Restaurant and Food Service Blog

Todd Graves, multimillionaire founder of Raising Cane’s Chicken, with wife Gwen was on the new Fox reality show “Secret Millionaire.” The show puts millionaires in the middle of very poor areas where the millionaires pose as regular “joes”. They befriend unknowing, down-and-out people who are in need. At the end of the show, the millionaires reveal their true background and present their new friends with checks up to $100,000 to help them out.

In this particular show, Todd and his wife meet three different Katrina victims who are looking to put their live back together after the disaster from 2005. They are all trying to rebuild their homes and lives back in the Louisiana area.

Although the show was very well done and a great plug for Todd and his company, is seemed to be very canned. Todd and his wife simply show out of the blue and start talking to strangers about their past. All the time, this is being taped? Did all of these unsuspecting people just think that this couple to claim to be from Virginia and drive up in a big SUV with Louisiana plates with a film crew following them, just decided to come to one of the most devastated areas in Louisiana just for the fun of it? C’mon.

More revealing was when Todd and his wife went grocery shopping. They were only allowed to have $107 (the same amount that is considered at the poverty line) for spending during the week. So they had to go get food at the local grocery store. Somehow, the CEO of a multi-million dollar chain doesn’t know the price of food and grocery items? They have to return food back upon check out because they will not have enough money for the week. How is it that Todd and his wife, who also was a McDonald’s franchisee, doesn’t know how to buy their own groceries on a budget?

In the end, the show was touching. But definitely a made for TV 1 hour special.

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