Chef Renee Kelly is in the market for some cute red-and-yellow Chiefs spirit wear for her Friday morning appearance on NBC’s “Today Food Loves Football” tailgate recipe contest.

“I have an old, very over-sized Chiefs sweatshirt — the kind you can wear seven layers under,” says the owner of Renee Kelly Harvest, a farm-to-table restaurant in Shawnee.

Kelly might want to give Megan Day a call. For the first game of the season between the Kansas City Chiefs vs. the New England Patriots, the Kansas City grill master and entrepreneur playfully faced off with chef Jason Santos from New England.

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Day scored big with her infectious enthusiasm and her recipes for Kansas City Ribwich and Smoky Kansas City Pit Beans.

Kelly will try to score another Kansas City win with her Sarsaparilla-Braised Beef Short Rib Sandwich with blue cheese and cabbage slaw and an Grown-Up S’mores.

“There’s bacon involved,” Kelly says coyly of her dessert — and “chocolate chip cookies just big enough to dunk in a glass of bourbon.”

Like Day, who appeared on The Food Network’s “Chopped,” the ever-upbeat Kelly has appeared on “Top Chef.

But the call from “Today” came just as Kelly had announced plans to close her farm-to-table restaurant Renee Kelly’s Harvest so she can focus on hosting a new TV show about Kansas chefs and farmers.

The new show is called “Harvest With Renee Kelly” and it airs 8:30 a.m. Sunday mornings on KCWE Channel 29.

Kelly will compete against a chef repping his tailgating skills for the Houston Texans. Kelly will appear in the 8 a.m. hour of the show and The Chiefs will go up against the Houston Texans at 7:30 p.m. Sunday in Houston.)

 
 

To reach The Star’s James Beard award-winning food editor Jill Silva: 816-234-4395, @kcstarfood

This story was originally published October 05, 2017 3:08 PM.