Tailgate Like a Pro: Party Foods That'll Score Big Time! | Chef Wonderful
We've got over 50 people coming, a lot of friends and family coming over here, and we want to be ready for the election. [Applause] Oh my goodness! Chef Wonderful here! Can't believe where I am, Los Angeles, that's right! And who's this? Yes, the celebrity chef Aaron May from the Food Network, of course! Let's check out the timepieces, right? Let's check it out to the restaurant. Ready? Here we go, here we go. [Music]
What are we talking about here? What is that? That looks like some strange material. It is bronze! I love a bronze watch in the kitchen. Rubber strap, bronze style, bronze case. Yeah, it's very versatile in the kitchen—hot pans, hot water, ovens. It starts to patina, looks really nice. This is the IWC Aqua Timer Charles Darwin Edition classic.
So, what's the theme with this Darwinian thing? You know, food evolves, people evolve, you know, and that's kind of what we're doing today. We got football on, we're tailgating. Yeah, this is the evolution of the tailgate.
Before I can even start on the food, I have to try the wine! Now, little secret here, we're going to be—I want Aaron to try my O'Leary Fine Wines, a Chardonnay to start, which is a classic when you're footballing. You gotta have a glass of white ready for this. They say Chardonnay is football, right? Exactly! Aaron, tell me, what do you think? Your first notes, the hints? I mean, it's green apples right off the nose. That is delicious! [Applause] Chihuahua, that's a touchdown! O'Leary Fine Wines, where I can get these? QVC, any time of the day or night, and the shipping's included under 12 a bottle! Isn't that amazing? For this, it's a first down!
All right, now this—I've gone with a Meritage I've blended myself personally: five different frames. Firstly, I did it at the Village. I like it; it's got a huge nose, eh? Now let's go! That's nice. That is really good! It's not too fruity, not too tannin—it's really well balanced. I mean, you did a great job with that. I appreciate it! Now, let's get down to the cooking. [Music]
We've got andouille sausage and bratwurst. You know, you want to bring a lot of different flavors to the party: hot dogs, bratwurst, kielbasa, andouille. And then these are a prime rib, cut in half, wrapped up tight to keep the juices in. We're eating good today, Kevin. [Music]
Mr. Wonderful here, and there's no debate about this: small businesses in America create over 60 percent of the jobs, but times are tough. Is there a solution? Yes, the government employee retention credit program. Go to wondertrust.com today!
All right, everybody, here we are: a very important session of the kitchen about to happen with Chef Aaron because we've got over 50 people coming. I thought I'd drop in, so a lot of friends and family coming over here, and we want to be ready for the election because everybody's going to be hungry. Everybody's going to really be interested in what the chef's putting together. I'm just here assisting and observing, but that's why you always find Chef Wonderful in the best places at the best times. Ready to mongé!
Okay, let's go through what you're planning for the crew today. We're gonna munch on some delicious morsels of food. I've got—we've got the bone-in prime rib. You get all the extra sort of juice from the bone-in cut. So, we got the prime rib. I'm doing burgers, obviously. You know I love my meat dishes. You know no matter what happens after you've had a couple of beers, you gotta chow down on a burger. I totally get it!
Burgers are only good ballast for the rest of the game, right? You like—kind of—they're the snack snacks; they're the special teams almost, right? Right!
Okay, so now we've got two big proteins: you got the slab of brontosaurus over there, you got burgers, fantastic broncos and birds. What about the accoutrements? So, you gotta start light, right? You don't want to kill everything before the action really starts, right?
We've got a charcuterie board—beautiful cheeses, meats—they go great with the O'Leary Chardonnay. We're gonna make a little shrimp ceviche, Ecuadorian style—roasted tomatoes, onions—really get some flavor out of there. So, you're snacking on ceviche, you're eating some charcuterie, O'Leary wines, one more time! All right, just a little sip.
So, then you know we're gonna go brunchy too though, right? Some people maybe stayed out too late last night—not us! A little crispy around the edges—yeah, eggs benedict! And then we've got sweets, football-themed treats. Oh my goodness, all colors on the cookie pot look incredible!
That's a—oh, that's the little footballs! Look at the little football! Oh, that is so cool! That is so cool! Of course, I'll be chowing these down later as well. Now let's talk about how you're going to prepare this. How does this work? Are you going to have a buffet-style thing with this many people?
So, we're going to set up. I've got all these big boards. Yeah, we've got all this beautiful stuff, we're making all these great snacks, and we're just gonna kind of put them right there on the counter, yeah, and let everybody—I think you and me will be standing here with glasses of wine, kind of just picking. Absolutely! Everybody else will be over there on the couch making themselves slovenly.
Let's talk about timing. How do you play this out? You gotta have something ready when everybody arrives, right? They come in in waves, right? So, people arrive, you put the charcuterie out. Yeah, we got the meats, the cheeses, the olives, the jams. We're gonna make a little ceviche that will keep refreshing so it's nice and cold and beautiful, and then we'll slowly start rolling out the snacks.
Right! Have some eggs benedict, have some like, some bagels, have some cheeseburgers. Let's maybe make some tacos. Okay, how about a hot dog at halftime?
There's been a lot of turnover in restaurants during the pandemic. A lot of classic places went down. Absolutely! A lot of new guys showed up. What's going on out there? You know, right now I think the food scene in L.A. is better than it's ever been! There's some amazing stuff! I mean, there's Cambodian restaurants, Thai restaurants, late ocean restaurants, Greek, Italian, even like little micro restaurants celebrating the food of South Italy.
Do they have to have a direct consumer strategy in terms of delivery or are they just relying back on people coming in and sitting down? I think that, you know, L.A. is so spread out. I think that the convenience factor of delivery is huge; it's forever! Right? It's huge!
Yeah, I want to take you to a restaurant—it's 45 minutes away, right? It's a long drive after some O'Leary Fine Wines! Yeah, exactly! Is there any one theme of food type that you find is really taken off bigger than three years ago? You know, I think that we're seeing in L.A., especially right now, the evolution of the steakhouse.
You mean an upward move? An upward move—new places! I can't remember the last time you had so many new entries into such a classic genre! Right? Fox Hall Steakhouse in Culver City is amazing! Kent State La Cienega, steak 48 on Wilshire— all these new ones, that catch place is crazy! I love it! It's amazing!
So the idea is that it's a chop house, elevated, seafood, also salads, and I think atmosphere too, right? Gone are the days of like the business dinner steakhouse, right? You can go have a great time! We're making a little camembert meatball dip. We talked about snacking; how important having accessible finger-snacking foods is going to be!
We're gonna line this with meatballs, roll it all up, bake it off, and then you'll dip it in the camembert, almost like a meatball fondue! Okay! [Music]
What's going on with the slack? This is the—uh—the prime rib! We took it off the bone, we gotta lay it down nicely. We made a horseradish and a béarnaise. Yeah, this is the presentation! What's happening? I've got Ashley with the bones. Yeah, you can see those nice rib bones. Nothing more Sunday afternoon than eating a big piece of prime rib on the bone!
It's gonna take some of that orange juice to stop the magician's! A little Chef Wonderful horseradish sauce. Yeah, I put a little Chinese mustard in here to get a little bit of extra heat. Amazing!
Now this is what I'm talking about! This is tailgating! It's a big guy from LA, Chef Aaron May, baby! It's a wonderful pleasure cooking with you today! Wow!