Easy Entertaining_Fall19_Ed-final.qxp_Road Trip_Cinci.qxd 8/28/19 6:58 PM Page 22
food | easy entertaining
EASY ailgating entertaining T For us, the arrival of Fall whets our appetite not only for food, but for fun, cocktails, and the highspirited camaraderie and friendly rivalries that create lasting friendships and bring people together. (from left) Tim Laird, Carmelo Gabriele, Lori Laird, Paul Sant and Allen Sims.
22 Fall 2019 www.foodanddine.com
BY TIM & LORI LAIRD | PHOTOS BY DAN DRY
Every tailgater has his or her favorite recipes – and some of those recipes endure as family traditions that last for generations. But this season, we wanted to explore some new ideas. So we invited three of our favorite chefs with quite different culinary backgrounds to a recent tailgate party. And we asked them to create menus based on their own approach to the joys of pop-up communal cooking. Of our three chefs, only one grew up as a tailgater. But all of them have experienced the joys of gathering outdoors for a festive casual meal with family and friends. Each chef gave us the kind of “A Game” recipes that might
well become new traditions for us in the future. Allen Sims, who became Executive Chef at Buck’s last December, chuckles when asked about his tailgating history. “We never could afford to go tailgating,” he says of his childhood in western Michigan. “But I grew up like Tom Sawyer. I could walk to Lake Michigan and Mona Lake and take a fishing pole. You’d eat what you’d catch that day, and if you didn’t catch anything you didn’t eat.” Though Sims’ family didn’t tailgate, they would hit the beach, fire up a grill, and cook their catch. His memories of those beach parties are the inspiration behind this grilled