S02-E211 The Importance of a Performance Chef with Aaron Clayton

S02|E211

The Importance of a Performance Chef with Aaron Clayton | Samson Strength Coach Collective

 

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Samson (01:24)
What’s going on Samson Strength Coach Collective listeners on today’s episode, we have Aaron Clayton, partner of Performance Chefs. Aaron, thank you so much for coming on, man.

Aaron Clayton (01:33)
Hey, really appreciate you having me.

Samson (01:35)
I am so stoked to have you on this and this is, I believe, a first for the podcast. You are a performance chef, which is incredibly exciting for me to ⁓ speak with you about because this is one of those realms of the sports performance team. We’re going to dive into all of this. I know we spoke before the podcast, but it’s one of those things that is absolutely crucial, especially for professional players who want to extend their career as much as possible. ⁓ It is a game changer for them. So I’m just so excited to learn about your career.

learn about you and actually dive into what exactly a performance chef is. So if you could take it from here and just give us your background and fill us all in.

Aaron Clayton (02:12)
Well, you know, first, thank you for having me. Really appreciate you taking the time and, you know, excited to talk about what it is to be a performance chef. For me, I kind of found my way into this industry. you know, entered the restaurant space as a young chef, went to culinary school, and my focus was always in fine dining and in restaurants. ⁓ You know, been all over the country, around the world, and…

the focus was always putting the most beautiful food on the plate. And that was my background for the first half of my career. And I stumbled into the private chef space. I was introduced to a private chef while I was being recruited by a few restaurant groups and wasn’t quite sure where I was gonna end up in the world. And started working under her.

And it was a really surreal experience having never understood that chefs went into people’s homes and just cooked Michelin level food day in and day out. And it, it was a weird experience at first until I got my first paycheck and just doing some prep work. I probably made more in three days than I would in two weeks in a restaurant. That caught my attention. So.

Samson (03:30)
Yeah.

Aaron Clayton (03:32)
You know, the first half of my private chef career was spent in that Beverly Hills billionaire kind of space. There was one client, they had about a hundred million in art on the walls at their one house. And as an art lover, that was incredible for me. I’d cook some food, go look at a Monet, cook some food, go look at a Degas. ⁓

Samson (03:45)
Wow.

Aaron Clayton (03:54)
And eventually found myself working with an athlete. My first athlete was a very well-known basketball player, future Hall of Famer. And he was making a diet change at the time. He was going from a conventional way of eating to a plant-based gluten-free performance-based diet. And for me, my approach, whether it’s fine dining, whether it’s picking out a new knife,

I dive into the research and part of the research in this component was understanding how do I feel this person for performance on the court. And I was very fortunate to have had the resources put in front of me that I had. ⁓ Team doctors were exceptionally generous with sharing their time and answering my phone calls at any given hour and the team dieticians.

became my best friend. ⁓ We were talking every day. I was reading research papers, diving through medical journals, literally looking up every third word just to kind of understand the material I was consuming. But approaching it from that research.

perspective and utilizing those skills and tools that I developed in, you know, Michelin kitchens, that attention to detail, the approach, how do I prepare for my next meal, for my next day? How can I bring value on the margins that I’m maybe not seeing today? How can I elevate this with research and knowledge? And that was my introduction to the performance space.

Samson (05:30)
Wow, I mean, it’s just so exciting to me to know that this is a profession. ⁓ I guess one thing that I think of too when I think about becoming a chef is ultimately everybody talks about the grueling hours and the difficulty it takes to become a chef. And I think that it’s almost a kindred spirit of strength and conditioning, right? Where you have to do a lot of work for little to no pay ⁓ and spend a lot of time. you know, honestly, there’s some verbal abuse, whatever it may be, right? When you’re first growing in this process, like,

What was that process actually becoming a chef like? How difficult was it? Can you just shed a little bit of light on that full experience?

Aaron Clayton (06:08)
Well, to be completely honest, I still feel like I’m becoming a chef. For me, it’s not something that you get to and you get to say, hey, I’m a chef. That’s it. ⁓ There was a point in my career, I had been a sous chef, a CDC. I had run, you know, my own ⁓ catering, private chef ⁓ operation. And even then, I didn’t feel comfortable owning that title chef.

⁓ To me, that’s a sacred title, something you earn, and it takes years and years of dedication and sacrifice. ⁓ For me, when I really started to feel like a chef is when I started passing down my knowledge and experience to that next generation of chefs and cooks. ⁓

You know, I’m still learning every single day. ⁓ And I think that’s a major component of being a chef, especially being a performance chef, that research and learning component is absolutely vital. And without it, we’re not just standing in place, but we’re falling behind. And for me, that was the most important component.

and feeling like a chef was passing down this knowledge that I’ve built and developed over the course of at this point an 18 year career. And unfortunately, there are a lot of people in our space and I imagine in the training world as well ⁓ who feel very comfortable calling themselves a chef or a trainer or.

you know, a performance chef. And there’s no governing body or standard that dictates I can call myself this or I can’t call myself this. It’s like that nutritionist label. ⁓ You know, it doesn’t have a certification behind it. It’s not like being a registered dietitian where there are certain metrics and standards and, you know, evaluations that you need to pass to be able to call yourself, you know.

an RD. for me, it’s looking at the individual we all learn at different paces, different stages. It’s not necessarily a time component. But I wouldn’t say watching a few videos on YouTube qualifies you to be a chef or call yourself a chef or especially not a performance chef. At the end of the day, there are a lot of people out there who call themselves performance chefs and I have chef jackets with more more time in the kitchen than they do.

