When you cover soccer in the United States, you get used to conducting your interviews without interruption. Conversations with players like Clint Dempsey and Zlatan Ibrahimovic usually take place in controlled settings, tucked away from the public eye. As the sport continues to grow in popularity, players can still go unrecognized outside of a soccer environment—a point hilariously proven when a fan asked Bastian Schweinsteiger to take a photo of herself with other Chicago Fire players.



But try taping an interview with a celebrity chef as members of the public are eating and drinking next to their favorite contestant from a reality cooking show and it’s a very different experience. During my 10-minute conversation with Justin Sutherland at the Allianz Field brew hall last Friday, I twice pulled a Schweinsteiger as strangers interrupted our interview, handed me their cell phones, and posed for a snap with the chef who is masterminding the cuisine for the opening of...