Dropout continues to expand with new seasons of beloved series and new shows launching. This includes an all new comedy cooking series Gastronauts. Jordan Myrick hosts the series and brings a perfect combination of culinary knowledge and comedy chops. Each episode of Dropout’s Gastronauts features three comedians and three chefs who will complete a series of cooking challenges. The comedians set the challenges.
The first episode features Dropout regulars Brennan Lee Mulligan, Izzy Rolland, and Oscar Montoya. They each deliver a task more challenging and hilarious than the last. Gastronauts is comedic in its approach. However, the respect that the series, comedians, and Myrick have for the chefs, their skills, and cooking in general is clear. Aspects of cooking are taught throughout the series.
In an exclusive interview with Temple of Geek, Myrick shared how Gastronauts allows her to live her dream of hosting a cooking show. She also explained the importance of respecting the chefs skills and which gusts caused the most chaos. Myrick also explained how Dropout cared for her, the guests, the chefs, and the series as a whole.
Jordan Myrick’s Has Been’s Collaboration With Dropout Was Inevitable
Temple of Geek: Jordan, I don’t think I’ve seen a more fun cooking show. It was such a blast. I love cooking and the thing that always stresses me out about cooking competitions is I always just feel really anxious watching them, but this was everyone having a blast, including the chefs. It was so much fun.
Jordan Myrick: Thank you so much. I really appreciate that. I think that was a big goal for us was for all of it to feel genuine. Cooking is important and we want to eat good food, but also we really wanted everyone to have a good time because we’re Dropout. We’re not the food network. We know where we belong.
Temple of Geek: Can you talk to me about the journey of how the show came to be and your collaboration with Dropout?
Jordan Myrick: So Sam had reached out to me. I’ve known Sam for years now, and I’ve done stuff at Dropout before. I’ve done stuff for them since they were College Humor, I was in some sketches. My first job out of college was actually with Lily Du and Rekha Shankar and Luke Field, who are still three of my best friends. So I’ve been very kind circling the Dropout, College Humor ether for quite some time.
They had talked to me before about being like, You make a lot of food content, you’re very involved in the food scene. What would you think of a cooking show? And I was like, Yeah, that’s my dream. That’s what I’ve always wanted to do. I’ve always wanted to combine my love of food with my knack for comedy. And when they came to me, I was like, Yes, I’ll do it. I don’t care what it is. I’ll do whatever. It’s I’m already on board.
They were like, cool, cool. So you’re actually the only one of us that has any culinary production experience whatsoever. And I was like, okay, great. So they ended up bringing me on as a creative producer, so I was also able to give my two cents a little bit about how things should go, how things should be formatted, the reality of what you need when you are working with food on camera. After that, luckily we were able to bring in an incredible culinary team and so many other people that were able to make the show look so good and the food come out so great.
Respecting the Chefs Skills & Talent Was a Necessity For Jordan Myrick in Gastronauts
Temple of Geek: The thing that I found really, really cool about this is you are really able to blend your culinary and comedy skills because even with all of the silliness going on, we still get to learn little culinary techniques or tips about cooking. Why was it so important to you to really make sure you could hone in on that element and not just the silliness?
Jordan Myrick: I want all the chefs on the show to feel respected, and I want them to see their work as actual work, which it is. I think food can be so intimidating to people that, I think, if you can learn food in a fun way, it’s a lot easier to digest and then take with you. I experienced that growing up. I grew up every day coming home after school and watching the Food Network. I would watch Unwrapped and I would watch Rachel Ray.
I still do things in my kitchen today that I learned from watching Rachel Ray’s 30 Minute Meals when I was in elementary school. All of that was like, she was just a nice lady who had a fun personality and was chatty, but I really did pick up a lot of stuff and I think food can feel so elitist and unapproachable. That was something that I didn’t want from this show.
Temple of Geek: Definitely. Was the 30 minute time limit inspired at all by your love for cooking shows, like 30 Minute Meals? I thought that was such a cool little detail where they have to be so creative, but it’s in such a compact amount of time.
Jordan Myrick: Not intentionally, I’m sure subconsciously. Also with the pacing and everything, 30 minutes really feels like the least amount of time you can give people for them to actually make something you want to eat that they feel proud of.
Temple of Geek: Yeah, I don’t know if I could pull that off when I make dinner for my friends. It’s not a 30 minute thing.