Samson (08:38)
Do you think that it would ever get to a point where there may become more of a standardized testing or ⁓ legitimacy behind the title of being able to call yourself chef? I think truly the RD versus nutritionist is probably the most difficult one because of the process of, for an RD, you actually have to do a full dietetic internship and you actually have to pass your board, examine everything.

I think strength and conditioning kind of falls in that middle area where you have to pass a test. But I think every strength coach who’s listening could probably tell you that they did not feel like a strength coach until after their first three, four five years of actually running teams while they had their CSCS the whole time. Do you think that there may be a movement within the field to get closer to that or having some sort of set standard for who can call themselves performance chefs?

Aaron Clayton (09:29)
We’re certainly working on it. I have discussions with some of the best performance chefs in the country every week, every month. We have ⁓ a monthly round table where this is a consistent discussion where we’re trying to define and label what it means to be a performance chef. And it’s so much more than just cooking a healthy meal or doing a team dinner one time or two times. ⁓

You know, being a performance chef, we’re really at the intersection of culinary excellence and like physiological impact.

And understanding that dynamic, how do you communicate with the performance team? Now a performance chef, you know, our area of expertise is the kitchen, is the food, but part of being a performance chef is communicating effectively and collaborating seamlessly with the team around you, whether that be with the dietitian and executing their nutrition prescription or communicating with the trainer and understanding what the workload was like that day and at what times throughout the day.

because we understand timing is an ingredient in this profession. ⁓ It’s vital. And at the end of the day, something I always say, it doesn’t matter how nutritionally dense the food is on the plate. If the athlete doesn’t eat it, it’s not healthy. And that’s the true function of a performance chef. We speak in the language of food and it’s our job to translate.

the information coming from the dietitian and their nutrition prescription and that language that they’re speaking. And we also have to translate the information that’s coming from the recovery staff, the training staff and the player themselves. At the end of the day, that’s a human being. It’s not just an athlete. They have good days, they have bad days, they have hard days, sad days, happy days, just like we do. And I don’t know about you, but for me, food is something I don’t just

eat to nourish myself. It’s something I use to celebrate. It’s something I use to make myself feel better, find comfort, whatever it might be. know, food plays a major role in the way we feel and act on a daily basis, not just physically, but mentally, emotionally, and so forth.

Samson (11:56)
I love how you bring up timing because for me, it’s one of those things where a lot of the athletes we work with, whether it’s myself or our RD here, it is a lot of like, don’t worry about timing, like too much, right? I want you to just worry about actually getting in your calories for the day or actually getting in your protein or whatever it may be that our specific goal is that we’re working with that athlete because we’re at a level where there’s so much misinformation and it’s kind of just picking apart small things and saying, okay, we need to break this down and make it a little bit easier for you to understand.

Ultimately, if you miss your protein synthesis window by five minutes, it’s not a big deal. But then we look at professional athletes and your kind of clientele where timing does become something that’s very important. And I think that research aspect of your job is so important too. And it’s so exciting for me to just be able to talk about that, right? Because it’s something that 99 % of the time people are saying, let’s not worry about the smaller details of it. Let’s focus on the big details.

Now with the position such as yours, the performance staff can truly work together to work on the smaller details. And those 1 % changes are what really makes the difference in an athlete. It’s just so exciting to me to think about that.

Aaron Clayton (13:03)
Yeah, to me, this success is found on the margins. Whether you’re a stock trader, a trainer, or a performance chef, I find my success on the margins. I’m not just serving, let’s just say, a bowl of oatmeal, for example. I’m trying to figure out how to maximize that oatmeal.

I’m adding ⁓ chia seeds, flax seeds, maybe some shredded coconut, whatever it is. We’re just trying to get a little bit more here, a little bit more there where, and at the end of the day, at the end of the week, at the end of the month, at the end of the year, all those little gains on the margin add up. And the way I kind of approach it and it kind of touches on that timing component as well.

You know what? is the Dental Association recommend? Brush your teeth twice a day for for two minutes at a time. That’s 28 minutes a week. How’s your breath going to smell if you’re brushing your teeth once for 28 minutes every Sunday versus every morning every night for two minutes at a time? That consistency across the board doing something every day with intention and doing it at the correct time.

gets you the result that you’re looking for.

