Frying an egg on the sidewalk is so cliche.
Chef Heath Miles of Texas Motor Speedway went a step further recently and used the racetrack in Fort Worth as his personal griddle. He fried two eggs and even made a flatbread pizza, complete with melted cheese. The demo was the brainchild of the track's PR department and Miles was game.
"They asked if it could be done and I said, 'Let's try,'" he said by phone Tuesday. "If they can do it on the sidewalks in New York City, I knew we could definitely do it here in Texas."
The state has been mired in a triple-digit heat wave that gave the chef an opportunity for some culinary fun. The air temperature was 106 degrees, with the track surface registering close to 200 degrees -- easily hot enough to prepare a makeshift meal. The eggs took about twenty minutes to cook and the pizza was done in under a half hour.
Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage was the guinea pig for the asphalt appetizers. (Yes, he ate the food.) But did he know exactly how they were prepared?
"I think so," Chef Miles said coyly.
Miles, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, has been in charge of the food at the track and the exclusive Speedway Club since his arrival in 2008. He doesn’t have any plans to try and feed the masses this way, but Miles suggests his days of track cooking aren’t necessarily over.
"I might throw some bacon down there sometime," he said.
