Dishin' with Big Daddy

The four-bedroom sits on a quiet street in a sleepy subdivision off a four-lane road in Chester County.

Inside, the den furniture is pushed out of the way. Cardboard covers the floors, piles of snacks sit on card tables next to clothing racks in the foyer, two people are chopping vegetables in the garage, and two guys with video cameras growing out of their foreheads are stalking a large, bald man carrying a plate of tandoori chicken from the deck into the kitchen as four people stare at monitors.

This is Big Daddy's house. On television, anyway.

Chef Aaron McCargo Jr., the guy with the chicken, is star of the Food Network series Big Daddy's House.

Two years ago, he was a husband and father of three from Camden, running the catering kitchen at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, when he won The Next Food Network Star, the network's competition series.

He was set up with his show with no experience or on-camera training, he says, but with one sentence of advice from producer Phil Falsone: Think about loving food.

And that he does. His specialties are big, bold flavors and fun family-style cooking - and the effortless quip. "I'm going to make you want what I've got, and the only way you're going to get it is to make it yourself," he says, grinning, his gold Mr. Clean hoop earrings jiggling.

At 38, McCargo is a man in demand. When he is not crisscrossing the country for promotions, he is in the kitchen - on camera and at Big Daddy's real house, until recently a Camden rowhouse, but now a larger home in a South Jersey suburb. (His parents, Aaron Sr. and Julia, still live in Camden, where they raised four boys and two girls.)

"Cooking can be a lot of fun, even when you're doing it on a regular basis," McCargo says between takes. He wakes up in the middle of the night with ideas, then develops each recipe with producer Falsone, culinary director Brianna Beaudry, and brother Donavan. "It's going on the show, or in the cookbook," he says.

This month he was holed up with nearly a dozen crew members in this Pottery-Barn-ed rental to shoot the fifth season, 13 episodes. Season 4, on at 1:30 p.m. Sundays, premiered March 7.

On a March noon, the second show of the day, he grilled the chicken, and made a salad of broccoli and pancetta, a pot of cheesy grits, and a rice pudding that was so good, he told his viewers, it made him want to cry like a baby.

At lunch break, he handed a plate of food to a visitor (delicious: tender chicken, sublime grits, peppy broccoli salad). He begged off a meal for himself, saying, "I have been eating all morning." Meanwhile, after eating snacks, crew members grabbed leftovers and almost sacrilegiously ate chicken from a fast-food restaurant.

McCargo has been cooking all his life, from the time he baked cakes in a sister's Easy-Bake Oven. He went to Atlantic Cape Community College's Academy of Culinary Arts for a year but left, he said, to tend to family matters. He has worked at nine restaurants in the last 20 years, including his own McCargo's Creative Cuisine, which was across from the federal courthouse in Camden for several years.

He was working at Jefferson when his wife, Kimberly, saw a commercial for The Next Food Network Star and urged him to try out. While Kim's brother Steve Matthews held the video camera, McCargo cooked a frittata.

In early 2008, McCargo joined nine other contestants for the Season 4 eliminations in New York. (Finalist Adam Gertler, who lived briefly in South Philadelphia, also won a show, Will Work for Food.)

He picked up "Big Daddy" during taping. "I was the dad there out of all the contestants," McCargo says. "I ate big and laughed big, and if you knew how loud I snore. . . ." He laughed big at that memory.

"He has that warm, fatherly side, combined with amazing culinary skills and a sense of humor that can't be beat," says Allison Page, vice president of programming for the Food Network.

Big Daddy's House premiered just after The Next Food Network Star finale. It was the top-rated "In the Kitchen" weekend show in its six episodes, and a hit among African American audiences.

McCargo went back into the studio to tape a second season, which premiered in January 2009. Besides a cookbook and a line of spices, he says he is working on a pilot for the Food Network and does regular speaking engagements. He's a big booster of his hometown, Camden.

All things considered, "my home life hasn't changed too much," he says. He's striving for balance: "I still like my cold beer, cigars, walking around in my boxers, watching Two and a Half Men."

He's enlisted son Justin, 7, for on-camera appearances, and daughter Jordan, 3, soon will be on, too. His older son, Josh, 16, is in a juvenile facility, a point McCargo doesn't dwell on, except to say, "It's one day at a time."

Kim McCargo, a consultant in HIV-program administration, says she doesn't think she's created a Food Network monster. "It's really good to see this for my husband and for the kids to see their father on TV," she says. "It's so rewarding for him to do something he loves."