Samson (14:19)
Hmm. I, that’s a, it’s a very, uh, interesting statement. love that. And I think it puts a, it paints a very clear picture of it. You mentioned, I’m actually going to tell my fiance that when I see her at home, she’s going to love that. Um, you know, you mentioned working within the sports performance team. And I think when people will think of a typical sports performance team, they will say athletic trainer, strength and conditioning coach. Those will be the first two that come to mind. Uh, the next one may be a physical therapist and then registered dietitian. And then sometimes a sports psychologist, you know,

What is the performance chef’s role within an actual sports performance team? Because it’s a lesser known role, but from what I understand and from what we’ve even talked about just briefly, I can tell it can be revolutionary for an athlete. Is it daily conversations with the teams? Is it more understanding about the athlete’s training habits? What does that look like for you?

Aaron Clayton (15:08)
You know, for me, it’s going to be a little bit different than, say, a team performance chef who’s working with an entire team ⁓ in the private space. I probably see that player more than anybody else.

sometimes more than their family members, especially when we’re on the road together. ⁓ So the way I’ve always kind of viewed it, and not to say that any part of a wheel is more important than any other part of the wheel, but I’ve always kind of viewed the performance chef or the private performance chef in this instance as the hub. You’re getting all the spokes, all the components coming into you, and you’re the one in the home with this player developing that relationship, developing that trust on a daily, if not hourly basis. ⁓

You know with my players I would be in the kitchen 5 5 30 in the morning If it was a game day, I might be leaving there at 12 31 o’clock in the morning I’m at that house a lot. I’m with that player a lot. I Develop a relationship with them. I understand

What works for them, what doesn’t work for them, what a heavy day looks like, what a light day looks like, and it’s not just about training with a lot of these guys. They have commercial shoots, they have family obligations, business obligations. There’s so much more going on that the trainer or the RD might not be aware of, understanding that the massage therapist gets there at a certain time and maybe we’re gonna wanna work a nap in. When can I get this nutrition? When is the proper time to talk to them and educate them?

Big part of what I do is educate my clients on what it is I’m doing, what it is the dietician is trying to get across in their nutrition prescription and making it all work together because ultimately we’re all a piece of the puzzle as well as the athlete. They’re a piece of that puzzle and the final big picture is them going out and performing.

whether it be on the court or field or what have you, ⁓ they play their part as well. So we all have our roles that we play. No part is more important than the other in my opinion. We all work together for that common goal. And for me, that’s why I always kind of go to that wheel and hub.

⁓ analogy just because it doesn’t work if you’re missing a spoke or missing the hub or missing a component of the wheel altogether. So ⁓ for me that’s the major role.

Samson (17:36)
And so there’s a lot of soft skills involved with this too. It sounds, I’m sure, like a no brainer to you, but when I think of chefs, I think about cheesy movies where they’re like, my compliments to the chef, right? And then you never actually get to meet them. You’re saying that there’s a lot of one-on-one interaction, probably more than any other sports professional.

Aaron Clayton (17:53)
Absolutely. And think about the intimate nature of being in someone’s home. You see everything. You’re there for those human moments, the moments that aren’t on camera, that aren’t scripted, it’s not a press conference. You’re in someone’s home. I don’t know about you, but I’m… ⁓

Samson (18:01)
Hmm.

Aaron Clayton (18:12)
my most authentic self in my home, in my safe place, when I’m just relaxing doing my thing. I see all the embarrassing moments, all the triumphant moments. So you’re definitely working with the human there, not the athlete. And sometimes it might be as simple as, hey, we’re gonna do a little dessert tonight. This is something that your body might not need, but your mind certainly does.

You know, working through injury and talking to them first thing in the morning. How are you feeling? Okay. Talking to them after treatment. How are you feeling? Okay. And working through it that way, implementing changes that the dietitian wants. I’m that point of contact every single time. Hey, this is what they got me doing. You know, went to the bathroom this morning. It was a little weird. Like that’s, those are the conversations that private chefs are having with their, with their clients.

Samson (19:11)
Well, I mean, but it’s just so pivotal and I’m sure you develop these amazing relationships. How do you manage the work-life balance aspect of it? Because again, I think of, you know, strength and conditioning. They come in here, we lift during the day, it may be longer hours, but I’m always at home in the mornings and I’m always at home at night, unless we have a game or we’re traveling on the road. You what does that balance look like for a performance chef?

Aaron Clayton (19:35)
I’m yet to find the work-life balance just as a chef, period. It is a demanding job. I can’t work remotely. I can’t email you lunch. You know what I mean? So you have to physically be present for every single meal, every single day. You do the shopping, you do the driving, you are presenting the food, you’re cleaning up at the end of the day, at least in a private setting.

Samson (19:37)
Yeah.

