Dan Worth may not have won Chopped Canada but he has made the experience worthwhile. The disco eggs that were featured on his appetizer plate on the show are the inspiration for The Happy Cow’s newest ice cream flavour, Disco Dan.
‘Dan Dan the Ice Cream Man’ appeared on the Mar. 5 episode of Chopped Canada titled “Duelling Over Devilled Eggs”. While he exited the competition earlier than anticipated, he may have had the most memorable tag line in the episode - “Here’s the plan, Dan Dan the Ice Cream Man, is going to win this 10 grand to pimp his ice cream van,” he said in his introduction on the show.
“They wanted me to have some kind of catch phrase, like an ‘in it to win it’,” he said. “I had to redo it because the crew was laughing so hard and it ruined the recording.”
The culinary program aired on the Food Network pits four chefs against each other in a head-to-head cook off with a twist.
Each competitor is given a basket with the same mystery ingredients that must be used to create a culinary craft.
“It’s funny because I told them in my interviews that I loved the competition. Sometimes when I am watching it I know exactly what to do with the mystery ingredients and other times I draw a blank, and that was one of those moments. I dare say the Ice Cream Man froze a little bit,” he said.
“I had all kinds of plans going in what kind of appetizer I would like to make, salad, soup or some kind of slider. Then the basket opens up and the adrenalin kicks in with all the cameras and lights and then the pressure really sets in.”
Losing the competition didn’t enter the Worth’s mind until his plate got it’s first sour review.
“If you see my reaction on the show, when the judge says ‘There’s a party on this plate’ I am beaming, and then when I get voted off my facial expression does a 180,” he said. “I didn’t think about a lot of the after stuff when I applied. I applied because I really like the competition. I believe I could have won it. I went there with the intention of winning. I did not even consider what would happen if I lost.”
While he may not have won, Dan Worth has had grate success playing off of his disco deviled eggs.
The mystery basket included devilled eggs, rainbow cake decorations, Canadian smoked cheddar, and venison sausage.
The party on his plate came from some very vibrant devilled eggs, which were combined with cake sprinkles. Post taping, the competitors where still concerned with what the judges wanted to see from the sprinkles.
“I really think that is up to the judges, I know some judges would want it sprinkled over the top, I didn’t want to make it into something else because when you throw a bunch of food colouring into a pan, it will turn into a grey mess and it’s just sugar. I wanted to keep the colour.”
After the show wrapped up, Worth made the most of his time on the show taking the sour critique of his plate and dealing with the lemons he was given.
“They made their comment about disco eggs and I beat myself up a lot about it for a few weeks after the taping,” he said. “In my case I took lemons and made it into ice cream, literally. I made Disco Dan ice cream - it’s lemon custard with mango, raspberry and blueberry ripples. It represents the rainbow sprinkles and the idea of when life gives you lemons idea. It’s awesome, and has outsold any other flavour since I released it on the day of the show. That’s what an ice cream man does, he milks it."
Disco Dan has outsold all of The Happy Cows other ice cream flavours since its unveiling.