When NBC ordered 13 episodes of a show about cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter, the show's creator, Bryan Fuller, had a difficult task: He needed to find a borderline crazy team to make the show's food — which is supposed to be human flesh. Oh, and Hannibal is also a gourmet cook.

Hannibal the TV show is a prequel to Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs — that is, before Lecter is found out. So the villain is creepy but cheerful, a show-off cook — braising and garnishing parts of human bodies like he's Thomas Keller, then serving them to ignorant dining companions with a nice glass of Chianti. which means elaborate meals would be part of nearly every episode.

"One of the fantastic things about working with a character as established as Hannibal is that consumption, whether it be gourmand or something a little more nefarious, is always going to be a part of the occasion," Fuller says. "Hannibal's motto is 'eat the rude.' He refers to his victims as 'free-range rude.' This is a killer who's not so much someone wearing a hockey mask or hiding in the bushes — this is a gentlemen dandy who sees eating you as an appropriate response to your behavior."

Fuller needed to put together a team who could find humanlike body parts and turn them into delicious-yet-horrifying gourmet meals. So he turned to world-famous chef José Andrés. "The moment I mentioned I was working on Hannibal, [José's] eyes lit up, and he did the tube-sucking Chianti sound. He was very passionate and enthusiastic about the characters and the idea of a gourmand who's a serial killer, some reverence for his villainy that's appealing to a chef." Andrés joined the show as a culinary consultant, but they needed someone on the ground in Toronto who could physically prepare the food and help Lecter appear as a sophisticated gourmet.