NHRA News: Jeg's chef taking drag racing to Food Network (2/26/2004)

Jeg's chef taking drag racing to Food Network

2/26/2004

Award-winning gourmet chef Nicky Morse, who prepares meals for the Jeg's Mail Order race team, will be featured on the Food Network's Top 5 show. A Food Network film crew was on hand in Pomona to film Morse at work for a show that will air in the summer.

Chef Nicky Morse prepares some food
in Team Jeg's travelling kitchen.
Racers Edge Photography

"Each year everyone on the team comes up with a list of personal goals and team goals," said Scott Woodruff, Director of Motorsports/Media for Team Jeg's. "Nicky is no different. Getting together with the group at the Food Network is something we have been working on for awhile and it was great to see everything come together, especially at the first race of the year. This was a team effort and the media department at NHRA played a vital role."

This isn't the first time the media's attention has focused on Morse, the only full-time chef employed by an NHRA race team. He's done countless interviews with local TV channels and newspapers around the country and has even prepared meals for music stars such as Faith Hill, Tanya Tucker, Randy Travis, and Alabama.

A highly-talented chef recognizes that 10 people at a table may mean 10 different food likes and dislikes. "No one walks away from my table hungry," Morse said. A cancer survivor himself, Morse also worked alongside Wolfgang Puck during Puck's Five Star Sensation fund raiser last June, raising $1.4 million for cancer research.

At the 44th annual K&N Filters Winternationals, Morse spent the day with a Food Network crew shadowing him to find out exactly what he does in his job at Team Jeg's. Interviewers peppered him with a slew of questions while filming Morse preparing lunch in the Jeg's pit.

The Food Network films a few crew members
eating the lunch Morse prepared.

On this particular day, lunch was sandwich fare, but for most people his spread would be a gourmet luncheon. The sandwich consisted of Tuscan flat bread with black Hawaiian sea salt, five kinds of salami, a boursin cheese spread, fontinella cheese, fried peppers, arugula, and a balsamic and blueberry honey glaze all topped with the famous "Uncle Ronnie's Pepper Oil." This sandwich was accompanied by a salad of tomatoes, fresh sugar snap peas, and reggianno, tossed with a light sweet basil oil. Dessert was apple and rhubarb pie with dried cranberries seasoned with Grand Marnier.

"Nicky was like a kid in a candy store," team patriarch Jeg Coughlin Sr. said. "Days before the Pomona when we would bring up the filming he would just start grinning from ear-to-ear. The grin never went away and he did a great job representing to sport of NHRA POWERade Drag Racing and Jeg's."

Despite the relaxed atmosphere around the pits, Morse still takes his job very seriously. It's his dedication to the job that garnered the attention of the Food Network.

"The opportunity to be a part of the Top 5 show is an incredible feeling," Morse said. "I feel honored to be chosen and doubly fortunate to be working with such a great racing team. I hope that our involvement in the show will help to introduce NHRA POWERade Drag Racing to a new audience in a memorable way."

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