Aaron Clayton (20:01)
⁓ You don’t have a kitchen team behind you. You are the responsible party for every single detail that that goes on in the kitchen. ⁓ An example, I make sure that every single bottle of water, every single ⁓

label in the fridge is facing the same direction. You could bring a laser level in and it would be on point. ⁓ These are the details that you kind of think about as a private chef, as a private performance chef. And there was a fantastic trainer who was working with one of my athletes and it was one of the best compliments I ever received. He opened up the fridge, saw that everything was organized in such a way and everything was lined up. And he asked if I did it. I said, yeah. He goes, I know you’re not missing a single thing.

because if you can pay attention to this small of a detail and make sure that it’s this perfect, you’re not gonna be missing the macros. You’re not gonna be missing the micros. You’re gonna be on top of your timing. Everything that you’re gonna do is gonna be with the same level of detail and precision. And this is someone I had just met and I was so touched just that one, someone noticed. But two, that they understood that it wasn’t just a simple task of

arranging everything just so it was that detail component. It was making sure that nothing is missed and yeah, it’s as simple as turning a bottle or making sure it’s lined up but at the end of the day taking that same approach when analyzing or digesting the dieticians nutrition prescription or understanding the the load on the athlete in their training that day. Those are the details that make the difference between

a true performance chef and someone who’s either one cooking healthy food or just kind of marketing themselves in such a way.

Samson (21:57)
Yeah, it’s it’s funny. I’ve I’ve worked with teams before too where they’ve had somebody You know almost say like I know a performance chef and they mass market these You specific meals or these specific ⁓ Supplements that you should you know give to your team as well And I’m like I don’t think that’s what the job really entails and obviously just from this 20 minutes We’ve been on the show. I can tell you that’s clearly not what it is What does the day to day look like for you? So what would a typical day look like maybe in season with an athlete?

Aaron Clayton (22:26)
In season, I’m going to give a look at a game day because those are my favorite days. One, I know where the athletes going to be at any given minute on any given day or any given game day. They’re regimented, they’re scheduled, there’s no guessing, which is a tricky part of being a private chef is figuring out when to get food on the table. a typical game day breakfast is going to be at your seven thirty eight o’clock time, depending on when the team is practicing or doing their shoot around.

Samson (22:29)
Awesome.

Aaron Clayton (22:55)
So you get in a stable base, ⁓ getting back to that oatmeal I mentioned, that was pretty much my standard game day meal for my athletes. Not that we want to give them the same thing every day. It’d be a little different here and there, but for the most part, that was that extended fuel that we would kind of start the day with that base coat of energy.

And from there we would do a mini meal at, let’s say noon. And when I say let’s say, mean exactly at noon, that didn’t mean, you know, 1205 or 1155. If the player was getting worked on by the physiotherapist, he doing like some weird stretches to get the food in his mouth. And that’s just a small, quick, you know.

two, 300 calorie meal, just to kind of tide the athlete over until that big pregame meal. And we’d hit the pregame meal about three, four hours before the game starts. Big, ⁓ you know, that’s gonna be fueling the player through their game, depending on the size of the player. And all of these numbers are coming from the dietitian. ⁓

It might be, you know, 12 to 1400 calories right there in one sitting. And, you know, that timing component is important. You don’t want to start digesting that, that giant meal. The second you step on a court, that’s going to cause all kinds of problems. You also don’t want to be running out of energy at halftime or the third quarter. So that timing component is really important. I would send a shake, a pregame shake with, with my player.

And that would be about an hour and a half hour right before the game. And that was that immediate burst of energy that they need to really get going and gear up for the game. And then there are a number of other little tricks and secrets that we might work in, whether it be a shot of espresso or a beat.

base drink, something like that. ⁓ And then halftime nuts. This is my all time favorite, eat. Eat half a banana and some halftime nuts. Just a quick little 100, 200 calorie snack to get you through that game, get you over that hump. ⁓

And then understanding the hydration component throughout the game. That’s one of the biggest things I’ve noticed in my time in athletics. That hydration component is something that is consistently consistently overlooked and something I’m constantly fighting with my athletes to focus on. ⁓ Granted, some are better than others. Some are just really bad. Like I don’t understand the aversion to water, but it exists and it’s ⁓ a persistent problem.

in pro sports, can confidently say that.

Samson (25:52)
Yeah, they say America runs on Duncan. think any athlete runs on Gatorade solely.

Aaron Clayton (25:58)
Yeah, yeah, Gatorade, Propel, like there have been some, some weird ones, but ⁓ for me, a nice little tool and it gets back to that education component. We’re educating these players just as we’re educating ourselves. Their, their expertise is on the court or on the field. They’re not expert chefs. They’re not dieticians. They’re not trainers. They’re, they’re an athlete. They they’re great at what they do. And for me taking a.

Samson (26:00)
Yeah.

Aaron Clayton (26:27)
a brand new sponge straight out of the package and soaking it in water, bringing the athlete in and then grabbing that old dried beat up sponge that’s been used for the last couple of weeks. Hand the used sponge to the player that’s completely bone dry. Ask if they can rip it in half.

they’ll be able to rip it in half pretty easily. But yeah, no problem. And then you hand them the brand new completely hydrated sponge. Here, rip this. They have a hard time ripping that one. And I tell them, this is the difference between being hydrated properly and being dehydrated. These are your muscles, these are your ligaments, these are your tendons.

If you can stay properly hydrated, you’re going to mitigate a certain amount of risk here. And once they can make that connection, they’ve got that bottle of water in their hand really quick.

