Champions Dinner

As a chef who loves golf as much as he does food, occasions when these two worlds intersect are always a treat. My column title makes it pretty obvious, The Hungry Hacker is exactly who I am — a golf enthusiast who can sometimes shoot decent scores on the greens, as well as cook an edible meal.

In professional golf, the culinary world doesn’t make much of an appearance except for one night in April, at arguably the most prestigious tournament in the world.

The Masters Champions Dinner, a tradition since 1952, was started by golfing legend Ben Hogan.

For the past 73 years, the previous year’s champion has hosted a dinner for past champions on the Tuesday of tournament week.

Over those 73 dinners, the menus have been as diverse as the champions themselves.

For most international players, it’s an opportunity to host and serve something special from your country.

Of course, there are likely unwritten rules about what constitutes an acceptable fare. But that certainly wouldn’t stop a few past champions from sneaking in some exotic ingredients now and then.

Recent champions’ menus

This year’s Champions Dinner menu was posted a few days ago. Hosted by 2024 Masters Champion Scottie Scheffler, it’s almost the exact menu he served when he hosted in 2023, being the 2022 champion.

This year’s menu features Cheeseburger Sliders and Firecracker Shrimp as appetizers just like in 2023, with the addition of Papa Scheff’s Meatballs and Ravioli Bites for this year.

This is Scottie’s dig at himself, after his infamous injury over the holidays when he cut his hand making ravioli.

In 2023, Scheffler served Tortilla Soup as a first course, which he replaced with Texas Chili for this year’s dinner.

The rest of the menu is the same as 2023, with the mains being a choice between Ribeye or Blackened Redfish, and Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie for dessert.

Scheffler’s menu reflects his down-to-earth personality and Texas roots, which is sure to be a hit with the mostly American roster of past champions.

As a foodie, I would imagine that some champions have the potential to serve better menus than others. Jon Rahm being from Spain certainly pulled out all the stops for his own Champions Dinner.

Being from the Basque Country in Spain, food is a huge part of Rahm’s culture and his region serves some of the best food in the world bar none.

Rahm’s menu naturally features tapas and pintxos for appetizers, including Iberico ham, croquetas and Spanish tortilla.

He also served Spanish-style steak, Chuleton, and Turbot fish al Pil-pil. The past champions had a pretty good dinner in April last year.

Another Masters champion who I’m sure served some incredible food is Hideki Matsuyama.

Japan is known for its impeccable cuisine, and for his time as host, Hideki served the finest sushi and sashimi, as well as Yakitori (probably for those who can’t eat raw fish) for appetizers, Miso Black Cod and Miyazaki A5 Wagyu for the mains, and Japanese Strawberry (the finest and most expensive in the world) Shortcake for dessert.

Again, the menu reflects the Japanese culture of simplicity and perfectionism when it comes to food and ingredients.

Tiger Woods and Fuzzy’s fried chicken comment

Tiger Woods’ past menus mirrored his All-American background, serving steaks, Tex-Mex food like Fajitas, Western-style Sushi rolls and the like.

In his first hosting in 1998, Tiger served cheeseburgers, chicken sandwiches and milkshakes — comfort food that matched his youthful vibe in his early 20s.

An unsavory “joke” by former Masters Champion Fuzzy Zoeller during the 1997 Masters made the headlines along with Tiger’s dominant win.

Zoeller in an on-course interview commented that the reporters should congratulate Tiger and tell him “not to request fried chicken and collared greens” for the Champions dinner next year.

This attempt at humor was bashed for its racist undertone, which resulted in sponsors dropping Zoeller.

Fried chicken, collared greens, black-eyed peas, okra, ham hocks, corn grits, and many other Southern US regional specialties are closely associated with African American culture and slave food. Often collectively called “Soul Food,” these staples in African American cuisine, especially in the deep South where slavery was rampant, were the basis for Zoeller’s charged “joke” and understandably offended a lot of people. It showed the lack of sensitivity and the presence of racism in sports and golf at the time.

My own Champions Dinner menu

For fun, I tried to imagine what I’d serve in my own Champions Dinner.

While winning the Masters is out of my reach, creating a three or four-course menu is something I can easily do as a chef. I’ve noticed that past menus often avoid pork, with the mains usually being chicken, beef, or fish.

Excluding pork would also make the menu more representative of the Philippines and more inclusive of our Muslim brothers and sisters. So, what would my menu feature?

Gensan Tuna Kilawin served with Chicken Skin Chicharon for an appetizer and Sinigang na Ulang sa Sampaloc at Miso for the soup course.

For the mains, a choice between Beef Shortrib Caldereta or Seabass with Burnt Coconut sauce.

Finally for dessert, I’ll ask my wife to make her Bibingka Cheesecake and Mango-Kasuy Sansrival.

Now that my menu is settled, all I need to do is qualify and win the Masters. Simple!