4 the Health of it!
4 the Health of it!
4 the Health of it! ft Chef Nina
On this episode we sit down with the personal chef of many Jacksonville Jaguars, Chef Nina G!
Welcome to For the Health Up. I'm your host, Corn K-Pad Paget, and this is your number one source for all things sports, health, and fitness related. Oh, hold on, coach. What does for the health of it stand for? Good question, Austin. For the health of it stands for our four principles, which are mindset, movement, nutrition, and recovery. Okay, cool. Let's do it for the health of it then. Welcome to another edition of For the Health of It. I'm your host, Cory and K-Pad Paget. And today I have with me a personal chef, not my personal chef, uh, but Chef Nina. Chef Nina, how are you doing, ma'am?
Chef Nina:Hello, I am awesome and amazing. How are you?
Korian:Um blessed, too blessed to be stressed. Hey. So uh Chef Nina, just go ahead and give us a background of yourself.
Chef Nina:Oh wow. Um I am from born and raised in DC.
Korian:Okay.
Chef Nina:Um, I actually um went to Duke Ellington and everything. I went to the military in the debt program when I was 17. I stayed in the military for 11 years. Okay. I actually today I was talking to a friend of mine, and I actually realized my first athlete was when I was in the in the Navy. I was doing um personal chef work for um like the bodybuilders. So I had four of them. They were actually in the military, but they used to compete. Right. And I used to cook for them. Um, and then when I got out of the military, I felt like I was 18 all over again. I really didn't know what to do. And I would just always end up in the kitchen, went to culinary school, and like took off from there. Um, I have worked, I've never worked in anything that wasn't like luxury resorts, you know, high-end boutique hotels. I became the um chef for United Airlines in the DMV area.
Korian:Nice.
Chef Nina:Um, I became a I taught culinary at the culinary college, and then the college lost their accreditation. I was like, oh my God, what am I gonna do? I said, you know what? We'll be good. I said, all I need is one like football player. Right. I went from one to six in three months, and um, I mean, I've been going ever since, and now I own a virtual cooking school called Chew Your Health. And um, we are doing plant-based meals for 12 months, so 12 months around the world. And then um I own um the athletes chef, which is a personal chef concierge service for the sports professional.
Korian:Cool, cool, cool. So uh let's let's unpack that a little bit. Uh, why did you go into the military?
Chef Nina:Oh, I was running away. I ain't gonna lie. Okay. Okay, I grew up in DC. Um, I am from a broken home. I just was like, no, I would no longer deal with the toxicity. At 17, I just knew that I just, you know, I got into colleges and I had a full ride to like BCU Catholic University and Morgan State. And my parents told me I had to live at home and I had to choose which home I was gonna live in. And I was like, where everybody else is getting cars, you know, back then you could have a car, your freshman year, but everybody was getting cars and driving to school and living on campus, and oh, Susquehanna University, that was the other college I got into. And um I was like, hell nah, I'm out. So I signed up on my own. They didn't even know I was I was going. That was the best decision I ever made. Uh, what brand? You said Navy? Uh-huh. Navy, yep.
Korian:Cool, cool, cool. Okay. All right. So uh you said you started cooking in the mil in the military when you when you were cooking for a couple of guys.
Chef Nina:Uh yeah, I actually um I was not a chef or cook in the military. I actually ran an admin office.
Korian:Yeah, I was just about to ask, what was your job?
Chef Nina:So, yeah, I ran an admin office. I worked in Navy Legal, and um, but I just cook really well, right? And I was bringing my lunch to work every day, or I would just um I would pack like all my stuff in like cute containers, and people were like, What is that? Like, what is going on there? And I'd be like, I made it myself. And so they just started seeing that, and then um actually was a chief, and he was like, Can you cook my meals for me? And I was like, Cook your meals for you? What the hell? Why would I cook meals for them? I got kids. That don't even make sense, right? And he was like, I'll pay you for it. Yes, I will cook meals for you, no problem. And his diet was like so bland, because you know, when their fitness um, when they do that thing, they they're like very strict. So it was like chicken, brown rice, and broccoli, like boring. And then one day I was like, you know that you can do like this, this, and this, and you can still get the same, you know, elements, and I can cook it in coconut oil so you can get your MTCs and this and that. He was like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. What do you know about all of that stuff? And I was like, Oh, I just read a lot. So um, I always had like nutrition books, and I was always studying like science behind food and food and body, and it that just grew. I had like I'm gonna say, huh?