Samson (27:19)
I’m stealing a lot of this stuff from you just so you know, for this upcoming year. That’s awesome. That’s absolutely fantastic. We do pre and post-practice weigh-ins, which has been a big piece for us too with the hydration. And it’s just incredible. Like they get shocked that they lost two pounds. You know, they’re like, I lost two pounds during practice. I was drinking water the whole time. And I was like, yeah, I also almost slipped in your sweat over a three hour practice, like six times. think about that one a little bit too. ⁓ And so.

Aaron Clayton (27:45)
Exactly.

Samson (27:47)
I appreciate you kind of giving us a look at like the micro, you know, when we look at the macro aspect of it, you know, working with an athlete, seeing how they can improve their performance. And like you said, you work within the ⁓ marginal areas, right? The small changes, the very small 1%. How has working with a performance chef maybe anecdotally or maybe just overall experience that you’ve seen, like how has it transformed an athlete’s career? What were the benefits that you saw an athlete ⁓ experience by working with

forward shift.

Aaron Clayton (28:18)
would say the biggest one is injury mitigation and recovery times. I’ve seen doctors tell a player, you’re not going to be on the court for three to four weeks and they’re back there a week and a half later. You also see it in longevity. I mean, we’re looking at the end of the NBA season here. Chris Paul just played a complete season at almost 40 years old. That’s not supposed to happen.

Samson (28:45)
No, not at all.

Aaron Clayton (28:47)
Guys like LeBron James, guys like Mike Conley. These guys are playing into their 40s with a high degree of success. And they are special physical specimens, yes, but they also invest in their performance, invest in their craft. These are guys who have the trainers, have the physiotherapists, have the chefs, have the dieticians, and they’re utilizing that experience to extend their careers.

⁓ For me, that would be the biggest impact in professional sports is understanding the injury mitigation, the recovery ⁓ process and it being expedited. And then the longevity in terms of career length and efficiency in these older years when people expect players to start slowing down and missing games. ⁓

How long ago was it that we were talking about workload management for these guys? And now you see guys ripping off a full season in the later stages of their careers. And it’s really encouraging to see.

the younger generations starting to learn from these older guys who are on their way out telling them, listen, as soon as you get in the league, this is something you need to invest in. And for these young guys, one, it’ll help them keep on the court, grow, build, and prepare themselves. And for me, a lot of these guys, hey, I want to bulk up or get ready for the season. And now they’re starting to learn, hey, let me prepare for my career.

It’s not just that season anymore. I want to extend this for 10 years, for 15 years. I want to see how long I can do this. you know, for me, seeing it in the NFL space has been really eye opening. ⁓ A league where traditionally players only have a, what I think the average is two years or something like that in the NFL. Exactly. So seeing these guys get their second, third, fourth contracts. ⁓

Samson (30:46)
Yeah, it’s right around there. Yeah.

Aaron Clayton (30:54)
has been a major point of pride in the performance chef community.

Samson (31:02)
Yeah, I think about that makes me think of Trenton Williams, right? And offensive lineman who I think the two shortest lifespans are lineman and running backs because those are people who are guaranteed to get hit on every single time they take a snap. And so I think of Trenton Williams speaking about how he works with a performance chef and how it’s totally transformed his career. mean, it’s just so amazing to me to see that it’s becoming something so prevalent across many sports too, because I do think the NBA I’ve heard a lot.

of performance chefs within, think of PGA as well too. That’s another one where they work very closely with performance chefs that I’ve heard pretty frequently. Do you ever see it expanding to more areas? Do you ever see it expanding to possibly to the collegiate level, especially with all the NIL money that’s coming in for athletes now too?

Aaron Clayton (31:49)
Yeah, the college space, the university space has been investing heavily in their organizations, nutrition and culinary programs. I’ve been taking more and more calls every year from major universities across this country looking to see how they can.

improve their programs, not just from a nutrition and health standpoint, but from a culinary point as well. Think about the recruiting process and you have two schools with the exact same everything and it comes down to that dining hall. I’m going to the one with the good food. you know, making this investment in their programs and understanding the impact that it has on the field and making that connection.

Samson (32:27)
Mm.

Aaron Clayton (32:38)
has been awesome to see one, but for me, the biggest change is coming in the way performance chefs, nutritionists, dietitians and training staffs collaborate. It’s no longer three separate entities working ⁓ individually. It’s now that collaboration and that focus on a united approach to performance on the field.

Samson (33:08)
Hmm. Yeah. I just, I, I just think it’s so important. think people finally bought into the importance of food, right? As a whole and understanding that your nutrition is key for development as an athlete. ⁓ I think sports psych is, has been the next one that has really, ⁓ kind of become more prevalent. A lot of schools are now pushing to have a sports psychologist on staff.

I would love to see a world where now there’s a performance chef on staff at each school and it’s kind of like the gold standard. And like you said, that would be incredible for recruiting. Could you imagine being able to tell a young athlete like, we have a performance chef on staff who’s gonna make food that you actually wanna eat. And instead of your strength coach making protein loaded shakes, you can have somebody who’s gonna make something that’s actually good and you’re gonna enjoy eating it.