Jordan Myrick: Absolutely not. I’ve already seen people making jokes being like, when’s Jordan going to cook on one of these? I was like, I can’t make popcorn in 30 minutes. I’m not jumping in and cooking a competition level meal.
Temple of Geek: You just need one of the challenges to be popcorn. That’s the answer.
Jordan Myrick: There you go. And then I need to have 45 minutes and then we’ll do it very hard. It’s very hard. It’s very shocking. Even just the 30 minutes goes by so fast. Even being someone who enjoys cooking and is good at cooking, I still just can’t believe what they’re able to do in that amount of time. Also with the level of surprise then being incorporated in. And I think the hardest thing being in a kitchen that you are not familiar with. You don’t know where the spatula is, you’ve never used this knife before, that all is really disorienting. So I truly don’t know how they do it.
The Comedians Challenges Force Chefs to Think Outside the Box
Temple of Geek: One of the things that is so cool about this show is the challenges themselves are not, I think anything you would see before because it’s not challenges brought by professional chefs or food critics. They’re straight up comedic nonsense that they then have to make something amazing with. Brennan going heavy as in pounds of food is ridiculous and I love that. Can you talk to me about what for you is maybe the most exciting part of seeing these types of challenges in this type of show instead of a more cooking specific challenge?
Jordan Myrick: I think what was really fun to me is that the people that we had on the show that knew the least about food had some of the most creative challenges because they don’t know the parameters of what is possible in cooking. So in their mind it’s kind of like, I don’t know, I can ask for anything.
Whereas if I was pitching something, I might be like, well, I know you can’t make bread in X amount of time, but someone who doesn’t know anything about food is like, Whatever, I’ll just throw stuff out there and see what happens. So yeah, I found some of the people that had the least amount of knowledge, just kind of having the most unhinged challenges that then produced really, really cool results.
Temple of Geek: What do you think you took away from this experience that you would like to bring into other projects or into a second season?
Jordan Myrick: I think into other projects, bringing in, and I would hope I bring this in any way, but I think it really affirmed that I always want to work with a kind confidence. Because I think if you’re confident about what you’re working on and you’re kind to the people you’re working with, it is a recipe for magic.
So I think I already kind of thought that, but getting to work on a set where everyone was so confident and everyone was so kind from the PAs to the camera people, to the sound people, to the onset medic, to the hair and makeup people, everyone was kind and confident. It just showed me like, Wow, it is so much more effective and successful to work in that way.
And then for season two, I just want to get it even kookier. I want to bring even wilder challenges and have even more fun because I think the first time you’re doing stuff, you are having fun, but you’re also kind of like, but are we okay? Now that we’ve made the foundation of being like, not only were we okay, we were thriving. I’ve never worked on anything where filming went so smoothly. It was unbelievable.
I injured both my feet a couple months before, so I was in and out of a wheelchair for the last year and a half. Even just with all of that stuff, everything just fit into place perfectly. We would wrap and then the medic would come over and wrap my feet up and then ice them, and then we would do that, and then the hair and makeup person would come and fix, and then the chefs were all in place. Everything was just a perfect rapid game of Tetris is what it felt like. So now that we have that incredible solid base, I’m excited to get even more wild in season two, hopefully.
Temple of Geek: Did you have a favorite challenge that was something that maybe would never have even occurred to you until you heard it?
Jordan Myrick: The first thing that comes to my mind is Luke Field had a challenge that is something that I didn’t think would actually work. I thought it would be a challenge where every single chef would make something that tastes good, but fail in the technical elements of it, and people were actually able to accomplish it. That was shocking to me and I’m really excited for everyone to see it.
One Group Of Gastronauts Took Presentation to the Next Level
Temple of Geek: Oh, that’s so cool. I love that. Did you have kind of a favorite maybe group of guests that just cracked you up the most? Because having Brennan and Izzy was completely unhinged. I loved it.
Jordan Myrick: It’s so hard to say because I’m genuinely such good friends with, I mean, pretty much everybody in real life. Every episode was so fun in its own way. I do have to say that the episode with Grant [O’Brien] and Lily [Du] and Ify [Nwadiwe] is beyond unhinged and perverted. It is wild. It feels like some kind of porn fever dream almost is what it feels like. That one was really, really kooky and very fun. But I mean, all of them were great. I really genuinely liked doing all of it. And like I said, it was easy because they’re all people I’m friends with, so none of it felt hard.
Temple of Geek: That does not surprise me at all that that is the way that episode is described.
