At the Redskins Table
Redskins Executive Chef Jon Mathieson, along with Sous-Chef Connor McGuire and three additional cooks, prepare breakfast, lunch and afternoon snack for players, coaches and staff when they’re on site in the Ashburn facilities. (When the team moves to Richmond for training camp, Mathieson and Skinner consult with the hotel kitchen staff who are responsible for feeding the players.)
What does it take to feed a football team? We looked at the menu for a typical day:
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For breakfast: 360 to 400 eggs, oatmeal, grits, pancakes or waffles, turkey or chicken sausage, yogurt, fruit, make-your-own smoothies with mangoes, pineapples, peaches, grapes, strawberries—and even kale.
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At lunch: 160 sweet potatoes, or 25 pounds of potatoes for a mashed-potato side dish, or five quarts of dry quinoa, eight pounds of dry farro or brown rice, 12 pounds of dry orzo. The kitchen serves up 200 portions of protein daily, including those 300 pounds of fish every week. A recent lunch featured choice of smoked pork tenderloin with chipotle sauce and roasted corn; peppers and kale over spaghetti; a chicken stir-fry; and six different pizzas made with a dough recipe Mathieson developed to add extra protein and whole-grain nutrients.
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Frequent snacks: The players have access to a sandwich bar offering turkey, ham, tuna and chicken salad and pizzas. The fruit and salad bar is open all day. A snack station outside weight room is stocked with Greek yogurt, fruit, trail mix and granola bars.
The Redskins also power through specialty foods like pearl couscous, Pattypan squash, purple potatoes and Thai curry. Chef Mathieson has reconfigured traditional favorites, like barbecue ribs and shrimp and grits, to be healthier and more nutritious. Almost everything, down to the stocks and salsas, is prepared fresh, on site, and then individually plated, restaurant-style.