Aaron Clayton (33:50)
Right, you know, and to get back to that point I made earlier, it does not matter how nutritionally dense the food is on the plate. If the player does not eat it, it is not healthy. And, you know, it’s not just high performance athletes. I think a big change or a new movement in the performance chef space is going to be in the cognitive space. ⁓

Samson (34:00)
Mm-hmm.

Aaron Clayton (34:17)
people thinking for performance and performance just does not need to be strictly physical. There are E-game athletes now who are getting scholarships and ⁓ performing in that arena. So understanding the impact, not just physically, but in a cognitive way as well is a new development in our industry.

Samson (34:44)
Yeah, it’s just so cool for me to be able to be in this profession and meet people like you, right? Like, I just think it’s awesome. And I was even thinking today, right? Like getting ready for the wedding this weekend. Okay. I want to stay away from beer because I don’t want to be too inflamed. Right. Like, you know, those are small things that you don’t really, if I was a CPA or, you know, got an MBA, I probably wouldn’t be thinking about those things too much, but it’s just so cool to me. And then you mentioned, you know, diving into the actual cognitive space too. Like, it’s just so exciting to me how many different

impacts that people can make and especially performance chefs too. It’s just awesome.

Aaron Clayton (35:17)
Yeah, no, it’s almost like the the industry that keeps on giving and for someone who continuously likes to learn and grow, ⁓ it’s a space without limit and daily creativity. mean, one of the most common questions I get asked as a chef is what’s your favorite thing to make? And I always say something new.

And I get to learn a new technique, a new cuisine, a new ingredient, a new way to approach an ingredient I’m very familiar with. So for me, it’s always something new. That growth component is huge for me.

Samson (35:51)
And I’m sure there’s gotta be a lot of space for creativity with it.

Aaron Clayton (35:55)
when you’re cooking for the same person day in and day out. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like eating the same thing every day. So you’re switching it up from cuisine, from ⁓ light, heavy, like whatever it might be. I…

Samson (36:00)
No, I certainly do not. Yeah.

Aaron Clayton (36:10)
Every private chef I talked to the biggest question on their their mind is what am I gonna make? What am I going to make because? You’re not doing your job correctly if you’re repeating a dish every month or a couple of months ⁓ I’ve had clients who were like Aaron you haven’t made the same thing in a year. I’m like, yeah No, it’s just always something new like well, actually, could we get that thing? had like a few months ago like no problem. Let’s get it going

⁓ So for me, it’s always about integrating something new, finding new ingredients. How do they factor into the program we’re working within? So for me, that’s where it’s at.

Samson (36:47)
That’s awesome. And I think back to, you know, straining conditioning, like we are able to pretty much, you know, program within month cycles. So we can at least get away with doing the same workouts each week to week for at least four weeks, and then we can make changes from there. So it’s certainly got to be a challenge. What are some other kind of unique challenges that you wouldn’t really think of, ⁓ or only performance chefs would really be able to identify with those challenges in the career?

Aaron Clayton (37:15)
most culinary, you know, culinary specific chefs, if something isn’t quite going right with a dish, you can usually add more salt, more butter, a little bit more sugar, and it’ll start tasting really good really fast. You can’t do that in the performance space, and it’s understanding these workarounds. And for me, working with my plant-based and gluten-free client made me a significantly better chef.

Samson (37:26)
Mmm.

Aaron Clayton (37:45)
And it was because I learned how to utilize ingredients in a different way, in a more efficient way, in a multifaceted way. ⁓ When you’re doing cream sauces without any dairy, you need to learn a few tricks. ⁓ Integrating as many of these micronutrients into a dish as possible is something that you need to figure out. You know, get on that blender or integrate ⁓

Spinach into your smoothies or whatever it might be working on those margins again. That’s the real trick ⁓ And then understanding every single athlete is going to have their own preferences when it comes to you know food ⁓

introducing them to new ingredients when they haven’t been exposed to a lot understanding. We all come from different backgrounds, different parts of the country. In California, I’ve been exposed to just about every kind of fruit and vegetable, imaginable. But if I have a client coming from an area that’s essentially a food desert and they’ve never had an asparagus before or

butternut squash, there’s gonna be even more education going into what I’m doing. This is why this food is on the plate. This is the way it’s gonna impact your body, things like that.

Samson (39:08)
Yeah, and like you said, education has got to be such a huge part of the job. You really have to, I’m sure, be able to break things down because even again, just to relate it back to my profession, I feel like it is a little bit easier to just say, you know, we back squat because of X, Y, Z, right? And then the athlete will kind of develop that buy-in a little bit. But everybody has to eat and everybody’s used to their foods. And so I’m sure when an athlete says, why would I want to eat butternut squash for the first time? There’s a little bit more convincing that has to go down.