Jordan Myrick: Yes. I mean, yeah, I don’t think anyone is shocked whatsoever, but Lily has one of the most disgusting challenges I can think of. As we saw in the trailer grants is just “horniest”, which is on brand and as to be expected, but I think ended up yielding really cool results that I would not have thought of.
Temple of Geek: Yeah, I think the thing I was most impressed with by the chefs was how out of the box they were with this because the instructions, I think, because they’re so vague, it opens the door to be able to do anything that they wanted. Is that something that you think should be incorporated into more competition show like this where you have a much more vague, broad option so that people can show off their creativity more?
Jordan Myrick: I think it’s nice. I know that not every culinary competition show is necessarily looking for creativity first as much as maybe we are. And I totally get that. But I think we tried to give people parameters that are also helpful parameters to get if you are a comedian. Something that feels specific while also feeling broad, so you know what point of view you’re supposed to have or what specific focal point you’re supposed to work with, but you still have room to infuse all your creativity into it.
Temple of Geek: What would be tips for the audience members if they wanted to try and make some of the meals that they see on the show?
Jordan Myrick: I’m a big fan of do not be afraid to do a swap. There are going to be some of the things that these chefs use that you probably won’t have at home or be able to get at home. But I’m always being cheap, swap for Fenugreek seed or whatever and I think that is great. Use what you have and some of that creativity that you also have to recreate some of the dishes.
Jordan Myrick Talks Collaborating With Sam Reich As An Executive Producer On Gastronauts
Temple of Geek: I also am a big fan of your podcast. Correct me if I’m wrong, but is your fiance on Gastronauts at some point?
Jordan Myrick: She’s in an episode, yeah. It’s very fun. We’re a fun kind of mix because she is not good at cooking and knows nothing about food, but she’s very eager. Which I think makes her incredible at almost everything she does because she’s extremely positive and extremely ready to just get out there and do the thing, which is so nice, but knows absolutely nothing about food.
Temple of Geek: That means she’s going to be a great taste tester.
Jordan Myrick: Yes, a hundred percent. And I think once you see her challenge, you’ll be like, Oh, this is the challenge of a person who knows nothing about food.
Temple of Geek: What was it like working with her in the episode?
Jordan Myrick: It was really fun. This is why we started doing a podcast together because we just wanted to, not to sound corny, but be together more and spend more time together and work together. But she really puts me at ease, which is so nice. Not to say I wasn’t already, but it’s just an extra little like, oh, I’m even more calm having her here. And I’m sorry, but she looks extremely beautiful in the episode, which she always does.
When I saw the trailer I was like, Oh my God, she looks so beautiful. So that was very distracting. But yeah, it was just nice. It’s fun. She’s so fun. She’s so funny. She’s the funniest person in the world, and I’m sure most people probably have seen her on TikTok, doing her characters on TikTok. She’s just so funny. I think it’s fun that people get to now see not just her characters, but also how fun and funny she is as a person.
Temple of Geek: Sam has said that this is one of the few shows that he’s actually executive producing, not just kind of helping behind the scenes. What was it like working directly with him to executive produce the show?
Jordan Myrick: It was very easy. Sam is a very easy person, for me at least, to collaborate with. I know I said this before, but everyone was just so good at doing their job that it just felt so easy. So there were points backstage where I was like, Oh, everyone else is doing what needs to be done, and everyone’s doing their jobs so flawlessly.
So Sam and I just sat for an hour and talked about Scandinavian mystery, thriller dramas that we had been watching because we’re both into that bizarre genre of television and just chatted about that. So it felt nice. Also, everything felt so handled before we started shooting that once we started shooting, everything felt really relaxed. Sam and I get along great in general and our friends in real life, which is nice. Now I’ve worked with him on a couple of things.
He and Elaine just did Kendall and I’s podcast, and we had a blast doing that. Sam and I were both on the host episode of Dirty Laundry this season, and that was one of the most fun times I’ve ever had in my life. So yeah, I feel lucky to have a nice person leading the show and not some, I don’t know, weird executive that has no clue what’s going on and isn’t funny.
About Dropout Gastronauts
Gastronauts invites award-winning chefs to test their skills in the kitchen, in hilarious and unconventional ways. Host Jordan Myrick is joined by three comedians each episode, who all have specific, ridiculous culinary challenges for each episode’s group of chefs. Comedians include recurring Dropout talent Sam Reich, Brennan Lee Mulligan, Vic Michaelis, Jacob Wysocki, Oscar Montoya, and newcomer TikTok star Kendahl Landreth.
