What Goes into Feeding an NFL Team?

it's very different cooking for

professional athletes than a normal

person these guys are very hungry

we go through a crazy amount of food my

name is Connor McGuire I'm the executive

chef for the Washington Redskins I feed

the players and the staff at their

practice facility in Ashburn Virginia

when they first built this kitchen they

wanted to make sure that it was

state-of-the-art we have

top-of-the-line ovens a wok station and

a pasta extruder where we make our own

pasta we have a brick up and that gets

up to about 700 degrees it can cook a

pizza in about two minutes we have a

walk-in cooler where we can store

proteins and vegetables and produce to

make sure that we have enough food in

here to feed these guys we want to cook

with a high end of mindset but cook food

that was very familiar to players every

day we do multiple proteins high quality

starches and vegetables we give them

pasta a stir-fry very low calorie pizza

we have salad bar where they can get

fresh cut vegetables that we prepare

every day they're getting a quality meal

that's also helping them perform on the

field hey Scott McCoy checking in from

residents Park down here at Redskins

cafeteria here look we've got mahi-mahi

with a little greens a little sweet

potato doesn't get better than that

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nutrition is really key throughout camp

just keeping guys fueled and keeping

them going throughout the day this time

of year offseason program we're trying

to change body composition we're trying

to improve strength increase power

improve conditioning it's a two hour

really tough hot practice that we go

through and then you're right in the

recovery mode and these guys go through

extreme amount of food we go through

anywhere from 75 portions to 101 lunch

period this morning we got in 45 pounds

of Chilean seabass yesterday we got in

about a hundred and twenty pounds of

salmon every day it'll be about 40

pounds of chicken breast 45 pastas 30

stir fries 8 to 12 thin crust pizza as

countless vegetables you know we're

bringing in 25 pounds of carrots twice a

week so it's definitely a large amount

that we do every single day personally I

don't like to drop anyone on a team

below 3,000 calories when they're in a

big training phase of the year so we

have guys that are up over 5,000

calories that they take like a Ryan

Kerrigan for example Ryan's roughly 260

pounds he's a very big strong muscular

guy it's gonna cost his body at least

5,000 calories a day just to maintain

that so this time of year in a 8 week

period we'll go through about 150 200

cases of protein shakes some guys

multiple shakes a day an incredible

amount we have a lot of other products

bars electrolyte drinks and there's a

big responsibility for the players when

they go downstairs not to just grab

whatever they see out but to know what

to grab and how much to grab and that's

really where the art comes in with

nutrition always you know run by

everybody

speed kills Jeff Connor has an extensive

knowledge of food and how to prepare

food he's really like the magician

behind all this so I talked with Connor

about what's best for our players from a

performance aspect and then he puts it

all into action ordering all the food

that we need deciding how we're gonna

plate food deciding the menus for the

week some guys need high carbs some guys

need low carbs some guys need higher

protein than others some guys need

higher healthier fats so when they go

down there Connor knows exactly what to

put on their plate hey this guy needs

extra serving a protein this guy needs

extra serving of carbs that's really the

art of it every single thing that we do

here is geared towards making them

better as a football player got our own

smoothie bar over here before we make in

Jay Reid

where you got what all you got in there

are you lactose intolerance disgusting

but hey whatever floats your boat

all right as a chef I want to keep doing

new things I want to keep providing

different items for them to keep them

interested one of the things that I love

about this job is I get to introduce new

foods to people almost weekly this is

our Mediterranean style ball it has

sauteed vegetables carrots peppers

cucumber and tomato salad sauteed

chicken roasted red pepper hummus and

rice with physique II a lot of times

when you think of healthy food it's very

bland dry piece of chicken and steamed

broccoli and like a baked potato so we

wanted to make sure that the food was

good here is our thrilled pork

tenderloin dish it has quinoa and

broccolini

and the sauce is a roasted shallot

reduction now the players have their

certain favorite items like our beef

bolognaise at the beginning a lot of

rookies tend to go towards that and

through that you can get them to open up

and maybe they eventually end up trying

a piece of fish this is our salmon dish

it is seared Scottish salmon quinoa with

mixed vegetables roasted broccolini and

the sauce is a chipotle cilantro

vinaigrette when I introduce a new dish

that first they may be skittish about

angle what is this and I go no no I just

try it and I kind of explain or walk

them through it and then they eat it and

this was amazing I never had this before

here we have a cilantro soubise it is a

onion pureed sauce with roasted chicken

carrots tomatoes a little bacon peas and

corn especially when guys come from

other teams I always make sure how's the

food over there how's the food you know

with that organization they go it's

nothing compared to here

we had all kinds of options over here

yeah we healthy around here is this

better than Stanford of course of course

is better than chicken of the salad

it's a typical alignment meal right here

I don't see me from almost any pizza on

there what about you another old

limonene salad can you believe we got

full pizza bar over there best pizza in

Loudoun County in this building I mean

looks look at this crowd we got that

cooking lunch for us every day they've

been here since 3:00 in the morning

working hard for the best hey thanks for

thanks for tuning in

rescues cafeteria good day our chefs are

great and I'm full

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