- 23 hours ago
Bon Appétit spends a day on the line with Chef Jason Eksterowicz of Citi Field, home of the New York Mets and America's best stadium food. From pastrami nachos, Korean fried chicken, and a Michelin-starred pastry chef, see how an award-winning MLB food operation comes together before first pitch to feed more than 40,000 baseball fans.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00At Citi Field, home of the New York Mets,
00:02we are four-time champs of best stadium food.
00:07We still do the things that keep the lights on,
00:10the hot dogs, the chicken tenders, the burgers.
00:12Here, you can get cool and unique items,
00:14such as the pastrami nacho or a crazy fun egg roll.
00:19Our pastry chef is Michelin-starred.
00:22We're doing a kimchi Reuben.
00:23We've got Korean fried chicken.
00:25We literally have something for everyone.
00:28We have two sit-down restaurants on property.
00:32We're up to five VIP club areas.
00:34As senior executive chef, I oversee everything.
00:37I happen to believe we have the best program
00:40in all of sports and entertainment.
00:48Good morning. Welcome to Citi Field.
00:50It's 11 a.m. We're just waking up the beast.
00:53We've got a lot to do. Let's come on in.
00:56So here we are in the Jackie Robinson Rotunda in a couple of hours.
01:00This is where about 40,000 fans will pile into the stadium.
01:03As of right now, we've got a little VIP lunch to take care of.
01:08So welcome to the Delta Sky 360 Club.
01:12This is for our premier guests.
01:14So anyone that you would see sitting behind home plate
01:17has access to this club.
01:19So today's lunch is for the Mets front office staff.
01:22They'll reach out to us and then we'll curate different menus
01:25based off of what they want.
01:27Do they want a working lunch?
01:28Do they want something that's maybe handheld?
01:30Are they going to sit down?
01:31It's easier to sit at a high top like this,
01:34but a lot easier to use a fork and knife when you're sitting
01:37at a table and you're relaxing and you're doing that.
01:39So based on the different parts of the ballpark,
01:41and then what we have available is kind of how we'll curate the menu.
01:45Here during a game, we'll have anywhere from 400 to 600 fans in here.
01:51They take part in ballpark station.
01:53Everything you love at a ballpark.
01:55Back here, they're setting out all of the desserts.
01:58Here they can choose their ice cream.
02:00We get these cool branded ice cream.
02:02So can't go wrong here.
02:03They get their little let's go Mets chocolate or vanilla,
02:07and then they can kind of top it with any of the toppings,
02:11M&Ms, Oreos, marshmallows, whipped cream, cherries.
02:15So here is our sushi station.
02:19We have a team of sushi chefs on property.
02:23Every game, they'll be rolling here later on for the fans.
02:27They actually also roll in our concession stands
02:29and they'll also roll in your suite.
02:32This is our ballpark station.
02:33Later on, we'll have popcorn.
02:35We'll have pretzels.
02:36We'll have a chafing dish here for our sliders.
02:39Today for the lunch, we've transitioned into some unique offerings.
02:43Paul, who curated this whole menu,
02:45actually just dropped off our Caprese burger.
02:48It's got a lot of the flavors that you would get in like a meatball.
02:51And then here are our nachos.
02:53So pita chips, pastrami, caramelized onion in there,
02:56caramelized sauerkraut, dill pickles,
02:59a little bit of a Thousand Island drizzle,
03:01and then the Swiss cheese fondue.
03:02And this is a little bit of an insight into what we do,
03:06where we take flavor profiles and then serve them in completely unique and different ways.
03:13All right. So lunch is looking good.
03:15Everything's checked down.
03:16It looks like we're ready to go.
03:17Some of the guests are starting to arrive.
03:18So now we'll go on to our next meeting of the day.
03:22So when we talk about unique and different things,
03:25you know, a lot of people say,
03:26what do you guys do when there's no baseball?
03:28In about three hours,
03:30this place will be buzzing with 40,000 fans.
03:33But for right now, we've got people spraying the seats down,
03:36cleaning the stadium,
03:37and we've got some of the military guys out there enjoying softball and going from there.
