Revving up taste buds with a hot-rod chef

Max Jacobson

Wednesday, April 26, 2000 | 9:56 a.m.

Approximately 20 members of the Jeg's.com racing team are seated under a red canopy at a long picnic table, amidst a sea of long trailers and a cacophony of roaring engines. The setting: the pits at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The event: NHRA Pro Stock Drag Racing.

The time: lunch.

Just as cars run on fuel, people run on food. And so it is that the four sons of Jeg Coughlin, Sr., race drivers all, have employed the services of Ian Rough. Rough is the Coughlins' private chef, and just like the family, a Buckeye, a native of Columbus, Ohio.

A driving team having a chef is unremarkable. True, the private chef is normally the domain of wealthy entertainers or high society-types. But Jeg's.com, a successful mail-order high-performance product and accessory business for cars, boats and SUVs, can afford one. What makes the situation an exceptional one is that the 23-year old Rough is a recent graduate of the CIA -- Culinary Institute of America -- in Hyde Park, N.Y.

That means that this young man prepares some of the most interesting food you'll ever see within sparking distance of a fuel dragster. Most drivers and their crews make do with hot dogs, burgers, pizza and similar foods sold and eaten around a race track midway, or hire outside catering when they have visitors, or sit-down meals. The Coughlin boys -- from oldest to youngest: John, Troy, Mike and Jeg, Jr. -- had a better idea.

Today's menu, to be eaten just before preliminary time trials, turns out to be quite modest, but watching the chef work, you still get the idea that it is going to be a cut above. Rough, who could probably still get into a movie theater for half price, does all his cooking in a specially-equipped kitchen inside a huge trailer. The trailer is pulled from race to race by a semi truck.

Rough's ingredients, at the moment, are nothing more than those of an ordinary housewife: several large boxes of imported fusilli pasta, big wedges of Monterey jack cheese, cayenne pepper, a dozen-plus breasts of white meat chicken, eggs, milk, bread crumbs, butter, oil.

There are also boxes of Ritz Crackers, squeeze bottles of French's Mustard and jars of Claussen's Pickles on the sideboards, hardly gourmet foods. But inside a half-open cabinet there is a bottle of '95 Chateau Margaux, one of the world's more expensive wines. Clearly, someone around here takes food and wine seriously.

Meanwhile Rough is busy putting together a simple lunch of spicy mac and cheese, chicken fingers and fresh fruit salad. But he's also getting supper ready -- a sausage jambalaya made with andouille that he grinds and smokes back home in Columbus.

Scott Woodruff -- Woody, around here -- is director of relations for Jeg's. "Everyone on our team is a specialist," he says, "and Ian is just as important a part of our winning as the clutch man, the tire specialist or anyone who turns a wrench on a car."

He then goes on to talk about an artichoke pasta Rough prepared one evening in Pomona after an engine broke and the crew was forced to work past midnight. "It tasted a lot better than leftover pizza, and it really did a lot for everyone's morale."

Rough has many specialties. One of his signature dishes is spaghetti with pork and veal meatballs and fresh herbs, in a Chianti tomato sauce. Another of the dishes he prepares for the team with regularity is braised short ribs.

A lot depends on where the drivers are racing, and availability of local products. In Sonoma, Calif., for instance, his favorite place to cook because the local products are so good, he prepared the team a honey- and sesame-crusted salmon with Asian slaw and a wasabi soy dressing. Rough, who is single, is on the road more than half the year, in places such as Brainerd, Minn., Seattle, Texas and Georgia. He shops accordingly.

He didn't know much about where to shop in Las Vegas, he said, but now that he is better acquainted with local and farmers markets he plans to prepare something more creative next year when the team is here.

This is no small job. Rough cooks the food for 20-25 people daily, and does all the clean-up. He has no budget, per se, but because he has to please a variety of palates (wives, children, etc.) he tends to keep things basic, and rarely cooks anything terribly exotic.

That doesn't mean he doesn't have a good palate. He dined in Olives at the Bellagio when he was here, and was duly impressed by the quality and creativity. His favorite cuisine, he says, is anything from around the Mediterranean. His favorite store is Balducci's, an internationally renowned specialty food store in Greenwich Village, N.Y.

Finally the moment comes and lunch is served. This lunch is a casual affair, with real silverware, but with plastic plates and cups. What's more, it is served in the pit, between the team's two large trailers, and the noise is so deafening it is impossible to conduct an interview.

But the food is excellent, real all-American stuff, and the drivers have to be careful not to overdo it so they aren't sluggish when they drive. The mac and cheese is al dente, with a rich, creamy sauce shot through with undertones of spice. And the chicken fingers, which Rough has deep fried on top of a stove, are golden brown, moist and nicely crunchy -- real kid food, but also pleasing to the adults.

Dessert, made by one of the driver's wives, is a plate of sliced Bundt cake and some homemade cookies. About 20 people gobble it up in short order. Approximately one hour later the boys go out to race.

Jeg Jr. not only qualifies, he goes on to win a major Pro Stock race.

Now we know that he had more than one tiger in his tank.