we did 90 episodes in several years, you know, every time that show airs, and it still airs in perpetuity, whether it be on cooking channel, food network, travel channel, it started off on travel, but it's under the same umbrella of as a network. Um, those those places get business. And like people still reach out, you know. The places that we filmed at and the places that um you know that uh we spend time at, they get business every time the show airs, and even though it was 2017, yeah, in perpetuity they're showing those shows, which I'm proud of. I could stand behind that, which is a huge thing. And so again, being on the street, like if we're not filming, I miss it, quite honestly. And to become here, I get to scratch that itch, you know. So, I mean, I'm psyched you guys invited me over here. We just met each other today, essentially, and here we are. That's the beauty about what we do, right? It's like it's a DIY universe, like it's really do yourself, and we can do that again. And I love that the most about being on the ground, is because you can collaborate with anybody now, and it's okay. You don't have to wait for a network, sorry, to pick up the phone and be like, hey, your show's gonna air again.

SPEAKER_00: 3:26

It's like, you know what, I'm not gonna wait for you, I'm gonna get out and just collaborate. Right, in between the we have such avenues right now and so many vehicles to propel us outside of the kitchen. And you don't have to wait anymore, you know. I'm in the kitchen all the time, like you said. This is a great fresh air. This is a breath of fresh air. It's we get out here and scratch the answer, being around in the public, doing uh judging and also the hosting, which which has been going awesome, you know.

SPEAKER_01: 3:47

Right, because it just expands the community. It's like, what's your community? Your community's Virginia, guys, Virginia, Virginia Beach. It's just an incredible city for food, great food town. But then you get to come to Indiana, it's like you meet all these people from all over the country doing exactly what you do. Sure. It's like imagine what a furry con uh you know, a furry We don't want to imagine what a furry company is. I'm not into it, but I hear what you're saying. What a furry conference because they're they're so excited to be here.

SPEAKER_02: 4:11

So it could have been a mini convention. There probably is.

SPEAKER_01: 4:13

There were like a new like a like a smaller, a smaller convention inside a larger convention. Right, yeah, we wouldn't have to be a good thing. I'm gonna start that, you know? Seeker convention inside the a pod convention inside a convention. Mystery con. Mystery convention. Totally. You never know you're gonna get some people are grilling, some people are you know, dressing.

SPEAKER_02: 4:29

It could become man versus a lot of things.

SPEAKER_01: 4:31

Man versus whatever you want to do tonight.

SPEAKER_00: 4:33

What do you call it when all the people start singing? Flash mobs? Flash mob con. Flash mob con. Flash mob con.

SPEAKER_01: 4:40

We got a lot of great ideas here, guys.

SPEAKER_00: 4:41

I'm telling you, we can do it. It's great stuff. So when you started, you were you've always been in the industry of food. That was good thing.

SPEAKER_01: 4:46

Washing distance at 14, worked my way through the back of the house. I realized all the money and women were in the front of the house. But like, honestly, like I it was just something else I wanted to explore. Like, I was in the kitchen getting dirty. It's like, oh, I I think I actually talked too much for the kitchen. They're like, get in the front of the house, start selling drinks. And you know, I did vocational culinary, which like I was just an overactive kid. Sports was my thing growing up. In a sense, yeah, you know, you played football, I played football, I wrestled, played football in college, and did a lot of martial arts stuff.

SPEAKER_00: 5:13

And then New Jersey, Jersey Shore.

SPEAKER_01: 5:15

Jersey Guy, Jersey Shore, that's exactly where I grew up. Right with the beaches beginning in Jersey, that's where I grew up. And so to be in a in a like in a field, production, I've been in for production for a long time, even before man versus food, but food, like you were so busy you had something to concentrate on. And then just the my parents are very humble, grew up in New York City, didn't have much money, and like then what what what they cooked, we ate, you know, as simple as that, right? And that's common for most people. Um and then, you know, I we started working in restaurants, and like one thing about restaurants is like you always be fed and you always have a little bit of money in your pocket, right? There will be a little bit of money in your pocket, and you always be fed, and then just the people that you meet are the craziest people. It's like I'm not so crazy because that dude's crazy and I want to be his friend, you know.