03:43Let's head up and we'll go to our pre-shift and make sure everything is good for the game.
03:50So on our way to the meeting, we'll check out a couple of the kitchens.
03:53Here we have our visiting team clubhouse.
03:55So right now we have the St. Louis Cardinals in-house.
03:59Not a lot of people realize that here in this stadium,
04:02we also cater to the visiting clubhouse.
04:05And we help out a little bit with the Mets clubhouse as well,
04:08with different stuff that they might want throughout the ballpark.
04:10But we'll continue on down the hall.
04:12You're going to see a lot of pallets lined up for deliveries to go up to the concession stands.
04:16You're going to see, you know, bags of popcorn that we just popped downstairs.
04:20A lot of employees coming in.
04:22On property, we have close to 150 different kitchens.
04:26Some of them are large, some of them are small.
04:28It's all serviced by this one kitchen right behind me.
04:31It's what we call our commissary kitchen.
04:34In here, we have our bakery.
04:36So we have everything set up for today's game.
04:39All here on these speed racks to go upstairs.
04:42Everything that you would see over here on the board is for the homestand.
04:46So all of our different drops, all of our different attendances with all of our different clubs.
04:51These guys supply all of the sweet treats for the entire ballpark out of this set of tables right here.
04:58They're cracking away and no one's running around, which is a good sign.
05:01So it means we're on track and we're doing good.
05:04So this is Julie. She's our executive pastry chef here.
05:07The pastry team consists of 16 people.
05:10But as you can see, everyone has a different project to do.
05:13So we're all working simultaneously starting from 5 a.m. is the earliest crew.
05:18And my latest crew comes in at 2 p.m.
05:20So it's really a full day to make sure it's all done.
05:23So each day there's different desserts in all of the different clubs because we are pastry people and we're creative
05:29and we like to constantly be doing new things.
05:31So unique aspect of this kitchen is we have all of the firepower to do savory.
05:37You know, this is where we're making things in hundred pound batches.
05:40We're bringing things in by the palette here.
05:43They're heating up cheese sauce to make mac and cheese.
05:46Down the line, they're doing a New York staple.
05:49We do ketchup braised onions here.
05:51It's one of those hot dog cart items that you got to have.
05:55We fire all of our pastrami from the ovens down here.
05:58We do all of our smoking in the big smoker back there over in the corner.
06:03Four o'clock, it's nothing but non-stop food moving out of this kitchen and up into the ballpark.
06:14We're here on the fourth floor, our suites level, a left field, third base at the Empire Club.
06:20This is where we keep our ballpark items.
06:22So we'll have hot dogs, we'll have our sauerkraut, our ketchup braised onion, our chicken tenders.
06:27We've got our popcorn machine.
06:29There's Cracker Jacks and peanuts all throughout the club.
06:32Up here is probably what I think is one of the best seats in the house.
06:36These ticket holders get something a little bit different.
06:39We'll hawk a concessions item up here.
06:42Hawking is when we're going to deliver the food right to your seat.
06:45You know, all of those guys, you see peanuts, popcorn, Cracker Jacks, hot dogs screaming in the stadium.
06:50It's something different every game.
06:51The fan doesn't know that it's coming.
06:54Could be anything from Shake Shack to those egg rolls that everyone hears about.
06:58So it's kind of that fun little, you know, pop up, if you will, within the club.
07:03All right, so it looks like some of the chefs are arriving.
07:06I have nine chef de cuisines throughout the building, stationed in different areas.
07:12We're going to go over our plan for the day and the rest of the homestand.
07:15All right, guys, you know the deal.
07:17Julie, what do you got going on?
07:18Tomorrow we have a thousand people in bullpen as well as testing out the cupcakes and cookies for the concert
07:26coming up.
07:27Drew?
07:28We got to get the meats ready tonight for tomorrow morning for the thousand people that Julie was just talking
07:33about.
07:33It's just hot dogs and pretzels.
07:35This way it takes some of the pressure off of us in the morning so we can get the clubs
07:39out.
07:39That's pretty much it.
