Food & Drink

Veggie fav kale will be served at Super Bowl

The chefs at MetLife Stadium are pulling a quarterback sneak on football fans for the big day — slipping healthy kale into the menu along with other more typical gridiron grub.

“Kale is so trendy right now,” said Eric Borgia, executive chef for Delaware North Sportservice, which is overseeing the food at the Super Bowl.

“Every book you open up, it’s all about kale and kale chips. And it’s good for you,” said Borgia, who created a chicken-sausage and Tuscan kale sandwich as a twist on the street-fair stalwart of sausage-and-pepper subs.

The fancy offering is just one of the special items Borgia created for the big game — a menu he considers a culinary love letter to New York and the Garden State.

It’s dubbed the “Home Food Advantage.” The boroughs “are melting pots for so many different cultures. We wanted the stadium to look, smell and taste like New York City, whether it’s street festivals or [Brooklyn’s] Smorgasburg, where all of the food trucks hang out,” he said.

Borgia, who hails from South Philly, cooked up dishes typical of four boroughs and the Jersey Shore to offer along with the usual chicken fingers and pretzels.

The kale and chicken sausage represents Manhattan, he said.

He plucked his own grandmother’s recipe for rice balls to give Seattle and Denver natives a taste of Brooklyn. His Nana Fusco’s version has eggplant, tomato and ricotta salata.

For Queens, Lucky’s Asian Street Food stand will be serving up pork and chicken steam buns with pickled slaw and spicy sriracha aioli.

A grilled chicken hoagie with broccoli rabe and provolone will represent The Bronx, and a Philly cheesesteak should harken to boardwalk fare from the Jersey Shore, he said.

One borough not recognized by Borgia’s locally inspired feast is Staten Island, although Borgia says fuhgeddaboudit to those thinking it was a deliberate snub.

“There’s nothing personal about Staten Island,” he said of the omission. “We went through all of the boroughs, and as soon as we got to Staten Island, we realized we hadn’t done anything for New Jersey.

“The game is being played there, and the Jersey Shore took such a huge hit with Sandy, so we thought it would be nice to do a little homage to the Jersey Shore.”

The menu-planning has been going on since the stadium was awarded the game four years ago, he said.

Borgia and the bigs at Delaware North Cos., which runs the catering at Metlife and other stadiums across the country, attended the past two Super Bowls to get up to speed on offerings.

They will be flying in 30 additional chefs from their other venues to bulk up Borgia’s staff for the big day.

Not surprisingly, Borgia said he’s personally partial to Nana Fusco’s rice balls.

“It’s the kind of comfort food that warms you up . . . And it’s friendly to a stadium because you can eat it out of a cup with a fork,” he said.