The well-known radio personality has secured a contract with Seven West Media for The Food Dude.

The idea started when Mr Barker was living on the Gold Coast and started filming short videos of different cafes and restaurants. They continued to grow in popularity and businesses started coming to him, asking if he could showcase their food.

Before long Mr Barker had the reputation as 'The Food Dude'.

"Some of the videos would have hundreds of thousands of views and I thought 'this is okay, I enjoy making these videos, I enjoy eating food so if people are going to keep watching these videos I'll continue making them'," he said.

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"I did the odd food challenge but for the most part it started off just tasting different and unusual food businesses would offer."

That idea has formed the basis of a new show.

The Food Dude will predominately focus on businesses in regional Australia. And Mr Barker said he wanted to stay away from chains to focus on "Ma and Pa" organisations.

"I think it's really important to give some extra love to these businesses that might be struggling a bit with a downturn in their clientele," Mr Barker said.

"The best part about this is that it's going to be a national show, which means this will showcase what the country has to offer to the city people. That means it could potentially help pout areas with hospitality and tourism as well.

"That's the goal as well, to get people spending money again in these regional businesses, in these regional towns."

The Food Dude has already found a cafe in Orange that sells a three kilogram burger and a milkshake in Canberra that's "practically icrecream in a cup" but "decorated on top with 20 centimetres of goodies".

But it won't all be food challenges or giant servings.

Mr Barker, who is executive producer and host of the show, said he wanted to try different offerings and hear the stories behind the food and the people who make it.

It's not the first time the Dubbo resident has created a television show. He was also one of three people behind Aussie Dreamlivers.

The Food Dude will be on 7mate in March 2021.

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