SPEAKER_00: 5:54

Now tell me this even though it's this even though there was you cooked what you ate and that's what you got, right? Right, yes. There's still a nostalgia. They cooked what and I had to eat it. But there's still a nostalgia to that. A thousand percent. My mother the other day made me something we used to eat when we when we were on the on the fly, right? Chicken, chicken thighs, sure, baked with dried rosemary, canned potato slices, and peas. Right. And that shit is good. I don't know. It's simple and it's good, and it's what you ate, you know.

SPEAKER_01: 6:17

Like my mom's pasta bizarre was amazing. I've had better.

SPEAKER_02: 6:21

But don't worry, we won't show you what.

SPEAKER_01: 6:24

Now I want mom to say, I've had better pasta basil, but like there's such an appreciation for hers, right? Like, right, right. You know, there's something about the foods that we ate, and like a lot of the beauty about Man versus food is a lot of food we crave. And it's it's those those total comfort food. And that's what we explored on the show. And because I went from, you know, I we hit every state essentially. And to be able to be, because as a kid from New Jersey, living in New York, pursuing acting and working restaurants, I only ate food in New York. I didn't go anywhere else. I wasn't traveling to the South to learn about barbecue. I was but with the show, we went to, you know, um Texas and at Texas barbecue. We went to Missouri at Missouri Barbecue.

SPEAKER_00: 7:02

So the show is to eat a lot of it.

SPEAKER_01: 7:04

Or it's the cool thing is like for me, the best part of the show, in my opinion, well, for me, my experience was I got to meet all these people, I got to cook in all these kitchens. The challenge was the hardest part. That's where the sports thing, that's where I almost had to physically separate myself. Because in the beginning, I was like, I got this. I got this, I could eat, and then I was like very humble in the very beginning, like, there's no way, I can't just phone this in. Like, it's legit. And like, I like I tried, I was like, can we like why don't we just change the premise of the show? Like, no, this is a show, dummy. This is why you got hired. So I had to figure it out how to eat hot. It's either hot or huge. But the what I get the takeaway is like I got to talk to so many amazing people around the country. You know, granted, we had to turn people's hats around and maybe flip their shirt because it said something crazy, or everyone had different opinions about a lot of things, but at the end of the day, it's a wholesome show. And one of the greatest compliments I ever got was was parents would hit me on DMs, they're like, you know what, like we work really hard and our kid, we come home and we we want to make dinner for our kids, and we put them in front of the TV. And watching the food network or food channels or any food programming is like it's safe, we can let them sit in front of the TV. And that felt really good because like it was like as much as I tried when we first started on the travel channel, I said some crazy stuff, and you know, they edit it down, but it was it was it was safe and it was wholesome and it was for families, and that made me feel good about what we were putting out because to me it was about making people laugh. Um, and I'm a total underdog, I'll never be the greatest you know, competitive food ear. I didn't go out uh out of my way to be a competitive food ear, and I still won't, unless you're writing a check today. But the point was that you know, the point for me or what I got out of it was just um being able to elevate and celebrate other people's businesses was a big picture item for me. And I went after we did you know, after doing 90 episodes, I feel real good about not all the food I ate necessarily, but all the people I was able to promote. So you were saying it was either hot or heavy.

SPEAKER_00: 8:52

Yeah, hot or huge. It's hot or huge in the day. What's that? That sounds like my sex life back in the day. Probably in college, right?

SPEAKER_01: 8:57

Either one or the two. It didn't matter, right? You grew up, what, you're in Virginia? You know? The beaches are filled with both, right?

SPEAKER_02: 9:05

I can't even.

SPEAKER_01: 9:06

And you guys know, how do you guys know each other? Let me interview you now.

SPEAKER_03: 9:08

Oh go ahead, go ahead. Pop the clouds. You guys grew up.

SPEAKER_01: 9:11

You guys grew up in Virginia. You grew up in Virginia, you're Michigan. We grew up there. I'm from New Haven, Connecticut. Oh, you're from Connecticut? Oh, sorry. So you're Northeast. Yes, sir. Very good. And you landed in well, how do you land in Virginia? Military, so that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02: 9:23

Yep. I was in retail, so I got transferred there.

SPEAKER_01: 9:26

Almost like the military. And then we met as kids and hung out, and then we've been friends ever since.