Korian:What is MTC?
Chef Nina:Oh my gosh. So it is an ingredient that is in, I can't even think of it off the top of my head what it stands for. Uh, but it's an ingredient that is in coconut oil, it helps um with your muscles, it helps um like repair them.
Korian:Okay, okay. Gotcha, gotcha, got you. Cool, cool, cool. Uh, so my next question is did you do you you get out what what age did you get out the uh military?
Chef Nina:Um dang, was I like I think I was 27. I was still a Tinderoni, so yeah, you were you were still young. I was young, but I was a single parent, and it was just getting harder, and I was just like, I don't want to do this no more. I'm bored now, like I need to do something else. Okay, okay. And how old are you now?
Korian:You don't mind me asking.
Chef Nina:Dang, I'm 37. I'm still a tenderonies.
Korian:You are, you are, you are. Shout out to the uh newborn. You got a 10-year-old, uh not 10-year-old, 10-month-old.
Chef Nina:10-month-old, right. I'm trying to keep him quiet, but goodness.
Korian:It's all good. It's all good. So my next question is uh and you said you wanted to go into uh culinary school. So did you go back to DC? What's up with that?
Chef Nina:I actually stayed in Jacksonville because uh my sons were in school, my older sons were in elementary school.
Korian:Gotcha.
Chef Nina:So I couldn't just pick, I mean, I could have, but I just really didn't want to go home. Like, I was like, they still crazy. So I stayed and I ended up going to culinary school here, and it was weird because I would get sad and cook. Or I would just like my grandmother passed away in 2008. So I would just be like, Oh, I wish she was here, and I would just be in the kitchen and cook a five-course meal for me. And at the time, my my older sons were like seven and five, right? But they're eating like faux gras and caviar and like all of this stuff because I'm sad and I and I want to cook. Right. And so it's it was like, could this be a business? Could this like, is this something that I could do forever, or not even forever, but is you know, I was just so passionate about, and then like people just kept asking me to cook things, right? And it wasn't like a pie, it was like, can you do my meals for the week? And I'm like, people do that. I didn't know people, right? I had no idea people were doing this.
Korian:Okay, so uh uh what all goes into like you you said you used to make like five coarse meals. I never really knew like what makes up the courses of a meal.
Chef Nina:So um, so I mean, the technical names, you can have in a pair of teeth, which is usually a starter, um, like a port wine or something like that. And you can have a um uh an amoose bouche, which is a gift from the chef, which is usually an amoose bouche is something um that we want to introduce as on a new menu.
Korian:Okay.
Chef Nina:Um, and then you know you go into your entrees, uh, your your appetizer, your entree. You might have an intermeso, which is something to cleanse the palate, and then you have your dessert, and then you might have a um, you might have a port wine at the end to finish that all. It might, it's it honestly, it depends. Because some like you might go to these um Michelin star restaurants in Chicago or New York, and they might have up to 20. Yes, it's crazy. I don't have that much time, but right and then when they do it like that, it's small, it's it's actually it's not about the food, it's about the experience surrounding the food. Right, so and a lot of people don't get that, especially like people here. But um, if I was up north, you know, I would swing some things. Okay, okay.
Korian:Uh no, I I I'm a foodie myself, so I mean, it is all about the experience, also. Uh when we went over to Europe, me and my wife's family, it was it was nice.
Chef Nina:Oh my gosh. Just to be able to wake up in the morning and have wine with my eggs, like right, and no one cares or is judging me.
Korian:Right. When we were in Italy, uh, I was telling somebody on the clubhouse, I said, Man, you don't realize when you're in Italy, like they have wine every meal.
Chef Nina:I was telling somebody that because they were like, Oh, well, um, it's because of the wine or something. Oh, we were talking about sugars, uh, like sugars being damn, you know, what is the most damaging thing to your liver? And they were like, wine. And I was like, well, why? And they were like, Oh, the sugars in it. I was like, Have you ever been to Italy? Because um, Americans still have the highest rate for liver damage, and they are drinking wine um for water in the morning, like they are hydrating.
