Elise Jesse Shares Game Day Recipes on Today Show
The chef demonstrates two football-themed snacks ahead of the weekend broadcast.
Updated on Oct. 15, 2026 in Cooking
Live Poll
Do you believe adding secret ingredients like chocolate can improve traditional chili recipes?
Chef Elise Jesse appeared on the Today show to prepare brat and beer cheese pretzel poppers and Texas chili-loaded potato bites. These game-day recipes were featured as part of the Today Food Loves Football segment.
Why it matters
Jesse highlighted festive snacks ahead of the upcoming Sunday Night Football broadcast. She specifically incorporated chocolate into her chili recipe to provide additional depth to the flavor profile.
Elise Jesse boasts an audience of 91,000 followers on Instagram and previously competed on season 5 of the culinary series Next Level Chef. These statistics ground her recent appearance in a broader digital cooking landscape.
The players
Elise Jesse
Elise Jesse is a chef and social media personality who gained national recognition after appearing on season 5 of Next Level Chef.
The details
Jesse provided step-by-step instructions for preparing her football-themed dishes during the televised cooking segment. The Cincinnati-based chef used a unique technique by adding chocolate to her Texas chili to create a more complex flavor profile for the potato bites.
Timeline
October 15, 2026: Elise Jesse appeared on the Today show.
November 2026: Elise Jesse plans to launch a virtual cooking club.
Culture Shift
This appearance follows the career exposure patterns set by the Next Level Chef competition series. It reflects the broader transition of professional chefs toward building independent digital brands and virtual communities.
Home cooks can replicate these professional-grade snacks for their own football viewing parties by following the methods demonstrated by Jesse. The addition of chocolate to chili serves as an actionable technique for readers to elevate their own game-day spreads.
The takeaway
Incorporating unconventional ingredients like chocolate into savory dishes can significantly alter a flavor profile. Readers can try adjusting their own chili recipes with a small amount of dark cocoa or chocolate for added complexity.
What happens next
Elise Jesse is scheduled to launch a virtual cooking club in November 2026.
Further reading
Find more inspiration for your next meal in the Cooking section.
More information
View the full recipes for football dishes on the program's official resource page.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Cincinnati.
Live Poll
Do you believe adding secret ingredients like chocolate can improve traditional chili recipes?
