Yes, The Food in TBBT Was Real – And It Made Galecki Gag Mid-Scene

For many of us, The Big Bang Theory has become a sort of heartwarming, cozy sitcom that you can always turn to when feeling down. Part of that coziness is, of course, created by the adorable nerd characters who share the audience's love of pop culture and also often have takeout food that all viewers are familiar with.

And while most food on movie and TV sets is usually inedible props, it turns out that the TBBT cast ate very real meals prepared for them by a special prop master. Plus, on one occasion, this very real food led to an unscripted Galecki-related situation that fit the scene perfectly.

If you have watched all 12 seasons, you may have noticed that the characters mostly eat Chinese food (although they were not limited to it). Even if it were all props, the choice of Chinese cuisine would be very logical because reshooting scenes is much easier with rice, noodles, and soups — all you have to do is refill the plate.

Jessica Radloff's book The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series features a conversation with Scott London, the person responsible for preparing the 'takeout' meals for the TBBT cast. Here's what the prop master shared.

'The Chinese food pretty much got made on the day, so it was always super fresh. I used to make the rice in my prop room. I'd use Minute brown rice, add water, a little bit of sriracha, quite a bit of soy sauce to give it flavor, which would turn it more into fried rice, and then I'd put the vegetable mix with carrots and peas in it after it was cooked,' London said.

Although the dishes are quite simple, they were obviously prepared with love, so the actors must have enjoyed eating them for so many years. But it looks like the prop master was so passionate about his work that he sometimes got too carried away with the process, which one day led to a hilarious situation involving Johnny Galecki.

'He loved this vegetarian wonton soup, but mostly it was just broth with the sriracha sauce,' the prep master explained. 'But on one of our first shows back, I got a little overzealous with the sriracha, and right in the middle of a scene he started gagging. Whoops.'

Apparently, the abundance of the sriracha sauce made the soup so spicy that even Galecki, who loves Chinese cuisine, couldn't handle it. Well, at least it didn't stop him from continuing filming!

Source: The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series.