SPEAKER_02: 9:29

Yeah, we met 30 years almost, right? Yeah, so older. Yeah. He was a little bit older.

SPEAKER_00: 9:35

A couple years. A few years older.

SPEAKER_01: 9:36

And then what was the inspiration for the podcast?

SPEAKER_00: 9:39

Me grabbing her saying, let's do this, I need help, and I need you in it. So I wanted to get my food podcast off and running it on the ground. She was a news anchor for many years. I love it. We just have the whole same reach in our area, and we have a pretty good following.

SPEAKER_01: 9:51

I have a very dear friend of mine. She's out in New York, she does similar things to what you were doing, and Lauren Scala, she's a very good friend. Perhaps I'm gonna uh insist that her and I do a podcast after this.

SPEAKER_02: 10:02

It's it's great because it's you know, you find the balance and developing the industry out in front of house, you know, back of house, and I was in restaurants for 15 years, and you know, it balances out and it's fun to do, and then we get to travel to cool places like this. And we talked about other shows before, most chefs get stuck in their kitchen and they don't go to other chefs in other countries.

SPEAKER_01: 10:20

They don't have time to do it, and they don't realize it. And you get caught and you get rusty and it gets old. Like I, you know, for me, I I chose to go to Alaska this year and I worked in the kitchen for three months, and I've never spent that much time uh in one place in a long, long time. I've been used to traveling. I went there to hold my skills and put my head, we were talking about this earlier, Anthony, is put my head down and go to work and cook. And so I realized then, like, I booked myself out while I was there because it's like all you're doing is working, you know. And since then I've been to like six different states cooking live fire outdoor stuff with friends of mine who actually, guys from Michigan. Shout out to Live Fire Republic. I was just in Nashville for an event. I'm in the Live Fire space. I mean, for me, we were talking about it earlier. Earlier, it's carnal.

SPEAKER_00: 10:58

It's the future, man. It's so exciting. The food is amazing, the shit they're doing on the city.

SPEAKER_01: 11:02

The thing about it is it's it's also the past because it's where we came from. So it's not only the future, maybe the future of real culinary or you know, what's the interest, the future of culinary interests. Because it's uh it's where we started, you know. It's like, and that's and again, I go out like I went camping. I was telling you that. I was road camping through Virginia.

SPEAKER_02: 11:18

We came to Virginia Beach and was camping at Fort Story.

SPEAKER_01: 11:21

Oh wow. And literally there was live bombs, live bombs are well. I was live fire cooking, they were shooting 50 caliber rifles. I lived in at my house. Oh, in Virginia. What is it? First landing, first landing? First landing state fire. First landing state park, an amazing experience if you like live fire fire and rifles and guns and bombs and helicopters. It was really cool. It was actually an amazing experience. But I was with my dog and we were alone. I was like, we're taking on fire right now. I'm like hugging my dog. I'm like, Do I leave? Do I stay? Dog's whimpering. Basically.

SPEAKER_02: 11:53

Welcome to every Tuesday in Virginia Beach. It was a Wednesday night.

SPEAKER_01: 11:57

Yeah, yeah. About 11 o'clock, and it didn't matter.

SPEAKER_02: 11:59

They do uh we have FATs who like fly over all night.

SPEAKER_01: 12:03

They're training Navy SEALs there, yeah. Jamie SEALs are training.

SPEAKER_00: 12:05

All the all the Navy's training for me. I love it.

SPEAKER_01: 12:09

God bless America. If I just went over the Chesapeake, I would have been safe.

SPEAKER_02: 12:13

You would have been, if you were on the eastern shore, it would have been a little quiet.

SPEAKER_00: 12:16

That's where they're flying the plane. So it's fine. So no one's safe, yeah. We're the best protected in the world.

SPEAKER_02: 12:20

Well, actually, you're very safe because happened in there.

SPEAKER_01: 12:23

I was like, they're not storming the beaches. Right. This isn't real.

SPEAKER_00: 12:27

No one was screaming after the gun stopped, so it was good. You know what I mean? So, where do you see yourself? You have do you have a plan? Do you have something going in? We know the show is a hot, hot show. Everything's everything.

