Food, health and MVPs: An interview with Zion Williamson’s personal chef

New Orleans Pelicans: Interview with Zion Williamson’s personal chef

-There has been a lot of talk/worry about Zion’s health, so does he have a strict dietary regimen you’ve been asked to follow? What’s a typical day of meals look like?

“Understanding and knowing what athletes need to take into their body, because I used to be an athlete myself, he’s very much so on a strict diet. In the morning, it’s very simple, egg whites, maybe half a cup of baked breakfast potatoes, turkey sausage. Midday, he may have one sandwich, with keto bread, and then for dinner, depending n the carb we may use, whether it’s sweet potatoes or we may go brown rice, I do a half a cup of brown rice, and I do between eight to 12 ounces of protein and four ounces of vegetables.”

-What dish of yours is Zion’s favorite?

“Wooooo, ummm, my wheat ground turkey spaghetti. Lamb chops is good, the salmon is good, but I’d say the healthy spaghetti that I do for him.”

-What healthy dish do you make that would surprise people? Your food has big, bold flavors, so how do you balance that with the need to make healthy food that can fuel a pro athlete?

“My dish, I’m sure you guys read about it, my Cajun honey salmon, I think that is the dish people would be very much excited for, and I serve that with just a vegetable medley, no carbs, so you just really get the salmon and the vegetables, similar to a stir fry, a salmon stir fry, but it’s really just a nice filet of salmon, with sautéed vegetables.”

-Do you have a favorite ingredient to work with? 

“Ummm, a simple ingredient, ooooh, shallots. I love shallots, which is a purple baby onion, they’re much sweeter than your regular onion, your regular purple onion, umm, I like using shallots, bell pepper, people don’t know bell peppers have high vitamin C in them…and so I’d say bell peppers, garlic, anything that you can probably think of that’s grown, from the onions to the garlic to any style of vegetable, but I’d say honestly most importantly I like bell peppers because people don’t realize how much vitamin C is in bell peppers.”