07:40On top of it being the quick turnaround tomorrow, we'll also have a heat wave, right?
07:45So make sure these guys are hydrating early today, right?
07:48Because if they don't, then it's too late.
07:51The humidity is going to be crazy.
07:54That means the bread.
07:55So Lou, make sure your guys are keeping an eye on the bread.
07:58Let's have a good game and it's going to be busy.
08:01So that's all I got.
08:03Let's go next.
08:05We've got a little bit of downtime now and then we'll be back at it for the safety meeting.
08:10Now we're going to check out our Cadillac club.
08:12All right.
08:13So earlier I talked about there being a different vibe in different parts of the club.
08:17This is our Cadillac club.
08:18So it has a little bit of that speakeasy kind of cigar lounge type of feel.
08:24This isn't generally the way to get in, but it's kind of a cool little back scene tour.
08:28Most fans are entering from the outside.
08:31They have direct access through this door to come right in.
08:34So fans will come in.
08:35They'll come through the door.
08:36They'll enjoy a cocktail.
08:37And of course, say the magic words.
08:39Let's go Mets.
08:40We'll hit the button.
08:42The door opens and then we have access into the ball game.
08:46So we'll go up and we'll check out the rest of the club.
08:50Welcome to the Cadillac club.
08:52You're literally right on right field.
08:55So a guest can take their seat here.
08:58The cup holders actually ice over to keep your beverages cold down here.
09:03I can't tell you how many times a baseball has flown in here.
09:06There is a little gap in the top of the ceiling out there.
09:09So as a baseball hits the netting, it kind of rolls down and drops right on your lap.
09:14When it comes to the food, you know, a lot of different handheld foods.
09:18There's always a salad.
09:19We have hot dogs down here.
09:21There's going to be three featured items as well.
09:24Not so much a carving station.
09:26This is almost like that cocktail cool vibe.
09:29All of our clubs are outfitted with induction.
09:33So everything we have here, what we call in the chef world as bottom heat, top heat.
09:37Depending on what food we have is what heat we're going to use.
09:40We want to leave it open to both.
09:42So we've got a little safety meeting that we do about once a month.
09:45We're going to pop up there.
09:46We're going to address the staff.
09:48So let's take a trip upstairs.
09:56All right, so we're on our way to the safety meeting.
09:58But real quick, a cool little spot that no one ever sees about is the bullpen access here at the
10:04stadium.
10:05So here's where our pitchers would warm up and hopefully come in to save the game.
10:10So we're going to head this way to the safety meeting.
10:14I want to thank you guys for coming to this month's safety meeting.
10:18It's going to start to be hot, even hotter.
10:20So I want to make sure that you guys are all staying hydrated.
10:24The humidity over the next couple of days is going to be high.
10:27High humidity means that things that we produce are going to go moldy a lot faster.
10:34So we all know the bread, the fruits, all of that that are out.
10:38So please, let's make sure we're keeping an eye on those.
10:42We're looking at everything we're serving before we open the gates.
10:47All right, so safety meeting's over.
10:49We're going to start checking the ballpark and get the game started.
10:57Right here on the right hand side, you'll see the locker room.
11:01So we're going to go down and we're going to check out the cold push now.
11:03We're going to start pushing out cold food into our different luxury suites
11:07and we'll see where they are with their cold food delivery.
11:10Gates here at the stadium are 540 today.
11:15So 540 is when we start to do hot push in the stadium in order to get everyone their hot
11:21food.
11:22Cold push, we would start an hour before that.
11:25And that's just to get all of the beverages, all of the fridges stocked,
11:29and then all of the cold food into the different areas.
11:33So this is Chris. He's one of our suite runners.
11:35He's going to pick up suite 225 today and we're going to deliver it.
11:39We have up to roughly around 55 luxury suites on the second floor.
11:46So we'll do this for all of our suites.
11:48Not only do we do things like crudités and fruit and the normal things that you would find anywhere,
11:55he just pulled out the lobster rolls.
11:57We're also giving truffle and caviar experiences, champagne.
12:01We'll do almost like your table side guacamole experience in the suite.