Korian:Um and it probably also has to do with like the lifestyle, you know, they they do a lot more walking. Uh obviously, you know, we're I was in a more popular uh populated area being in Italy or being in Rome and whatnot. But oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Chef Nina:They do walk a lot there. I mean, they walk, but you know what? Also, the stressors that we have over here, they don't have over there. Right. We are like workaholics here, right? They are not, they like a life of leisure and relaxation, and and how am I going to enjoy my food if I'm stress eating when I should just be eating to enjoy. Oh my gosh, I feel like maybe my next husband is probably gonna be Italian. I feel it, I feel it. Living my life right now.
Korian:Oh man, so I I like to play Chef every now and again in the kitchen. And uh my my father-in-law, I'm at a roast one time, and my father-in-law said it reminded him of the holidays, and that was probably the best compliment I ever got.
Chef Nina:That is amazing! Yeah, I was like You're giving him that memories vibe, right?
Korian:Right. So as soon as he said to me, I was like, man, I probably I don't know. Have you ever seen the movie Ratatouli?
Chef Nina:Yeah, oh my god, when the um when he's eating and like all the memories, right, right. The memories of of when I was five in the village, right?
Korian:I said that's gotta be what he thought of. Oh, you score major points right there, right?
Chef Nina:Right, right.
Korian:And you know, he has asked me about it. Uh see, I made that roast like four years ago. Like right after me and his daughter got married. And uh Yeah, you you hit you hit that memory. Yeah, you're gonna have to make that roast. And now uh well recently for the holidays, I made a prime rib and a beef wellington.
Chef Nina:So you are just fancy over there, you know.
Korian:You know, I watch tasty videos on YouTube and just spruce.
Chef Nina:Gordon Ramsay over there, huh?
Korian:I call myself Glorden Ramsey.
Chef Nina:Oh, you know, beef beef wellington is his thing.
Korian:It is, it is.
Chef Nina:Don't even try, like just forget it.
Korian:Right, right, right. Well, when when we were in that uh that Europe trip we did, we stopped over in London for like 24 hours. And oh my gosh. While we were there, I said, we're not leaving London without stopping at a Gordon Ramsay restaurant. So absolutely. I made sure we went out of our way to go to that restaurant, but it was well worth it in. Oh my god, that was ugly.
Chef Nina:He is so amazing. Like you can just the if you just watch the way he cooked, like if you watch him on mute and just watch the how he cooked, you can literally the passion vibrates from the TV. Like that, that is how I wanted to be when I started. I was I love one of my chefs actually studied with Gordon Ramsey. Oh wow. And he used to, when I used to be in the kitchen, I used to have to open up the kitchen from six at like, well, 5 30, but 6 service started. And when I came in the kitchen, like I have my um headphones in. Hold on.
Korian:You good, you good.
Chef Nina:What do you you want to watch TV from up here? Oh my gosh. See this, see this? This is going to be your life. This is a glimpse into your I have not even watched this TV. I've been watching baby shop.
Korian:That's why I'm uh preloading episodes.
Chef Nina:Because this right now he was sitting on the floor, but you gotta be up here now, right? But um, so okay, yeah. So when I got into my first um luxury hotel, I had to open a kitchen.
Korian:Right.
Chef Nina:And I was the only girl. Then I was the only black woman. Right. So I always make sure, like, I was extra early, I studied extra hard, like I did everything over the top, everything. Right. So I would come in, and me and Beyonce would be jamming to get that station right. My chef will come around that corner. He was like, You we need to call you the singing chef. And then the food would be beautiful, and I would be bumping in. It could be a million orders coming in. I'm in there chilling. Me and Beyonce, we getting the job done. He was like, That girl is going to be something. And I went from a line cook to sous chef in eight months. Wow. I was not playing no games in that kitchen. None.
Korian:That is what's up. So, how did you start the business?
Chef Nina:So, in that kitchen. Okay. One of the chefs overheard, like I had graduated from culinary school, and you know, they asked, Oh, what's your goal?
Korian:Right, right.
Chef Nina:Oh, Lord.
Korian:He excited about this story.
Chef Nina:He is apparently. No, he's sleepy. He is sleepy, Lord. Okay, so um, you know, and then culinary school ain't college, college, but still a school.
Korian:Right.
Chef Nina:And he was like, you know, what do you want to do? And I was like, yo, I want to know how they take like a half a scallop and grill half of the scallop and take a green sauce and put it on a plate and then a red dot and charge $300. How do they do that? Like, I want to know how they do that. He thought it was so hilarious. I was like, I was dead serious. Because I didn't see no black chefs doing stuff like that.
