Workin' it: Philly chef lands new show on Food Network

SOMETIMES, EVEN when you lose, you win.

That couldn't be more true for Adam Gertler, a Philly chef and aspiring stage actor who struggled to succeed until he took a chance - and made it to the big leagues.

Five years ago, Gertler was executive chef at the Smoked Joint, a hip barbecue restaurant his brother owned at 15th and Locust streets. When the place closed in 2006, he waited tables at Amada in Old City, acted in various local productions and waited for his big break.

It arrived a year later.

Gertler aced a casting call for "The Next Food Network Star." He joked, cooked and charmed his way through the show's fourth season last summer, making it to the final three contestants. He lost to Camden native Aaron McCargo Jr., who went on to score a hit with his own Food Network show, "Big Daddy's House."

Gertler walked away with one heck of a consolation prize, though.

During the contest taping in Las Vegas, he wooed and wowed judges with his quick wit and comedic approach to food preparation. When he lost, instead of the requisite parting gift and handshake, he was offered a Food Network show, too.

"I've been having this dream and wanting to perform since I'm 5 or 6 years old," said Gertler in an interview last week. "This is a dream come true and anybody who knows me knows that."

"Will Work for Food," premiered last Monday at 8 p.m. On the show, Gertler muddles his way through a variety of unsavory, tough food jobs, from wine cave-digging to foraging for truffles.

All told, Gertler worked 26 jobs that will be featured on 13 shows. For him, it was the perfect combination of two of his loves: ham (and eggs and other foods) and hamming it up.

"The jobs are so varied," said Gertler, a clean-cut, boy-next-door type who can't finish a sentence without adding a "Seinfeld"-esque joke.

Asked which of the taped episodes he likes best, he said, "They are kind of like all of my children. I think, though, I really like the competitive-eating segment."

That one, airing Feb. 9, has Gertler gobbling pizza alongside some professional competitive eaters on a stage in Times Square in Manhattan. He downed 16 slices before throwing in the towel.

He'll also battle 3 million bees in Southern California heat to collect honey, attempt to flip knives as a Benihana chef, and even head to the chic Aureole restaurant in Las Vegas to hoist himself up four stories as a "wine angel," retrieving bottles for customers.

"When I did the bees, it was like 115 degrees," Gertler recalled. "Eight hours was all I could take."

Gertler's love of food dates back to his childhood on Long Island, N.Y., with his parents and two brothers. His mother always liked to cook, but the boys really went all out to entertain whenever the family would have a party.

"I liked doing it on a big scale," Gertler said. "Big parties. It was really just a hobby instead of sports. People get into their hobbies, and I really didn't have any - short of cooking."

But he did have a backup hobby.

His mother vividly recalls his first foray into the world of acting.

At a Catskills, N.Y., resort during a family vacation one summer, 5-year-old Gertler toddled on stage during a show intermission and tried to tell the audience jokes.

"His [older] brothers dared him to go onstage," Sandy Gertler gushed proudly during a recent interview from Long Island. "Adam was our star. He was born a star. From the day he was born, he loved to perform."

Gertler was starring in school plays by the time he was in fourth grade. He played Pinocchio, and his mother was floored because he never asked family members to practice his lines with him. He memorized them on his own.

"I will tell you I sat there and watched Pinocchio become a little boy, and I couldn't believe it. I always knew he would be on stage," Sandy Gertler said.

Adam Gertler graduated from Syracuse University's College of Visual and Performing Arts with a bachelor's degree in acting. He continued to do improv theater, Shakespeare, whatever he could to stay on stage.

But even as he pursued acting, food was on his brain. Instead of pacing or running his lines before a college performance, he often cooked the cast dinner at his dorm.

"We would do these plays and on the day of the performance, I'd be baking bread and making chicken fingers for cast parties," Gertler recalled. By the time he graduated in 1999, he wasn't sure whether cooking or acting was in the cards.

In college, he'd made a strange discovery while watching the Food Network's Alton Brown on his show, "Good Eats." It was possible to make a wood-chip smoker and smoke amazing food using with a cardboard box and a skillet.

Gertler became obsessed with smoking meats.

"He went to the Web site and printed out the instructions [for the smoker] and handed it to me," said longtime Philadelphia friend Michael D'Tamaso, who would become the Smoked Joint's official smoker. "Adam has always had to have food involved in his life. We smoked a salmon in that box . . . for New Year's Day 2001, and people were blown away by it. We knew we were onto something."

Gertler and D'Tamaso continued to perfect the art of smoking and, in 2004, joined Adam's brother Keith Gertler, who lived in Philly too, in opening the Smoked Joint, next to the Academy of Music.

"It was an enormous first for us all," said

Keith Gertler. "And it gave us an education on life and gave Adam three years of experience in cooking barbecue. It is tough to learn."

Added D'Tamaso: "It combined two big things for Adam. He was creative in making a menu, and he had an open kitchen. He was in the spotlight - greeting people, even doing karaoke. He was definitely not shy in displaying his charisma."

But charisma, even when served with good food and live music, isn't always enough.

The brothers closed the Smoked Joint in 2006 for a variety of reasons, including the fact that they didn't have a smoker on site, making it tough to execute their menu. Keith Gertler went to Los Angeles to work as a caterer. D'Tamaso's still local but out of the food business. Adam continued acting in small productions and waiting tables.

In November 2007, Gertler was waiting tables at Amada when a fellow server told him about the Craigslist posting for Food Network show contestants.

Without knowing what the show entailed, Gertler went to an open casting call in Philly, where he spoke to front of a camera while preparing food. He was among 27 people chosen for a second audition.

"I knew it went well and I actually told my mom, 'I wouldn't be surprised if I hear something,' " he said. In December, Gertler learned he'd be one of "Next's" 10 contestants.

Gertler headed to Las Vegas in January 2008 and spent 10 weeks taping an intense cook-off judged by greats such as veteran Bobby Flay, as well as the network's senior vice president of programming and production, Bob Tuschman.

Gertler was the comedian of the bunch, even earning laughs when he made a fish dish the judges had to spit out. He was among three finalists but was eliminated in the final week. By then, he'd caught Tuschman's eye.

"Adam's passion for food, his quick humor, guy-next-door quality and willingness to try anything made him a standout," Tuschman said.

"We [had] wanted to do a 'food jobs' show for some time, but we couldn't move forward until we found the perfect host . . . We offered him the opportunity."

Gertler was in Long Island on Jan. 19 to watch the premiere with 25 family members. His mother was beaming. His grandparents still can't get over hearing their family name announced on the Food Network.

As for Gertler, he's taking it in stride.

"What's nerve-wracking now is that it's out there for everybody to see," said Gertler, who's dividing his time among L.A., New York and Philly. "The fact that it is my own show is doubly exciting. I never felt the pressure until watching it [everyone]. But this is a dream come true."

And one he can officially call a lose-win situation. *

Send e-mail to aprillisante@comcast.net.