Donny Osmond doesn’t consider himself to be a foodie — far from it, actually.
So “Everybody Loves Raymond” creator Phil Rosenthal takes the longtime entertainer under his wing in the newest season of his show “Somebody Feed Phil,” where he dines with friends and family throughout the world and shares the cuisine gems he comes across with viewers at home.
During one of the Season 8 episodes — which are all available to stream on Netflix — Rosenthal makes a stop in Las Vegas to showcase the homegrown food scene he says has “blossomed” around the hotels and casinos.
Since Osmond’s history with Las Vegas dates back to the 1960s — he first performed there when he was 7 — and he’s back in the city for his solo residency at Harrah’s, Rosenthal invited the 67-year-old singer to join him for a meal.
“I need you to teach me about food,” Osmond said.
Donny Osmond appears on ‘Somebody Feed Phil’
As Rosenthal stepped into Gritz Cafe, a soul food restaurant that’s just a short drive from the Las Vegas strip, he joked with the former teen idol by welcoming him with some high-pitched screams.
“He’s touching me! He’s hugging me!” Rosenthal shrieked as they greeted each other.
And then he got down to business.
“You told me you have very simple tastes,” he said. “You do not eat a lot of things.”
“You would think that I would, with all the traveling, the restaurants,” Osmond replied. “I really don’t know. Give me something simple, because I just need some energy for the show.”
Osmond had a full plate as he dined with Rosenthal and former Rolling Stone magazine reporter David Wild at Gritz Cafe, which is owned and operated by Trina Jiles, Clark County’s first Black female firefighter.
The first thing on the menu was a sweet potato waffle with chicken — “That should be illegal,” Osmond said after taking a bite of the waffle.
The restaurant also served up catfish, a butter pecan waffle, grits (which Osmond said he loves), biscuits and gravy (Osmond demanded that the entire plate be put in front of him), and peach cobbler.
During the meal, Rosenthal noted that the Osmonds, who were raised in Ogden, Utah, recorded their debut record in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Certainly the brothers got their hands on some good Southern food while in the studio, he said.
“They brought food in to us,” Osmond said. “It was nothing but Kentucky Fried Chicken” (which actually had its start in Salt Lake City).
The singer recalled a time he and his brothers had to dig through KFC wrappers in a trash can to fish out some tape their late producer Rick Hall had thrown away after recording the basic track for the hit “One Bad Apple.” In playing back the tape, Hall had realized he’d cut out the wrong part.
Osmond laughed as he talked about how he and his brothers got some towels so they could wipe the grease off of the tape.
The singer also briefly reflected on his performing days in Vegas as a teen, when he would go to bed at 6 a.m. after performing dinner and cocktail shows.
Rosenthal marveled at how well Osmond and his brothers got along, especially at the height of their stardom in the 1970s.
“Yeah, there were arguments. But every one of us, we’re very professional. And we had a leader. Alan was our leader. If he said, ‘OK, enough, this is what we’re doing,’ we all fell in line,” Osmond said.
As the Gritz Cafe meal came to an end, Osmond told Jiles he would come back with his family.
Other Vegas restaurants Rosenthal visits throughout the episode (sans Osmond) include:
- Esther’s Kitchen, an Italian restaurant in the Arts District
- Milpa, a Mexican eatery operated by chef DJ Flores, who is a James Beard award semifinalist
- Big Dan’s Shanxi Taste, a James Beard-nominated restaurant that serves hand-pulled noodles
- The steakhouse Don’s Prime
Donny Osmond joins Phil Rosenthal for ‘Naked Lunch’ podcast
To celebrate the premiere of the new “Somebody Feed Phil” season, Osmond joined Rosenthal and Wild on their podcast “Naked Lunch.”
Highlights from the conversation include:
- A new addition to Osmond’s residency at Harrah’s that, through the power of AI technology, features him singing a duet of “Puppy Love” with his 14-year-old self
- How his Vegas show also features a performance of “Love Me For a Reason” in tribute to his brother Wayne, who died in January
- His brief return to “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” — as the Pharaoh — and his relationship of trust with composer Andrew Lloyd Webber
- His garden at his home in Provo, Utah — currently a major focus of his as he takes a summer break from his residency
- How he stole his wife, Debbie, from his brother, Jay
- The impression Elvis made on him as a teenager
- How he ended up in “Weird Al” Yankovic’s music video for “White and Nerdy” (Osmond was apparently the first person Yankovic thought of who fit the bill)