Meat The Blog Chef

I’ve teased this for a few days now, but I am thrilled to introduce our resident blog chef, Chef Nick! I’ll be honest, I specialize in breakfast and dips, so naturally, I think I shine during football season (breakfast isn’t exactly football food, but these London games let me flash my skills). Regardless, for you, my dedicated sun-babes, I wanted something a litttttle better, and heck, I want to do better too! Chef Nick isn’t some random chef off the street, he is hand-selected by the blog staff (aka me) because I’ve personally eaten his food and it is an EXPERIENCE. Shout-out to my little sister for being a genius that dates a chef, and now we want the readers to get to know the guy behind the apron! We did a little Q&A below, but feel free to leave more questions in the comments!

What role cooking has played in your life?

Cooking is my driving force, I love it and I’m good at it. I hope everyone can find something in their lives to be passionate about and excel in.

Where are some of the amazing places you’ve worked over the years as dated by the Super Bowls you most likely spent in those restaurants? (After all, Philly is known for its ridiculously awesome food scene. Highlighted by Top Chef winners, James Beard chefs, modern restaurant concepts, and some really iconic chicken sandwiches!)

Over a dozen restaurants in and around Cape May (Ebbitt Room, Tisha’s, Peter Shields, Congress Hall, Beach Plum Farm, Black Duck, Pilot House, Fins)

Philadelphia Cricket Club, known for our smoked wings that we sold THOUSANDS of for Super Bowl Sunday 2014, 2015, 2016.

TradeWindsBYOB (a 26-seat funky Hawaiian/Korean fusion – totally should have made it on Triple D) was closed for Super Bowl Sunday 2017 and 2018 after brunch service.

The Union League of Philadelphia

Watched Super Bowl Sunday 2019 in the kitchen while cooking food for 1500 members.

Super Bowl Sunday 2020?

WholeFoods Market, supervising a kitchen cranking out hundreds of thousands of dollars a month in revenue.

What is your favorite football memory associated with food?

Easy. The spicy sausage dip (my first recipe for the site!). Introduced and made famous by my cousin Janis, yet the true origins are unknown. She brought it to Super Bowl 2003, when the Oakland Raiders got spanked by Tampa Bay 48-21. So I can’t take full credit for the recipe but I have tweaked and improved it over the years. I’ve been making this dip for football, family gatherings, parties, weddings, birthdays, baby showers and Super Bowl parties for about 17 years now. I even bribed some Ocean City(NJ) cops with it back in my college days.

Editor’s note- This is the first of many iconic recipe’s Chef Nick will post! Check it out so you can wow your family and friends this Sunday!

This is one of the most important questions I ask people when it comes to Sundays, what is your favorite way to watch a football game?

At home with close friends and great family. The bar crowd can keep their cheap beer, I like my couch.

I can’t sleep at night if I don’t know your favorite reality tv show, what is your must-watch show?

Top Chef on Bravo, as I aspire to compete one day, or I could take the easy way and play a chef on Below Deck for a while.$$

(Editor’s note- I love Top Chef, great choice! Yacht chef looks like a really hard job as a viewer of Below Deck, but I am here for these Bravo selections!)

Tell the readers about your fantasy football team, how’s the squad shaping up this season? 

I decided to call my team CHEFitUP, hardly witty but kind of loud. I wanted to say hey it’s my first time in an ‘Official’ fantasy league but f*** it, let’s dance. My team isn’t horrible but I’m sure it has plenty of room for improvement. My loving girlfriend vowed to help me out a little and we put together a decent roster. Speaking of my girlfriend, Madeleine (editor’s note- my lil’ sis, hi girl!), she was a sports management major in college and takes fantasy seriously (editor’s note-runs in the fam). It’s my first time. But I’m confident that if I put my mind to it, I can learn the game and make a few strategic moves early on. Everyone loves an underdog story after all, am I right?

Editor’s note- New to fantasy, hopefully, he checked out our Essential SSFS Rookie Fantasy Football Toolkit, our very first post!