Can ballpark food be transformed into a gourmet meal by a world-class chef?
That was the challenge faced by star chef Robert Irvine of Food Network’s “Dinner: Impossible” at a recent taping of the show at U.S. Cellular Field during a White Sox-Yankee game last week. It marked a first-time collaboration between Major League Baseball and the Food Network.
The unlikely pairing of baseball and food began when Irvine arrived at U.S. Cellular.
“I have no clue about this game. We play rounders,” said the British-born chef, who has cooked for royalty as well as four U.S. presidents. “What’s a World Series? How many innings?”
A few minutes later, White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen delivered the “mission” to Irvine from the giant DiamondVision screen overlooking the field. The challenge included throwing out the first pitch and cooking for a party of 150 guests on the fan deck, using food from the commissary warehouse. The meal had to be finished by the 7th-inning stretch.
After presenting Irvine with a list of commissary food, Ann Wheat, manager of White Sox Guest Services, escorted the chef, his sous chef David Britton, and former White Sox slugger Ron Kittle, who was enlisted to help in the kitchen, to the storeroom to gather ingredients for dinner.
“Give me some idea of what you eat at a ballpark,” Irvine asked as he ran through the warehouse with the camera crew in tow.
“Anything greasy,” Kittle replied.
Bypassing stacks of boxed corn chips, hot dog buns and pickles, the threesome piled ingredients on hand trucks. Among the chosen foods were bratwurst, Italian beef, corned beef, chicken wings, pizza sauce, American cheese slices, tamales, tortillas, margarita mix and Dippin’ Dots.
As they were leaving the warehouse, they were told that the elevator was at the other side of the stadium so they would have to carry everything up the stairs to the kitchen.
Sweating from the repeated trips up stairs with heavy food, the team was ready to cook — but the tiny commissary kitchen was outfitted with flat-top grills and deep fryers, and nary a saucepan was to be found.
Worst of all, they soon discovered that all the meat was frozen.
As the innings flew by, Kittle kept an eye on the progress of the game. At the top of the third, Kittle cheered his team on: “We can do it, we can do it.”
Adding to Irvine’s challenge was the fact that Mark Buehrle was pitching. “Of our five starting pitchers, [he] is our fastest,” said Scott Reifert, White Sox vice president of communications. “He’s among the very fastest in baseball. So, the luck of the draw isn’t in Robert’s favor.”
While the corned beef was steaming, the chefs tried to figure out how to cook frozen Italian beef. Putting it on a flat-top turned it to watery mush.
“Get rid of that,” Irvine shouted.
“The meat is full of water, I won’t serve that,” he said, dumping the meat into a garbage can. “Where’s the chicken? Cut them in half. I need 100.” There was panic in his voice.
Commissary employee Sherita Turner, who was enlisted to help, did what was asked and kept her cool, even when she brought the chef the barbecue sauce he’d asked for and discovered the box contained hundreds of tiny packets instead of bottles.
But things picked up when, adding margarita mix to Dippin’ Dots (a bite-sized ice cream snack), Irvine declared, “We have dessert!”
“Dinner: Impossible” executive producer Marc Summers was watching the action from the production tent on a split-screen TV.
“We didn’t know about the frozen aspect,” Summers said. “There’s no countdown clock here. The game could be over in an hour. I love it.” Summers knows that situations like these make great reality TV. “This is the toughest mission so far — no doubt.”
At the 7th inning, fans could be heard singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” The challenge was over.
Did the chef make it on time? Was the food good?
The White Sox fans who tasted it had a mixed reaction to the food, but most liked it. John Williams, a retired Chicago police officer who was the party host, said he liked the food and was happy to have the Food Network crew enliven his party.
Party guest Bill Olson agreed that the food “is different than anything you get at a regular ballpark. It throws a little curveball in there.”
“Having these things frozen was like a nightmare,” Irvine said. “I was trying to make gourmet food with no pots. This was the toughest challenge I’ve ever had. Not knowing the time — what’s an inning? It varies. Within 20 minutes two innings were over and I hadn’t started cooking.”
But it wasn’t the cooking that rattled him most.
“The first pitch was the most daunting thing,” Irvine said. “I’m an English guy who plays rugby and football. Nervous? I’ve cooked for heads of state and I wasn’t as nervous as going to that mound.”
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Catch the show
Want to see exactly what Robert Irvine and his team prepared at U.S. Cellular Field? The “Dinner: Impossible” episode will air at 9 p.m. July 22 on the Food Network cable channel.
