Super Bowl Celeb Food Fest May Be Biggest Ever

by Jennifer Lawinski, Posted Jul 23rd 2010 @ 4:30PM

While no one knows who will be duking it out in Super Bowl XLV next February in Dallas, the Taste of the NFL celebrity food fest held before the big game is on track to be the largest in history, the Dallas Morning News reported.

Event organizers say they expect to sell more than 3,000 tickets for meals made by at least 45 celebrity chefs, making it a record-breaker over 6 months before the first course is served on Feb. 5, 2011, the paper reported.

"This will likely be our biggest event from a ticket sales standpoint," spokeswoman Linda Bendt told the paper. "Anything over 3,000 would exceed previous events."

It is the twentieth Taste of the NFL event to be held on Super Bowl Eve to raise money to fight hunger.

Organizers say they're trying to limit ticket sales to make sure the chefs aren't biting off more than they can chew.

"These chefs are cooking extremely nice food," Bendt told the paper. "It's not about how many people can we fit in. It's about
making sure the food remains as high in integrity as we can. We want to make sure we're not pushing it too far."

This year's event features a "Flavors of North Texas" section and is hosted by Kent Rathbun, executive chef and partner in Kent Rathbun Concepts, operator of four local restaurants. Rathbun organized dinners at 10 North Texas restaurants to be held from September through November.

He told the Morning News attendance at past Taste of the NFL events was between 1,500 and 2,000 people.

In addition to the locals, celebrity chefs Bobby Flay, Tom Colicchio and Stephan Pyles -- "founding" chefs from the first bash -- are scheduled to cook.

Tickets cost $500 each. For $600 corporate-level seats are available, allowing early admission. Tickets went on sale June 15 at tasteofthenfl.com. North Texas dinners cost $125 plus tax and tip. Proceeds are split between the 32 NFL cities and 30 percent goes to the North Texas Food Bank.

"There's a bigger picture here than just a food and beverage party," Rathbun told the paper. "It's not a cheap ticket, but ... when you couple what you get with what you're doing for charity, I think it's a good deal."

Filed Under: Celebrities, Chefs, Events
Tags: nfl, super bowl, superbowl