Korian:Right.
Chef Nina:And then I was like, and I want to do it in people's houses. So one of my um, one of my um T instructors overheard me saying that, and her husband, like, was a he he worked on like he was a very high up VP with some electric company, right? Right. So she booked me for a dinner at their house, and I took the menu to my chef at work, and I was like, How do you charge for this? Like, this is what they want. How do you charge? So he showed me how to um talk to the vendor and get the prices for my meats. He showed, hey, he's singing now. He showed me how to uh price the meats, like where where to get the best produce. When they came and brought the vegetables in, he let me like see how they picked the vegetables. Like he taught, he is still my mentor to this day. He taught me everything, and then he was like, You work at One Ocean, you do this, you're you're you're a $35 an hour chef. That was seven years ago. Wow. I will never, I think I still have the piece of paper where we wrote it all down on.
Korian:Wow.
Chef Nina:And I like from then on, anytime I do anything, I'll be like, does this does this sound right? And he'll be like, You're a $125 an hour chef, does it?
Korian:Right, right.
Chef Nina:You have this, this, this, you've done this, you've won such and such accolades, you've been in the Washington Post and this and that. Like, what do you think you're worth? And you know what's different? I'll be I just I call it unleashing my inner white man. Those white men charge, and he was like, That's how they charge $300 a plate.
Korian:Right.
Chef Nina:Because they're going to know their worth before that plate even leaves that kitchen. And when he said that, I was like, you know what? You right. And after that, if people say I can't afford me, okay. I can't afford you because but but oh my god, I want, you know, oh I can't, oh I don't have that. That's okay. You can't get hung up, you can't get your let your emotions get into it. That's not your customer, right? That's not who you're for. So yeah, it was a it it was a hard lesson that I learned. Because of course I'm like, oh no, I want to cook for them, and for what? So on average, how many hours did you go in a day? So when I was working in the restaurant, um, and when I was in hotels and stuff like that, uh I was doing 12 to 14 hour days. Yeah. And no one, it was so funny because everybody knew I had kids but had never seen them.
Korian:Right.
Chef Nina:Because I was like, no, I'm at work.
Korian:Exactly.
Chef Nina:Like, what does that have to do with anything? And I didn't ever want them to be like label me, you know? I didn't want to be labeled black woman, single with kids. Like, I didn't want that stigma on me, and I didn't want it to cloud their judgment for me, for them picking me for shifts or anything. So, like, I wanted to switch from the days to work banquets, and then one chef was like, Well, she has kids. I was like, What does that mean? It hasn't been a problem for me. Why would it be a problem now? Right. So, yeah, he didn't like me very much. He was a white guy from South Africa, he did not like me at all.
Korian:Sounds about right.
Chef Nina:Being from South Africa, right? You get this happy go-lucky chef who's singing Beyonce, you know.
Korian:So uh you made a couple of posts recently. Uh, it looked like you posted like a vegan hot dog or something on your page. Oh yeah, so uh you asked the one of the questions you asked on your post was can an athlete perform on a vegan diet or something along those lines?
Chef Nina:Yes, can a vegan diet fuel the athlete?
Korian:Yes, so I want your opinion on that.
Chef Nina:Absolutely, and yes.
Korian:Can you expound on that?
Chef Nina:Yes, people do not realize how food works, and honestly, if we looked at how food works, think think about um these athletes from Ethiopia. Or think about the runners who are winning these races, the the athletes who are lifting 600, 700 pounds effortlessly, right? 20 to 30 percent of them are vegan. They're faster, they have a better they have a better understanding of how food works, their endurance levels are better, their metabolism is up 30 to 50 percent. Um, they're sleeping better. Oh my god, athletes suffer from insomnia. Um, because you know they feel like they always have to be on this high, right? And because they don't have a any control over their diets. Um oh my gosh. I mean like I asked the question the other day, like, how do you eat carbs? Oh, I don't eat carbs, I just eat vegetables and fruit. It's carbs in that. Yeah. That's carbs in there. People don't have an understanding of food. What happens is we listen into this mainstream stuff. Oh, we need to we need to keto, we need to do this, we need to do that. What you're not realizing is first of all, not every diet is for everyone.
Korian:Right.