12:05We'll pull up with a cannoli cart where we'll fill cannolis with all different flavorings and garnishes all within the
12:12suite.
12:13We'll pop into commissary just to ask like all good, everything good.
12:18If you remember earlier, we were kind of full of speed racks and everything.
12:22Now the speed racks have started to empty out.
12:25But right now you hear a lot more of the hustle bustle.
12:27This kitchen is a lot busier than what we saw.
12:31We're starting to produce all of our small cookies for walk-off cafe for our warm cookie buckets.
12:37It looks like they're cutting strawberries at the end of the table for our chocolate covered strawberries located up on
12:44the fifth floor in the candy shop.
12:46Once we get this far into production, this is a good roadmap.
12:49It's going to let us know where we're going, but the ship is already moving.
12:53So a lot of it is, okay, how are we not going to fall behind for tomorrow?
12:57How are we going to keep up, keep going and get stuff prepped out for the next day?
13:01These guys have a pretty good 81 game plan where they've got the entire season laid out.
13:07A lot of our clubs go off of a 21 to 28 game rotation.
13:11So a club members only going to see the same menu three, maybe four times in the seasons.
13:18It's kind of a machine and it just keeps going.
13:21We just got to make sure we keep feeding the machine.
13:24We're going to head up to the restaurant and make sure everything up there is going good.
13:28This is the steakhouse here at the stadium.
13:31So it's our fine dining steakhouse.
13:33Third base is probably located right through the wall over there.
13:36This is Shannon.
13:37Every day we kind of go over reservations, different VIPs, stuff like that.
13:43We got 43 reservations tonight.
13:45One large party coming in right at game time.
13:47And then a couple special birthday dinners.
13:50Awesome.
13:51Should be a pretty chill night here at the chop house.
13:53An area that not many people know about.
13:55If you come back here, we'll play the Cardinals tonight.
13:58You can actually see the Cardinals down here right now taking batting practice within their locker room.
14:05So kind of a very cool, unique way to take in the ballpark experience.
14:09Fine dining steakhouse overseeing the guys downstairs.
14:12They obviously can see us up here.
14:14It's why they're all looking at us.
14:16Kind of cool when you start walking past the TVs.
14:18Now you can see the fans start to line up.
14:20You can start to judge how busy we're going to be.
14:23How hard gates are going to be.
14:25On this side of this club, we'd like to keep it a little bit more concessions based.
14:29Although it does look like just another concession stand.
14:32This is actually all of our premium areas within the entire ballpark located in one spot.
14:37So that those guests can get up here, get some air conditioning, maybe get a really nice dessert.
14:42Get something really nice that could be located out in center field and get back to their seat in a
14:47relatively quick amount of time.
14:50They're starting to put food up now.
14:52We have our chopped cheese here.
14:55We also have our pastrami sandwich.
14:58We have the fried pickles.
14:59We have the shaved pork sandwich.
15:01We have the La Frida steak sandwich.
15:04All of these different offerings all located at one area.
15:07When generally one stand would just offer one of these.
15:11So here we kind of roll it all up into one.
15:13We'll come around here.
15:15We'll pop over and we'll check out the desserts.
15:17Can't go wrong with our Mets themed stuff.
15:19So Mets cupcakes, rainbow cookies, a huge thing in New York.
15:23We make our own marshmallows.
15:25So chocolate covered marshmallows, jumbo cannolis, Oreo dip cheesecake, carrot cake, our Mr. Met whoopie pie, more Mets donuts.
15:34Everyone knows we hit a home run.
15:37The apple comes up in center field.
15:39It's kind of that cool, iconic thing.
15:41We took the apple or the idea of the apple and then melded it with a candy apple.
15:46And now we have the home run candy apple.
15:49Definitely something unique, something iconic to the ballpark.
15:52All right. So we've checked out the clover level.
15:54Looks like everything's here.
15:55Gates have started to open.
15:57Fans are starting to arrive.
15:58We've been all over the stadium.
15:59I'm going to head back in.
16:01It was great spending the day with you.
16:02You guys have a great day.
16:03Let's go Mets.
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