SPEAKER_01: 12:36

You know, the show is a huge success, thankfully. You know, I put all my energy into that and really didn't look at anything else. Like it, I wasn't growing my social media while doing the show because I was doing the show. I was like, ah, all good. And it's like I get almost like come out of a foggy haze of doing seven years of a show, and I'm like, whoa, like my number, I my numbers could be way up with social. I was like, oh, and I kind of I really miss going out and being among people. Like that wasn't happening for a hot second. I was like, oh, what can I do to do that? So I joined forces with other people. My buddy's here is MSH, they're here based in Indiana.

SPEAKER_00: 13:08

And we we actually met them last year while we were here. Yes, interviewed them, and now here we are again talking to the side.

SPEAKER_02: 13:13

Yeah, Robert Gilbert.

SPEAKER_01: 13:16

Which is huge. So, really great products. I have a product of my own, which is right there, which I'm oh grab it. Honestly, small batch New Jersey hot sauce called Casey Webb's Inferno. Oh, yeah. I'm growing it, I'm fermenting it. All right. It's uh local mate.

SPEAKER_00: 13:30

You're gonna try some shit right here.

SPEAKER_02: 13:32

Oh, he's gonna get a banana though. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00: 13:34

It's all I have to eat with, and I don't care. Can I help you with your banana? Yeah, feel my banana.

SPEAKER_02: 13:38

Hold on. This is really weird because I'll tell you a quick story before you have this on a banana.

SPEAKER_01: 13:45

I'm in Atlantic City with David Burke, Chef David Burke. I'm not sure if you know who he is. Very good friend of mine, he's a Jersey guy. He's a uh restaurantur, uh, and he's a very good friend. We live down the street from each other. We're in Atlantic City to an event, and all we had was a banana. He tasted this on a banana, I swear to God. I'm not the only one. You're not the only one. This is the second banana, bro.

SPEAKER_02: 14:02

Can I say this? Can I say this? This is not the first banana you put sauce on.

SPEAKER_01: 14:05

This is not the first banana that I put in the case that's the furno one. How hot is this shit? It's not that hot.

SPEAKER_03: 14:12

Spicy banana. Hot banana, baby. Oh, sorry, guys.

SPEAKER_00: 14:15

I'm glad you hey, listen. Let me tell you something, guys. Everybody watching, I'm glad you knew to put it on the side because I wasn't taking this from the front, man. So this is perfect. You're more of a side banana guy.

SPEAKER_01: 14:25

Not a full frontal banana. Oh my god, that's the it's fermented, cayenne peppers from Louisiana, grown in Jersey. Got good heat. Yeah, it's got good heat. It's good.

SPEAKER_02: 14:39

Do a little dip, do a little dip.

SPEAKER_00: 14:40

Put that right in the screen, see if you can see it. I did. Oh, did you? Yes, that's the shit right here. That is amazing. How can we find it?

SPEAKER_03: 14:47

Good, huh?

SPEAKER_00: 14:48

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03: 14:48

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01: 14:49

So it's available only in New Jersey at the moment. I grew 2,000 plants this year, so I'm harvesting literally when I get back. And um, yeah, case the I was in verto.

SPEAKER_00: 14:57

You're obviously harvesting your own. Yes.

SPEAKER_02: 14:59

So uh Farmer Friend is like third generation, pocket hot sauce.

SPEAKER_00: 15:04

Pocket sauce.

SPEAKER_02: 15:05

Here we go. Pocket sauce.

SPEAKER_00: 15:07

Yeah. Let me give my review while it's a little bit. Oh yeah, please, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 15:11

Live tension feedback. Live fire reviews. Can we do live fire reviews? Okay, how many of you guys call me? We'll do live fire reviews from the road. Oh my gosh. And I'll do the live fire reviews. So check it out.

SPEAKER_00: 15:20

This is what I'm thinking. Because I ate it on a banana, I had a little bit of cooling from that lactic acid in a banana. Wow. Which means how many times have you said because I ate it on a banana? Yeah, well, how many times have I had lactic acid from a banana?

SPEAKER_02: 15:32

Yeah, I may have never.