Chef Nina:Food works differently for everybody, right? So maybe I can me can have my red wine with my um feathered cheese and my eggs in the morning. Okay, maybe you can't do that. I think once people realize how food works and they need to create functioning diets for them, then it will. But of course, plant-based will work. It's just learning how food works. Right. That's all. Like, not everybody wants to go plant-based, you don't have to.
Korian:Right.
Chef Nina:However, there's an option for maybe you to add a little bit more vegetables than what you're getting. I remember I had an athlete, oh my god, football player. And he did not like vegetables. And I was like, Why don't you like vegetables? Oh, well, my grandma used to cook this and he used to have the for I hate your grandma.
Korian:Right.
Chef Nina:But let me see what I can do, because you need to have vegetables. He had a vitamin D deficiency and he had some other stuff going on. I'm telling you, I wasn't taking like Angus beef and mushrooms and making burgers until I got to the point where I could get him a a hundred percent plant-based burger. Wow. And it's all in how you're looking at food. Like um, Haitians have a black rice, right? That black rice has mushrooms and shrimp in it. But if I tell you I'm making this rice, I'm of course I'm gonna make it for you. You're gonna get veg there's ways to get vegetables in it somehow. Right. It's just that we are not creative enough and we're so busy looking at what mainstream is saying that we're not realizing that we have these other avenues of creativity. I make granola, I make power bars, I mean, I was making um, oh my gosh, uh cold pressed juices. I mean, anything that I could do to get some fruit and vegetables in you, I'ma do it.
Korian:Cool, cool, cool. Okay, okay. So now you're charging. You said you're you were $35 an hour, Chef. Yeah, I was.
Chef Nina:Now you are a I'm up between $250 and $3. Minimum a hundred hours. I'm worth it. I'm worth every I'm worth every penny.
Korian:Minimum how many hours? So if I had to hire you for a dinner tonight or any particular night, how much how many hours are you gonna take?
Chef Nina:Well, that's different. That's different. So if I'm doing like a couple's dinner, it's gonna be $350 anyway.
Korian:Gotcha.
Chef Nina:But now if you talk about you on a couple's dinner with five-pound lobsters and you're trying to see food, yeah. I mean, they yeah, you yeah. I got ways, I got ways. But I mean, I can get you eight pounds if you're nice. But um, if you you know, if you um uh you know, couples dinner is 350, but if you're trying to like seafood and you want far gra, you want hard to find things or quite you know, very caviar and right. You wanna do it up, okay, it's gonna go up a little bit. Right.
Korian:Okay, okay.
Chef Nina:But a couple's dinner out, you know, 350. You know, I don't. I'm gonna give you the I'm gonna give you the world though.
Korian:Right, right, right.
Chef Nina:So you're gonna have a server and you're gonna have a custom menu and place settings and synchronized serving, and you know, yeah, we're gonna do it up.
Korian:Right. Where are you based out of?
Chef Nina:I'm in Jacksonville, Florida, but I travel because the airport, you know, up 10 minutes up the street.
Korian:So oh snap, I got folks in Jacksonville.
Chef Nina:Yeah, I'm here. I'm here. Okay, no, I got me.
Korian:I got your contact information next time I'm in Jacksonville after this pandemic while uh slows down a little bit. Hey, I'm gonna hit you. Right. Right.
Chef Nina:I hope it's slow down. I don't know what's going on, but yeah.
Korian:Okay, same. All right, so before I get you out of here, Chef Nina, go ahead and drop all your social media where we can find.
Chef Nina:Oh my gosh, you guys can find me anywhere, literally anywhere at um Instagram, Facebook, Twitter at Chef Nina G.
Korian:Chef Nina G. Cool, cool, cool.
Chef Nina:And then if you go on my Instagram, it's like 12 links where you can get to me. So, and then my chef concierge service. If it's a chef out there that is looking to work with athletes and you are looking to learn how to work with them um as far as like a functional nutrition life for them, right? Not we're not just throwing food on the plate, we're not just cooking for clout, we're actually educating them so they can be stronger and so they can win some championships and rings and stuff like that. That link is on my um Instagram also.
Korian:Cool, cool, cool. Well, hey, Chef Nina, it's been a pleasure. I appreciate you working with me and getting thank you for working with me. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Hey, this has been another episode of For the Health of It. I'm your host, Corinne KPAT Padget.