Aaron Clayton (39:36)
There can be, and for me, and I imagine the same goes for trainers in the gym as well. This is a science-based nutritional strategy that we’re implementing or a science-based training strategy that you’re implementing. When you approach this from a place of expertise and experience and knowledge,

You can then educate your client, bring in this new component and explain to them, this is exactly what it’s doing. This is what you’re going to feel. And this is why this is the information that backs it up. These are the studies. And that’s why.

that comprehension and understanding these studies is so important and why when I first started working with an athlete, I dove into that research because I needed to be able to speak from a place of expertise to get my player to buy in and trust that what is going on to this plate is going to benefit them and help them. Because at the end of the day, they haven’t spent the time in the classroom like the dietician. They haven’t spent the time in the kitchen like the chef. They…

are more familiar with the training aspect because this is something they’ve been doing their entire life. So you might have an easier time explaining something new to them or at least drawing ⁓ an analogy or something similar to something they’d already done. When you’re introducing something completely novel and brand new, it takes a little bit extra and that’s where those components like the sponge demonstration comes into play or…

You know, really bringing in the data. I’ll send these dense, dense articles to my players. And most of the time I don’t expect them to read it, but they’ll start asking questions. And once those questions come in, that’s when the conversation starts. And getting back to that key component of collaboration and communication. ⁓ One of the best RDs I’ve ever worked with, she called me the translator. I’m the interpreter.

And I’m able to take her language and her prescriptions and dilute them and work them into something that is approachable for this player. And now being in their home, again, almost all day spending as much time with them as we do, we’re able to approach it from that personal standpoint and from that expertise standpoint. This is the information I’ve ⁓ consumed.

This is the end result. It’s here on your plate. This is why. And then you go from there and you continue that discussion. How did this make you feel? You check in the next day. Did you feel like you had enough energy working out? And that consistent back and forth communication is what drives the relationship.

Samson (42:27)
Yeah, it can be very easy just to say you need to do this, this, and this. And it’s much harder to, like you said, translate it into actionable items for the athlete so that they can actually see a difference from it.

Aaron Clayton (42:39)
Absolutely and some players just like anybody in this world some people are more receptive to this information or this approach and others aren’t and they might know hey I should be doing this but I Really like those bisque off cookies that they give us on our chartered flights or you know, it might be and you know working within those limits and and not every player is going to go as far as everyone else and

You know, it’s just working with the individual in front of you and trying to figure out how to get as much out of it as you can. And again, it comes back to those margins. Some people are going to get more out of it than others.

Samson (43:17)
Yeah, everybody’s a different human being too. They react to things differently. Everybody’s got their own story. Well, I’ve got a couple because I have always been fascinated by the profession of being a chef. I always just think it’s so ⁓ interesting to me. And I’ve got a couple of questions just in general about being a chef or like things that I would typically get as a strength coach, which kind of translating them to your specific profession.

Aaron Clayton (43:21)
Go.

Samson (43:41)
What movie or show would you say most accurately reflects your experience? Because I think of like Chef or I think of The Bear. What do you think would be most accurate? Are you able to watch those shows would be my second part to that question or is it too much like reality?

Aaron Clayton (43:56)
⁓ My first half, the first half of my career was The Bear. ⁓ Watching that show was painful. And it was as accurate as could be, at least the first season. I haven’t watched anything else after that. I couldn’t, you know, I’d be curled up on the couch in the fetal position, just shaking back and forth, you know. ⁓

Samson (44:01)
Here you go.

Yeah, I’m sure.

Hehehehehe ⁓

Aaron Clayton (44:23)
That was the first half of my career and things are changing, but 12 hour day was typical, if not a little short. ⁓ You’d get beat up, you’d get cussed out. I’ve seen people have pots and pans thrown at them. ⁓ It’s a character building exercise.

Things are changing. ⁓ They do have breaks now. They’re allowed to sit down, things like that. ⁓ But it’s, for me, that made me who I am as a professional, the way I approach my work, my tolerance for pain, my ability to persevere through adversity. ⁓ I have a hard time placing chefs in private.

Samson (45:01)
This is

Aaron Clayton (45:15)
positions who haven’t spent time in a restaurant specifically a fine dining restaurant There’s a lot that you learn there that you can’t pick up watching a YouTube video or listening to a seminar that experience is vital and being able to rely on that experience and know that I’ve gone through some of these things and how to get through them is important so ⁓

It’s a wild industry. I love it. ⁓ But we are a bunch of pirates at the end of the day, for the most part. There’s a reason why there is either that stigma or ⁓ that glorification of the chef. You it goes both ways.

Samson (45:49)
⁓

Yeah, is there pushback from older chefs on kind of the changes that you say are occurring? It’s the same with straining conditioning. It’s like the, walked uphill both ways to school, whatever it was. There’s, do people resist that a little bit?

Aaron Clayton (46:12)
Yeah, I’m still learning my way through it. I could probably find a few people who would say, Aaron, you were that chef. I mean, I’ve sent people out of my kitchen crying before. Not something I’m proud of, but that’s the nature of this industry. It can be a little tough, and sometimes that tough love goes a long way.

You know, I’ve had that chef in my ear screaming at me when I’ve got three tables waiting on their food and you just need to focus. It’s like a basketball player at the foul line in a close game with seconds left in the fourth quarter. Everyone’s screaming at you, but you need to execute. So.

