The Wiener’s Circle’s Beloved and Foul-Mouthed Poochie to Star Alongside Seasoned Food Writer in New Chicago Food Show

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Poochie hurls creative, profanity-laced insults at people ordering hot dogs and cheeseburgers from The Wiener’s Circle in Lincoln Park. Kevin Pang writes well-researched food reviews and rigorously tested recipes from the suburbs. What happens when you bring them together to taste Chicago area burgers on camera? That’s the premise of a new NBC Chicago show Poochie & Pang Eat Chicago.

“What I’ve learned from you, is just eat the damn burger,” Pang tells Poochie after asking her to analyze one specimen and receiving an exuberant dressing down instead.

That’s the kind of odd couple chemistry the two hosts display throughout Poochie & Pang Eat Chicago, which premieres on Sunday, November 24 at 11:30 pm. Pang, who recently left America’s Test Kitchen to work for New York Times Cooking, leans into his dad-like, foodie nerdiness. Poochie takes any chance she can to roast him, as she has become infamous for doing, including in a popular Conan O’Brien segment.

“She likes to give me a lot of s--t; I really like taking it,” Pang says. “It’s really thrilling for me to be emasculated by Poochie.”

Pang first met Poochie 15 years ago when he brought a hidden camera to The Wiener’s Circle and antagonized her as much as possible for a web series called The Cheeseburger Show that he produced for The Chicago Tribune, where he was a reporter at the time. “Once the jig was up, we actually became fast friends,” he says.

So when he and NBC’s Matt Knutson were throwing around ideas for a local food TV show, they decided to call on Poochie.

“People don’t really connect to the brands or the content itself as they do connect to personalities,” says Pang, who is also an executive producer of the show along with Knutson. And he wanted to take a page from the film critics Siskel and Ebert and throw together two very different personalities onscreen to revel in the collision.

In four episodes, the first season of the show focuses on burgers; it has already been greenlit for another, longer season that will explore other foods. Pang and Poochie sample burgers everywhere from a gas station to a diner to a chic high-end joint, with stops along the way to visit Poochie’s childhood neighborhood and best friend – and for Pang to sample the South Side specialty that combines a peppermint stick and a pickle. There are also surreal comedic sketches mixed in, like a parody of a classic Chicago commercial and a burger dream sequence featuring Pang playing the piano.

It’s all a dream come true for Pang, he says. “I’ve never had more fun professionally in my life creating anything than working with Matt and Poochie on the show.”