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Dickey's in the spotlight for cooking competition show
Dickey's will be the latest brand featured in TNT's cooking competition show "On the Menu." The winning dish will debut as an LTO the day after the episode airs.
December 3, 2014 by Brenda Rick Smith — Editor, Networld Media Group
A couple hundred Dickey's Barbecue Pit franchisees will be glued to their television sets on Friday night, waiting to learn -- along with the rest of America -- what they will be serving up on Saturday.
Dickey's Barbecue Pit will featured on the season finale of the cooking competition show "On the Menu," set to air on Dec. 5 at 8 p.m. (ET) on TNT.
The show will also be posted on TNT Drama's website here after it airs.
Host Ty Pennington and Chef Emeril Lagasse headline the series, which features everyday cooks competing for the chance to have their own dishes served in major restaurant chains across the country.
The winning dish -- which will not be revealed until the show airs -- will be featured on Dickey's menu Dec. 6 through Jan. 6. The item will roll out in 228 of Dickey's 470 locations on Dec. 6.
The contestants assembled their dishes based on ingredients found in Dickey's current menu items, said Roland Dickey, Sr., chairman of Dickey’s Barbecue Restaurants Inc.
Dickey is contractually bound to keep the winning dish a secret until after the program airs, leaving far less than 24 hours to get a couple hundred Dickey's restaurants ready to roll out the limited time offer.
"We've got everybody standing by for a broadcast early Saturday morning at 6 a.m. Dallas time," he said. Dickey and the brand's executive chef will lead operators through preparation of the LTO and answer questions live via teleconference.
Franchisees have been excited about the barbecue chain's participation in the series, according to Dickey.
"Right now, this LTO is a mystery to our franchisees and they are all excited to hear about it from us on Saturday," he said. "The reaction has been 'Well, we trust Dickey's, it's been good publicity, it'll probably be a good menu item because the Old Man himself has eaten it and cooked it.'"
The final dish is a surprising reinterpretation of Dickey's ingredients, Dickey said.
He and other members of the corporate team spent two days in Burbank, California, taping the show on a set transformed to look like the inside of a Dickey's Barbecue Pit restaurant. Dickey was impressed by the passion and authenticity of the contestants, none of whom are professional chefs.
"It's got a lot of pathos, a lot of happiness and sadness at the same time," said Dickey. "It's a tear-jerker."
Dickey was also impressed with the innovation the contestants displayed with Dickey's ingredients.
"I'm sorry the contestants all didn't win," said Dickey. "All these contestants that you are going to see me and Emeril on there with are all absolutely great people. I had to pick one - we had to - but I wished they could have all won."
Dickey's is the latest brand to be featured on the series, which has also included Denny's, Chili's, California Pizza Kitchen and others.
Check out a preview of the Dickey's episode here:
About Brenda Rick Smith
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