Yeah, I have a hard time with some of these young chefs. You know, I sometimes can think they might be a little entitled or whatever it is, but I think that’s just me becoming that old get off my lawn chef. know, I…

I’m happy that that’s where the direction of the industry is going. I think it’s important that chefs are also viewed as human beings and not necessarily an extension of the stove. So it’s encouraging, but at the same time, I am still that old, hard, you know.

Chef, chef, ⁓ that’s my experience. Those were the people I came up with. Those are the chefs I learned from. And I was fortunate to have learned from some of the best chefs across the globe. So, ⁓ you know, just having that experience is something I treasure. And when I do talk to these young chefs about my experiences and they’re like, my God, I can’t believe you did that. I look back and I’m like, I’m really glad I did that, you know?

Samson (47:49)
Yeah, it’s

such a tough balance, seriously, because we, you know, I know of a GA recently who said, you know, I’m not getting paid enough to do that. So I’m not going to do that. Right. And it’s just like, what? I can never imagine saying something like that, you know, let alone actually being paid to do what they were doing in the first place. So it’s just such a tough balance. But, you know, like you said, in my experience, too, I’ve been so glad to have gone through the experience I have and

What’s interesting too is you mentioned the work-life balance and how tough it can be as a chef. If you’re tough enough to go through those experiences, then you’re going be tough enough to handle things in the future. It’s the same with strength and conditioning. There’s a lot of things and it’s a career where a lot of people burn out and drop out early because it’s hard. The entry process should probably be hard as well too.

Aaron Clayton (48:36)
Exactly. And for me, I think that’s probably what frustrates me more than anything about these people out there claiming that label of chef or performance chef without having put in that time and without having had that experience. You know, I just don’t know how…

you could comfortably say, I’m an expert here. I am the best at this when you haven’t put the time in or it’s something that you just kind of fell into a few years ago. So again, it’s not a time component. It’s an experience component, a proficiency component. ⁓

Do you know what you’re doing? And a lot of times people don’t. And the nice thing is the industry is starting to weed out those kind of individuals and those actors. It’s nice to see the recognition of the chefs who are really putting in the time, energy to make themselves better on a daily basis and who have put the work in throughout the years.

Samson (49:43)
Yeah, again, like you said, there needs to be some recognition for that because it does ultimately make you a better professional at the end. In my opinion, I agree with you. Now, some people may be guffawing at this episode, you know, or terrified, but, you know, I think they’d be in the minority. think a lot of people who went through those experiences know that they were better for it. ⁓ OK, my last question for you, and just again, out of pure curiosity, if there was one tool that you could…

always have to take with you from the kitchen, right? It’s like the one thing that you’d want to use 100%, ⁓ you know, what would that tool be? Like I think of, you know, I would always have to have a barbell. That’d be my one requirement for training. What would it be for you?

Aaron Clayton (50:23)
There’s only one answer for this. It’s a Chef’s knife.

Samson (50:26)
There you go. Yep, absolutely.

See, was thinking like pans or something like that. So, okay.

Aaron Clayton (50:32)
no, I

can start a fire in the backyard, stick a hunk of meat on a stick, whatever it is, I can figure that out. mean, I’ve flown out one of my clients out back home back East to where they grew up and the entire house, the stove, everything electric, oven electric. And there was a massive storm that blew through, knocked out all the power.

So I’m sitting there trying to figure out how to feed 12 people. I look outside, I see a grill. Perfect. I’ve got my knife, you know, my prep, got everything going. There’s a picture of me holding up the grill grate or, you know, hood. Trees are bent at a 90 degree angle behind me as you just see the like wind and rain flying by.

And I got the meal done. I had a massive smile on my face. It was one of like the coolest things ever, you know, and you just kind of figure out how to execute that meal, that next dish, whatever it is. There’s always a solution. And that’s kind of the magic and superpower of being a chef is always trying to figure it out. There’s always a solution and you can’t just say, Hey, sorry, I couldn’t do it and leave your client or your diner hanging and hungry. Like that’s just never an option.

Samson (51:26)
Yeah.

That’s awesome. That’s so cool. I love that story. And again, it’s just so cool for me to hear about the profession as a whole. I’ve always been kind of fascinated by it. to see how it can combine with the actual sports performance side too is very exciting for me. I seriously truly appreciate your time. Thank you so much for coming on the show. If somebody did want to follow you on Instagram or possibly contact you about services, I don’t know if somebody is looking for a performance chef or wanted to get connected with one, what would be the best way to do that?

Aaron Clayton (52:18)
They can reach out to me at Chef Aronius on Instagram or through our company, Performance Chefs, at performancechefs.org. Really appreciate you taking the time and having me. I really had a great time.

Samson (52:29)
Awesome.

Thank you, I truly did too. I’m gonna go home and tell my fiance right about this one as soon as I’m home. So I appreciate you greatly. Thank you very much.

Aaron Clayton (52:40)
Thank you.