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Phantom Gourmet
The Phantom Gourmet is a food-related television program featuring profiles of New England area restaurants. The show airs on WSBK-TV in Boston, Massachusetts, WNAC-DT2 in Providence, Rhode Island, and WPXT in Portland, Maine each Saturday and Sunday morning, with an hour episode composed of older clips followed by an hour-long episode (either new or rerun). While the original format featured reviews by the "Phantom Critic" and numerical ratings of the restaurants, the reviews and numerical ratings have been discontinued. The show continues to feature local restaurants but focuses on describing dishes and profiling chefs and owners. In late spring of 2006, the company behind the show came out with its first Boston restaurant guide, entitled The Phantom Gourmet Guide to Boston's Best Restaurants.
In addition to restaurant profiles, the show features interviews with restaurant owners and chefs, a segment on determining the best grocery item of a chosen category(Top of the Food Chain), and a segment on recipes. The show also gives a Great 8 selection of restaurants that are the best in their category, and a Hidden Jewel that features a unique restaurant that people may not have heard of. At the end of each show, a Dish Worth Driving To award is awarded, which is a restaurant in the outlying areas of the Metro Boston area (though sometimes as far away as Rhode Island or New Hampshire).
When the show was still assigning numerical ratings to restaurants, the rating was based on ten criteria: atmosphere, menu, appetizers, entrees, desserts, portion sizes, service, cleanliness, value, and location. Each element was rated 1 - 10, leading to final rankings of:
The program broadcast its first episode on June 26, 1993, on New England Cable News with host Steve Martorano. The show gained a cult following almost immediately and was given a Best of Boston award by Boston Magazine in 1994 for Best Talk Show. NECN broadcast the show for a decade.
In March 2003, the Phantom Gourmet made a deal with Viacom to move the show to WSBK-TV beginning on September 20, 2003, where it has been since. During the transition, the original host, Billy Costa began a new show, TV Diner. The deal also led to the "Restaurant Report Card" segment of the show to appear on sister station WBZ-TV's newscasts. The show was also added to WLWC's programming schedule, bringing the show to the Providence, Rhode Island area, where NECN had been largely unavailable.
The Phantom Gourmet was suspended on June 14, 2020 following social media comments made by host Dave Andelman that mocked the George Floyd protests. The show returned to WSBK-TV on August 29, 2020.
When Phantom Gourmet moved to broadcast television in 2003, CEO David (Dave) Andelman, who also was the show's second host on NECN, tapped WBZ-TV news reporter David Robichaud to serve as host (2003–2005) before turning the job over to his own younger brother, Feedback Forum segment host Dan Andelman, who then became the show's full-time and current host. Dave Andelman continues to run the company while also appearing as an unseen narrator during the restaurant segments and frequent on-air contributor. During special theme shows (usually ones that discuss more popular fare like chain restaurants and fast food), the two Andelman brothers are sometimes joined in a panel by other brother Michael. Their father, Eddie, known for his annual "Hot Dog Safari" charity event, has also been featured on the show as an expert on hot dogs. Dave Andelman appeared on an episode of Throwdown! with Bobby Flay as one of the local judges for a meatloaf throwdown which took place on Cape Cod.
In June 2020, Dave Andelman posted a series of social media posts that appeared to show opposition to Black Lives Matter as well as dismissing the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic. After WBZ, the station that airs The Phantom Gourmet, received a large number of complaints, Dave Andelman apologized for his posts spanning the last ten days. On Sunday, June 14, WBZ announced that it was suspending broadcasts of The Phantom Gourmet indefinitely. Andelman resigned as CEO of Phantom Gourmet on June 16.
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Phantom Gourmet
The Phantom Gourmet is a food-related television program featuring profiles of New England area restaurants. The show airs on WSBK-TV in Boston, Massachusetts, WNAC-DT2 in Providence, Rhode Island, and WPXT in Portland, Maine each Saturday and Sunday morning, with an hour episode composed of older clips followed by an hour-long episode (either new or rerun). While the original format featured reviews by the "Phantom Critic" and numerical ratings of the restaurants, the reviews and numerical ratings have been discontinued. The show continues to feature local restaurants but focuses on describing dishes and profiling chefs and owners. In late spring of 2006, the company behind the show came out with its first Boston restaurant guide, entitled The Phantom Gourmet Guide to Boston's Best Restaurants.
In addition to restaurant profiles, the show features interviews with restaurant owners and chefs, a segment on determining the best grocery item of a chosen category(Top of the Food Chain), and a segment on recipes. The show also gives a Great 8 selection of restaurants that are the best in their category, and a Hidden Jewel that features a unique restaurant that people may not have heard of. At the end of each show, a Dish Worth Driving To award is awarded, which is a restaurant in the outlying areas of the Metro Boston area (though sometimes as far away as Rhode Island or New Hampshire).
When the show was still assigning numerical ratings to restaurants, the rating was based on ten criteria: atmosphere, menu, appetizers, entrees, desserts, portion sizes, service, cleanliness, value, and location. Each element was rated 1 - 10, leading to final rankings of:
The program broadcast its first episode on June 26, 1993, on New England Cable News with host Steve Martorano. The show gained a cult following almost immediately and was given a Best of Boston award by Boston Magazine in 1994 for Best Talk Show. NECN broadcast the show for a decade.
In March 2003, the Phantom Gourmet made a deal with Viacom to move the show to WSBK-TV beginning on September 20, 2003, where it has been since. During the transition, the original host, Billy Costa began a new show, TV Diner. The deal also led to the "Restaurant Report Card" segment of the show to appear on sister station WBZ-TV's newscasts. The show was also added to WLWC's programming schedule, bringing the show to the Providence, Rhode Island area, where NECN had been largely unavailable.
The Phantom Gourmet was suspended on June 14, 2020 following social media comments made by host Dave Andelman that mocked the George Floyd protests. The show returned to WSBK-TV on August 29, 2020.
When Phantom Gourmet moved to broadcast television in 2003, CEO David (Dave) Andelman, who also was the show's second host on NECN, tapped WBZ-TV news reporter David Robichaud to serve as host (2003–2005) before turning the job over to his own younger brother, Feedback Forum segment host Dan Andelman, who then became the show's full-time and current host. Dave Andelman continues to run the company while also appearing as an unseen narrator during the restaurant segments and frequent on-air contributor. During special theme shows (usually ones that discuss more popular fare like chain restaurants and fast food), the two Andelman brothers are sometimes joined in a panel by other brother Michael. Their father, Eddie, known for his annual "Hot Dog Safari" charity event, has also been featured on the show as an expert on hot dogs. Dave Andelman appeared on an episode of Throwdown! with Bobby Flay as one of the local judges for a meatloaf throwdown which took place on Cape Cod.
In June 2020, Dave Andelman posted a series of social media posts that appeared to show opposition to Black Lives Matter as well as dismissing the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic. After WBZ, the station that airs The Phantom Gourmet, received a large number of complaints, Dave Andelman apologized for his posts spanning the last ten days. On Sunday, June 14, WBZ announced that it was suspending broadcasts of The Phantom Gourmet indefinitely. Andelman resigned as CEO of Phantom Gourmet on June 16.