While you spend Saturday prepping wings and seven-layer dip for the Super Bowl, guests at the Taste of the NFL in Las Vegas will be noshing on Bethesda’s Mark Bucher’s Bourbon-Espresso Rubbed Beef Tenderloin Sliders for a good cause.
The sliders will be featured on a menu with dishes by other celebrity chefs including Andrew Zimmern, Carla Hall, Tim Love and Lasheeda Perry.
“It’s nice to be recognized and to be included every year on a national level to not only feature our food, and I feature Medium Rare secret sauce on everything that I prepare, but also to represent [Montgomery County],” Bucher.
Money raised from the $1,200 tickets will go to GENYOUth’s End Student Hunger Fund. The event was established in 1992 and takes place every year during Super Bowl weekend wherever the game is that year, according to the website. Last year’s Taste of the NFL “delivered a collective impact of $1.8 million and 100 million school meals delivered to students in high-need communities,” the website said.
In addition to the celebrity chefs, the event will feature over 25 local Las Vegas chefs, and attendees can sample the cuisine if they purchase a VIP ticket online. All event proceeds go to the philanthropic cause.
The event is on Saturday from 3 to 7 p.m. at the Keep Memory Alive Event Center in Las Vegas, and at least 30 NFL legends will be attending, along with Miss America. There will also be a special Cirque du Soleil performance.
Bucher said he has hosted for the last four years.
“It’s one of the biggest, most fun events of the weekend for sure, and I’m honored to have been asked [to host] and certainly to volunteer my time,” Bucher said.
Not going to Vegas? You can still donate to GENYOUth on the Taste of the NFL’s website.
Bucher lives in Bethesda, and Medium Rare, a steakhouse that he opened in 2011, has a location there at 4904 Fairmont Ave., as well as locations in Washington, D.C.; Baltimore, Maryland; Arlington, Virginia; and New Orleans, Louisiana.
Bucher also founded Feed the Fridge, an organization that places fridges around the Washington, D.C. area and fills them with food for people who need meals. He said that the organization also delivers holiday meals to seniors who cannot leave their homes. It was first created to meet the needs of people during the height of COVID-19.