Robert Irvine and First Lady Michelle Obama at Horton’s Kids. Photo courtesy of The Food Network.
The Food Network’s Restaurant Impossible has a certain predictability to it. Brawny British chef Robert Irvine finds a failing restaurant somewhere in middle America, loudly expresses his disgust for the food and decor and manages to turn it into the next culinary hot spot with little more than $10,000 and two days worth of work. (He often wields a sledgehammer for additional effect.) But tonight’s new episode finds Irvine taking on a more local challenge.
At the invitation of First Lady Michelle Obama, Irvine came to D.C. in February to help transform Horton’s Kids, a children’s community center that serves after-school meals in Ward 8. According to The Food Network, Irvine was tasked with taking the center’s small offices, old computers, scanty kitchen, and no dining space and turning it into something that could pass muster with the First Lady.
Can Irvine pull it off? We’re guessing he will, because The Food Network certainly wouldn’t air a show where the man fails a bunch of local kids in front of the First Lady. It’s still worth watching, though, so tune in at 10 p.m. to watch Irvine bring his skills—and maybe even his sledgehammer—to a local institution.
Martin Austermuhle