Super Bowl Sunday Grilling Workshop Promotes U.S. Beef, Pork in Mexico

Using the 2019 Super Bowl as a draw, USMEF organized a game day celebration and grilling workshop featuring U.S. beef and pork in Aguascalientes, Mexico. Funded by the Beef Checkoff Program and the National Pork Board, the event featured top sirloin, inside skirt, ribeye, baby back ribs, pork belly and pork sausages served in tailgate party-style dishes – with USMEF educating consumers in Mexico how to prepare and serve them.

This poster promoted the Super Bowl Sunday grilling workshop organized by USMEF in Aguascalientes, Mexico

“The popularity of the National Football League continues to grow in Mexico, as more and more fans of American football gather together to celebrate their favorite teams and big games like the Super Bowl,” explained Lorenzo Elizalde, USMEF trade manager in Mexico. “We started the workshop two hours before opening kickoff and continued until the game was over. Some of our main commercial partners in the region participated. We were able to promote U.S. beef and pork and show participants that U.S. red meat is the best option, not only for the grill and outdoor occasions, but also during social gatherings and sporting events like the Super Bowl.”

The USMEF workshop promoted U.S. beef and pork for grilling in Mexican and American cuisine on Super Bowl Sunday

The USMEF grilling workshop taught participants how to prepare and cook various cuts of U.S. beef and pork

Participants included chefs representing some of the best restaurants in Aguascalientes. Pedro Martinez, lead chef at Hell’s Kitchen, a famous restaurant in the city, shared with his fellow chefs methods for preparing dishes with U.S. beef and pork cuts, as well as processed pork products. Among the dishes prepared and served were red chili made with U.S. ground sirloin and pork belly, baby back ribs with dark beer barbecue sauce, skewers of skirt steak, sausages with chimichurri sauce and ribeye hamburgers filled with manchego cheese and combined with pork belly.

Workshop, participants were divided into eight groups, each with its own station. Every station had a charcoal grill and all the ingredients and meat. A hands-on educational experience resulted, in which all participants had a chance to prepare and taste their own recipes.

The dishes were then shared once the Super Bowl started.

“We feel it was very important to organize this kind of workshop during an event like the Super Bowl because football fans in Mexico enjoy watching games in a social setting,” said Elizalde. “Americans have formed a tradition of combining social occasions and sporting events with the grilling of red meat, and we are working to establish that same sort of tradition.”