The downsides: "He's away a little more, and it's hard to go out with my husband and be recognized, like when we're having an intimate dinner and people come up to him."

And when they eat at home, McCargo goes to work.

"He's always coming up with some new concoction, a sauce or a soup," Kim says.

"I have a big cabinet of spices," McCargo says. "I taste as I go. That's my style. Big flavors. You don't need salt and pepper."

At home, McCargo says, "I still have to clean the bathrooms, but I have to give my wife credit. She's holding everything together while I'm on the road."

And there's another issue, Kim says. "When he's gone, the kids suffer my cooking."

Makes 2 quarts or 8-12 servings

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1 stick butter, divided

2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed into 1/2-inch pieces

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 large onion, chopped

1/4 cup red pepper, diced

1/4 cup green pepper, diced

2 cups chicken stock

1 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons chili powder

1 teaspoon ground coriander 1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon cracked black pepper

1 tablespoon kosher salt

2 (14 1/2-ounce) cans cannellini beans, drained

2 (4-ounce) cans mild green chiles

1/2 cup sour cream

1 1/2 cups grated Cheddar, for garnish

3 tablespoons chopped parsley leaves, for garnish

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1. In a large Dutch oven, melt 4 tablespoons butter over medium-high heat. Brown the chicken pieces until nicely colored and cooked through. Remove chicken to a large bowl and set aside.

2. Using the same Dutch oven, stir in the flour. This will create a roux. Stir in the onions and peppers. Add the chicken stock to deglaze the pan and stir in the heavy cream. Lower heat and cook until the mixture thickens, about 5 minutes. Once the sauce has thickened, add the chili powder, coriander, cumin, cayenne, black pepper, and the salt. Stir and cook for a few minutes. Add the cannellini beans, chiles, and the chicken and simmer for 6 to 8 more minutes. At the very end, mix in the sour cream.

3. Transfer to a serving bowl and garnish with Cheddar and parsley.

Per serving (based on 12): 355 calories, 25 grams protein, 13 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams sugar, 23 grams fat, 110 milligrams cholesterol, 1,294 milligrams sodium, 4 grams dietary fiber.EndText

Makes 4 servings

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1/2 pound Chinese long beans 2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons sliced scallion 1 tablespoon freshly minced ginger

1 tablespoon minced garlic

Pinch red pepper flakes

1/2 cup chicken stock

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon sesame oil

Salt and freshly cracked black pepper

2 tablespoons sesame seeds, optional

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1. In a large pot of boiling water, blanch long beans for 2 minutes until slightly tender. Allow to cool.

2. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, add butter. Add scallions, ginger, and garlic. Mix together. Add red pepper flakes and long beans. Allow to cook for a few minutes. Stir in chicken stock, honey, and sesame oil. Season with salt and pepper, to taste, and add sesame seeds, if desired. Mix together.

Per serving: 248 calories, 14 grams protein, 40 grams carbohydrates, 5 grams sugar, 4 grams fat, trace cholesterol, 131 milligrams sodium, 6 grams dietary fiber.EndText

Makes 25 brownie bites

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1 stick butter, softened, plus extra for greasing

1 cup turbinado sugar

1/2 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

1/4 cup all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting

1/4 cup cake flour

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup chopped hazelnuts

For the Grenadine Frosting:

1 stick butter, softened

2 cups powdered sugar

2 tablespoons grenadine

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1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8-by-8-inch baking pan with parchment paper. Lightly grease and flour.

2. In a standing mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, sugar, vanilla seeds, and vanilla extract. Add eggs and mix until well incorporated.

3. Mix together the dry ingredients and slowly add to the egg mixture. Mix until well incorporated.

4. Pour the batter into prepared pan and spread evenly; add hazelnuts to the top. Bake for 22 to 25 minutes until brownies are set and begin to pull away from the side.

5. Remove from oven and let cool on wire rack. Once cooled, remove brownies from pan and cut into 11/2-inch squares for individual bites.

6. For the frosting, in a large bowl use an electric mixer to cream butter and slowly add the powdered sugar. Add grenadine and mix until a frosting consistency is reached.

7. Place frosting in a piping bag and pipe onto individual brownie bites.

Per brownie bite: 165 calories, 1 gram protein, 21 grams carbohydrates, 17 grams sugar, 9 grams fat, 36 milligrams cholesterol, 85 milligrams sodium, trace dietary fiber.EndText