Joe Cahn, middle, is the self-proclaimed Commissioner of Tailgating.
Left, is a guy who demonstrates why I don't mess with Philly fans. Photo courtesy of Joe Cahn
Let me start out by saying I’m incredibly jealous of Joe Cahn’s “job.”
He travels the country, meets tons of cool people, and grubs with them.
That my friends, is what we here at the Concession Stand call a dream job.
Cahn travels around as a professional tailgater (is there a website where I can apply for this job?) and has tailgated at more than 500 stadiums and traveled some 500,000 miles on this 14-year journey. The Fort Worth resident (and New Orleans native) also has his own TV show now on TLC called “Tailgate Takedown” where he searches for the country’s top tailgaters.
Cahn, 61 (“24 in tailgate years” he says) was kind enough to chat with me about being the Commissioner of Tailgating, this weekend’s playoff match ups (watch out for brisket vs. bratwurst), what NFL city would win the Super Bowl of tailgating, and he also gives us a recipe to try.Oh, and by the way, the guy used to run a cooking school in New Orleans. He knows a thing or two about good food.
CS: Will you be at any of the games this weekend?
JC: I went to the Dallas (vs. Philadelphia) game last weekend. I had some great BBQ. But this weekend I’m going to see how it is to watch it on multi televisions in a sports bar and save everything for the Super Bowl and the Pro Bowl.
CS: If there was a Super Bowl of tailgating, which NFL city would win and why?
JC: Well, I would think you would have places like Houston, which has really embraced tailgating with the Texans and there’s probably more family tailgates than any other city. It’s more families, more children, more young children and more people who are coming to the tailgate who don’t have tickets (to the game); Texas hospitality to visitors and fellow tailgaters alike.
Kansas City, you can see the smoke rise on the horizons. Planes can’t fly over the stadium because of the smoke.
CS: Really?
JC: No. I made that up. But it sounds good.
Green Bay, it’s bratwurst and hospitality. Just about every city, it would be close; whether it’s San Francisco, Oakland or San Diego, whether it would be New England or Miami or Philadelphia or Chicago. They are all in the hunt for the Super Bowl of tailgating. Too close to call, but I’d like to be the referee.
Cahn, left, stirs up a big pot of jambalaya. Photo courtesy of Joe Cahn
CS: Out of those eight cities (left in the playoffs) what was your overall favorite tailgating dish you had and why?
JC: Baltimore has regional food, we’re talking about crab cakes. We put the crab cakes against Midwestern food meat and potatoes (for Indianapolis). Hard to handicap that one. It comes very close.
We go up to Minnesota, playing Dallas, it’s brisket vs. bratwurst. It could slightly favor brisket but I don’t know...
I am New Orleanian. I’m from New Orleans and I have to favor New Orleans over anybody. It has its own cuisine. But Phoenix has some incredible Tex-Mex and incredible Southwestern cuisine. But I’d give the edge there to New Orleans.
San Diego and the Jets is a toss up. You can’t get any further away than that. It’s a lot of skirt steak and a lot of guacamole (in San Diego). With the Jets, every ethnic group is represented, whether it be Italian or Irish or German, the Jets’ stadium is virtually a smorgasbord. The Jets and Giants probably lead the league in diversity.
CS: What gave you the idea to be the Commissioner of Tailgating?
JC: This is my 14th year. I have been to over 500 stadiums and covered over 500,000 miles. Tailgating has become the new American social. We don’t have block parties anymore, 4th of July picnics…the community (now) gathers in a parking lot, whether it be pro, college, or Nascar or polo, or Jimmy Buffet concerts. It’s all about the socialization of America eating well.
CS: Did you ever imagine tailgating would lead to so many opportunities for you? You have a TV show now right?
JC: "Tailgate Takedown." In the beginning it’s what I wanted to do. In 1996 I went to every NFL stadium in a season and wanted to do a TV series on the road in my motor home. This is before the food channel and everything else. After the first three or four years I didn’t want a TV series. When I signed the contract with TLC I was asked 'are you excited?'
(I said) I am excited…but to tell you the truth it cuts into my tailgating time. It’s not work work, but it’s cutting into my tailgating time. I don’t get to be with my friends, I don’t get to walk around as much, and that’s very important to me.
CS: Do you actually go and see the games afterwords?
JC: What game? There’s a game after tailgating? I was wondering where everyone was going. I gotta write this down and put it on my website. (laughing)
Very rarely do I go in and the reason I don’t go in is I’m a fan of every team. I root for the home team. Wherever I am, I am a fan of that team. I have jerseys from every team. I have learned not to go inside because I go nuts.
CS: Why do you think food is so intertwined with sporting events?
JC: We have something in common. Normally a sporting event — that’s what makes football so ideal — normally it’s on a weekend where we have leisure time. No. 2, there’s a big area for this to happen; there’s a big parking lot that we can bring our grill, bring our tables. It is a very large area. We come out and we celebrate the team; not only the team, but the city. We come out to Baltimore we not only celebrate the Ravens, we celebrate Baltimore and the area of Baltimore. It’s an ideal place to have sports as the catalyst for the city.
Football is so ideal also because the time of year. It’s fall. Sociology and anthropology show it’s a time of year that we have to fatten up ourselves for the winter. So we have the fattening up that is still very much, I think, active in our brains.
CS: One recipe on your site I should try?
JC: They’re all really good. The simplest one is my jambalaya recipe. It’s an easy dish to do and feeds a lot of people. You can make it with anything. You can make anywhere from a vegetarian jambalaya to a seafood jambalaya and everything in between.
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The Concession Stand would like to thank the Commissioner of Tailgating for taking the time to talk. If you'd like more info on "Tailgate Takedown" or more recipes from the Commissioner, check out his website at www.tailgating.com/
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