SPEAKER_00: 15:34

So the sauce is actually really good. The capsules come in is not overpowering at all. Very fresh, I have very fresh peppers. Vinegar content is very mild. It's enough in there to bring everything together. But right now, I'm getting a white pepper, not such a hard, casicami typical hot sauce. It's structured, layered. I enjoyed it and I want more. And it's really good on the fucking banana. I'm not kidding. Sweet and savory, yeah. I'm telling you, it's not bad on a banana, really. Available. Enjoy your banana out.

unknown: 16:04

And yes, sure!

SPEAKER_02: 16:05

Put some hot sauce on it. Yes, sure. Pull it up on your banana. How do you sauce your banana?

SPEAKER_01: 16:11

How do you sauce your banana? Some of that sloppy top. We'll play with Casey Loves Inferno. Can you sign my bottle? Sign my bottle. This is my bottle. You'll sign your banana. Yeah, I won't even sign any bananas today. So 2026 will have more available. So go back into the station. Congratulations. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00: 16:30

So it's a small batch, which means everything's gonna be a small yield.

SPEAKER_01: 16:33

Which shit made 500 bottles last year, and I hand sold them to friends in the Jersey Shore area. So it's basically available there, hyperloc. Um, I've been asked to put my name in on something and just sell it, and I wanted to do it myself. Grow it, ferment it, cook it, and made the hot stuff.

SPEAKER_00: 16:49

That's key, man. You're doing your own.

SPEAKER_01: 16:51

Shout out to my buddy Chris uh Marciniac, who's a chef buddy of mine who helped me make it, who's amazing. He's actually in Alaska and a salmon camp chefing as we speak. But yeah, he's a big part of that. His sauces are called Simple. He helped me make this.

SPEAKER_02: 17:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 17:03

Um yeah, I'm just a big fan of process. So just to put my name on something, I've done that a lot in my career, in my life. It's someone else's brand. Manfred's food isn't my brand. I just have to be the face of it. Um and commercial work that I've done, professional work as an actor that I've done. It's always really for somebody else. This is the first thing I've ever done for myself. And it feels really good, you know. Um just to be a part of it and know where it's coming from, how it's sourced, and I can stand behind it.

SPEAKER_02: 17:24

You know, he just did his own sauces for that process.

SPEAKER_00: 17:28

Yeah, can I ribeata and amazing? Oh, amazing. Oh, Riviata. So all flesh. Please, that'd be amazing. But listen, man, it's been an honor, it's been amazing. We are in a live concourse. It is loud. Sure, it's loud as hell. A lot of shit going on, and we really appreciate you taking some time out of your time to be here with us, right?

SPEAKER_01: 17:46

So I appreciate you sharing your banana. Yeah, man, no doubt.

SPEAKER_00: 17:48

That sauce is amazing. I got the hotbanana.com.

SPEAKER_02: 17:52

Uh that oh god, no, no, don't Google that.

SPEAKER_01: 17:55

Hotbanana.com.

SPEAKER_02: 17:56

Where uh so let's shout out all the socials. Let's go through that.

SPEAKER_01: 18:00

You can find me at it's I am husky for life is my essential social or Casey's Call uh or Casey website. Um you can find me at, or just look up Casey Webb.

SPEAKER_02: 18:11

And with MSH, they'll be able to find that.

SPEAKER_01: 18:13

MSH, this is essentially a pet project that I'm doing. This isn't through necessarily MSH at the moment, but look at MSH for all your rubs and hot sauces. Very good friends of mine that I'm working with.

SPEAKER_02: 18:23

We actually had them on the podcast from last year's World Food Championship YouTube playlist. They're in there from last year.

SPEAKER_01: 18:28

They're based out of Indiana, they're growing exponentially. We've got a lot of cool things going on. I'm looking forward to actually we have some, I don't want to talk about we have some secret rubs coming out that'll be really good. Do it that are coming out in 2025, 2026. So yeah, just excited. Appreciate you guys having me. Oh, I know you're amazing. So we love you.

SPEAKER_00: 18:47

We'll see you next week.

SPEAKER_01: 18:52

Dude, I'm I'll I'll camp at the campground, take on fire. I can get here.

SPEAKER_02: 18:56

We'll put you somewhere, don't worry. We got you. Appreciate you.

SPEAKER_00: 19:00

Hey, thanks for tuning in. Ciao for now.

SPEAKER_01: 19:02

Ciao for now.