I am thrilled that Todd Wilbur, the creator of Top Secret Recipes, took time out of his secret decoding schedule to talk with me. His personality is bigger than his best-selling Top Secret Recipes books. By the end of the interview, I wanted to be a Top Secret Recipes apprentice!
Grab your favorite Top Secret Recipes beverage and snack, and enjoy the second half of my interview with Todd Wilbur, the cloning sensation behind Top Secret Recipes.
Maria: What was your worst cloning disaster?
Todd Wilbur: I had a lot of sink clogs from doing Kozy Shack® Rice Pudding. I went through batches and batches of rice trying to get it right. I didn’t know that when you put rice in your sink, it tends to swell up and clog the pipes. I had some serious plumbing problems because of that. Thus, I got an industrial garbage disposal. It’s a two horsepower garbage disposal that will liquefy chicken bones. No more sink clogs!
Maria: I would hope not, or you should get your money back!
Todd Wilbur: Yeah! The thing sounds cool, too. I sometimes turn it on just to hear it hum!
Maria: When you create Top Secret Recipes, is there a certain atmosphere that inspires you – rock and roll or silence?
Todd Wilbur: Sometimes music is playing. Silence sucks, too boring. What I’m doing is trial and error over and over and over, so I need something to entertain me. A lot of the time it’s music, a lot of the time it’s talk radio – Howard Stern.
In my newest book, Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2, the first line of the introduction says, “Cloning these famous recipes requires thousands of hours of work locked up alone in the kitchen with only the sound of the dishwasher and Howard 101 to keep me company.” He read that on his radio show in December and gave me a little plug because I mentioned him in the book.
It’s great to be able to listen to something. You can’t watch TV because you need to look down. You don’t want to cut off your finger. Listening to stuff is great. When it’s funny, it makes it even better.
Maria: Is there a food that you have not been able to conquer?
Todd Wilbur: There are a lot, actually. It is hard to do things that are made by a machine, candy bars, like Butterfinger®. It has that flaky, bright orange colored peanut butter center. I’ve not been able to duplicate the inside just right. Fig Newtons® have been tough. The pan pizza from Pizza Hut®, the crust is also tough. When you make pizza dough, you have to let it rise overnight. If it’s not right, you have to wait another day to try it again.
Maria: In what way has the internet hindered your success?
Todd Wilbur: People do not honor copyrights on the internet. We actually had to sue somebody and ended up settling out of court. He was copying our recipes, putting them in a book, and selling Top Secret Recipes as his own work by taking my name off it. We did not make any money there. In fact, we lost money. The legal fees cost us more than what we got in the settlement. It was a matter of making the guy stop. It still happens a lot.
Maria: Fans can purchase individual recipes at the Top Secret Recipes website. Will you offer a yearly subscription?
Todd Wilbur: No, we probably won’t do that. We look at offering the recipes as entertainment on demand, similar to what iTunes® is doing with songs. iTunes® would never offer a yearly subscription to get as many songs as you want, and we wouldn’t do that with recipes, either. It makes more sense to look at it as the iTunes® model where you pay per recipe.
Maria: Will you offer a Top Secret Recipes e-book?
Todd Wilbur: That is possible. We may do something like that in the future. That would be like buying an album of music on iTunes®.
Maria: Other than Top Secret Recipes, what else would you like to do?
Todd Wilbur: I would love to create and produce a TV show.
Maria: You have been on QVC for a while. Have you been approached by Food Network, or any other television outlet, about creating a Top Secret Recipes show?
Todd Wilbur: You must be psychic! That’s happening right now. It’s happening, and it’s happening fast. I am confident that you are going to see a Top Secret Recipes show very soon. It is too early to mention which network, but it’s going to be a big one! We are going to have fun and make it unlike any other show out there.
Maria: Your fans will be thrilled! Other than this exciting adventure, what will be your next Top Secret Recipes book project?
Todd Wilbur: The Top Secret Recipes Restaurant books are the most popular books. People will make a Twinkie once. But, entrees, appetizers, and desserts, these are things we make on a regular basis. I think you will see more like these.
So there you have it! Never before has anyone cracked the code for as many popular foods as Todd Wilbur. From the first Top Secret Recipes book, to his current best-seller, Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2, Todd Wilbur has changed America’s kitchens. You can get your own, autographed copies of his Top Secret Recipes books at his website, www.topsecretrecipes.com, or at various e-tailers and retailers.
Todd offered to talk with me again. Thank you, Todd, and thank you, Pamela. (Hmmm, I wonder if I will earn a secret decoder ring the next time!)
