Patriots fans Molly Winsten (Sargent’18) (left) and Erin Truex (SSW’15) didn’t meet at BU, but as players on the offensive line of the Boston Renegades women’s professional football team. Photos courtesy of the Food Network

Food

Two Alums Crowned Winners on Food Network’s NFL Tailgate Takedown

Patriots fans Molly Winsten (Sargent’18) and Erin Truex (SSW’15) cooked up New England–inspired bites to wow the judges

Friends Molly Winsten and Erin Truex share two passions: playing competitive football on the Boston Renegades, a women’s professional team, and working in the culinary industry. They combined these talents for their winning turn on the new Food Network show NFL Tailgate Takedown.

The six-episode show, which wrapped February 8, pits two teams of two against one another every week and challenges them to dream up elevated spins on typical tailgate food. The show is hosted by Food Network star Sunny Anderson and Vince Wilfork, a Patriots Hall of Famer, three-time Super Bowl champ, and barbecue ribs aficionado. A rotating panel of judges determines the winners, and the champions win game tickets. 

Winsten (Sargent’18) and Truex (SSW’15) repped their beloved New England Patriots in the January 25 episode against two Chicago Bears fans. Their winning menu—which was completely gluten-free—consisted of items like fried clams with briney tartar sauce, lobster rolls, and deep-fried sausage bites coated in pancake batter and drizzled with spicy maple syrup. 

The Patriots-Bears face-off was filmed in October in the parking lot outside Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, home of the Pats. The home-turf advantage didn’t do much in terms of luck—the filming day was cold, windy, and rainy. 

“What you didn’t see was the entire [filming] team behind the camera that’s there to make sure you can work effectively,” Truex says. “In the crummy weather, we couldn’t get the fire started to boil our lobster. But there are producers on hand to figure out how, so it was helpful to have that team support us.”

Truex and Winsten hadn’t cooked together before, but both are comfortable in the kitchen. (Their opponents ran a restaurant together back home in Chicago.) Truex is director of development and communications at the nonprofit Mabel Center for Immigrant Justice, which provides pro bono legal representation to asylum seekers. On the side, she works as a bartender in her hometown of Salem, Mass., experience that came in handy when she and Winsten decided to introduce a mulled cider cocktail on their NFL Tailgate Takedown menu. 

Winsten is a registered dietitian with a master’s degree in nutrition from BU. She is a part owner and operations manager of Freedom Bakery, an allergy-friendly wholesale factory in Woburn, Mass. “My whole goal in life is to make the world more food-inclusive by coming at food from a science perspective,” says Winsten, who was diagnosed with a gluten allergy when she was 18. 

“I remember not feeling like myself, because I didn’t know what was gluten-free and what was safe to eat,” she says. “There just wasn’t a lot of understanding from the community in general, and I really wanted to change that.”

这两个朋友不是在波士顿大学认识的，而是在波士顿叛徒队的进攻线上认识的。今年7月，这支球队连续第四次获得女子足球联盟全国冠军。（特鲁克斯在赛季结束后退出了比赛。）她说，在某种程度上，美食电视网的比赛改变了他们的角色：特鲁克斯是温斯顿在橄榄球方面的导师，而在NFL Tailgate Takedown节目中，温斯顿则是领头羊。

温斯顿对在电视上展示自己的烹饪才能也并不陌生——她之前曾参加过Netflix的《最佳剩菜》和美食网络节目《面包师vs.骗子》的比赛，还在《蕾切尔·雷秀》上主持了一个对过敏无害的节日环节。她还与NFL电影(联合NFL后挡板拆卸)——显示拍摄了波士顿叛徒在他们2021年的总冠军之旅。

温斯顿说，NFL的车尾门事件听起来很有趣。“考虑合作伙伴的时候,我想到了我和工作,我知道可以处理自己在厨房里,”她回忆道。“我打电话给艾琳说，‘我们要这么做。’”

特鲁克斯可不这么肯定。“我对做这个节目没有兴趣，”她笑着说。“我讨厌电视。我不喜欢被关注。所以，她让我同意做这件事简直是个奇迹。”

观看上面的Tailgate Takedown的预告片

参赛者做的菜必须代表他们的家乡。温斯顿和特鲁克斯选择了“真正重要的新英格兰菜，但更高级，”温斯顿说。他们还遵循了早餐、午餐和晚餐的主题，“因为在新英格兰，你要参加一整天的车尾聚会，”特鲁克斯说。

完成的菜单包括一口大小的尾板小吃蘸酱（香肠咬），手持尾板菜（蒜蓉黄油龙虾卷配辛辣泡菜），以及尾板派对拼盘（鞑靼酱的全腹炸蛤蜊，葱和蓝奶酪的苹果沙拉）。

温斯顿设计的菜单完全不含麸质，以消除无麸质是没有味道的神话。她说：“无麸质食物可能很美味，而且并不令人生畏。”“证明它有竞争力真的很有说服力。”

爱国者队的球迷会很兴奋地得知，当他们获胜时，前新英格兰球员和职业名人堂成员安德烈·蒂皮特将“尤姆-巴蒂”奖杯交给了女子队。

“我们在我们的家乡，在第二轮输球后，保持冷静，保持头脑清醒，”温斯顿在演职人员名单上说。“我们做了那件该死的事。”

在这里观看完整的NFL追尾事件。