ESPN 14, 20, ESPN 14, 20 dot com, we're back, we're back, we're back. It's your main man, Norman Lock hosted from three to six, joined by my guy, Lennon, Bernie, what's up, Lennon? Not too much, Norm, my man, not too much. And we have a special guest, you know, right now it's NFL training campaign.
One of the key things to keeping the players going is the nutrition. What goes in their body? What keeps that engine going? So you know what, I got friends in high places.
So what better person to talk to than a chef? Backs. About what goes into these athletes' bodies and what it takes to keep these weld-all machines performing that tip-top shape. So I got my guy, Chef Aristide Williams from the Wall and self-taught Shelf coming on to come talk often.
What's up, Steve? How you doing today? What's up, man? How you been, man?
Good to hear from you. You get to talk to you, bro. Oh, man, I can't say I'm blessed. You doing what you love to do?
I'm doing what I love to do. And we talking about it, man. Anything better than that? Hey, ain't that a blessing to follow your passion dog?
So I'm just happy to talk to you, man. Get some good words out there. That makes sense. Yes, yes, always, always.
Now, Steve, why don't you start by telling the people a little bit about yourself and how'd you get started in the culinary business? Well, honestly, I was about two months away from graduating from Southern University when I was heading to law school. I was going to start applying to law schools and looking into what I have to do to the law school. And I just woke up one day and was like, man, I want to do something that I would really enjoy.
I didn't want to roll out of the bed and say, hey, man, I've got to go to work and dread it. So I'm really big on my face and spirituality. So I prayed and I asked God to lead me to where he wanted me to be, not necessarily myself. And I let go out of my steps and somehow I came across food and I gained this passion for it.
And I kind of became obsessed. And I never did I, God, the chef is what you want me to be. I don't want to be a normal chef. I just don't want to have a restaurant.
I just don't want to cook for athletes. I know that it's crazy to say. I know that it's like, I know that it was random, but I want to say a few months after that, I started meal prepping for some of the LSU football players. And the rest is history, honestly.
See, that's awesome, because I relate to that story, because funny enough, I was chef, I was going to school to be a lawyer as well. And I wasn't enjoying myself. It wasn't what I wanted. And like you said, I just prayed for a while on it.
Went to church on it, talked to God about it. And I was like, man, go use your time enough, what you're doing and put your voice out there and be a communication. So I relate to that story a lot. I appreciate that.
And I say, you don't regret a moment, do you? Not at all. Like I would, man, I'm happy every day, like my girlfriend always tells me she's like, you can't say you're going to work, because you enjoy it. And I was like, I'm going to work, but I don't regret a single moment of it.
And I bet you feel the same way. A single moment there, for sure, man, for sure. So then he ordered your steps to move to New York. And why don't you move to New York?
What did you start studying under? So I think a huge leap of faith that I was scared. I'm not going to lie. My mom, she overjoyed with happy kids now, but when I told my mom I was going to New York, she was not having it.
I think a legal faith moved to New York. And I started working for Chef Marcus Samuelson. Chef Marcus Samuelson is one of the top judges on the show. One of the best chefs, like, people don't understand.
I got to give Chef his props. Like, this is one of the James Beard award winning, like, great chef. And for people out there who don't know what the James Beard award is, that is basically the Oscar, the Grammy, that type of award for chefs in America. Yeah.
And crazy thing is, when I was back in Baton Rouge, my girlfriend, Valamal Quiz, I started posting my food on Instagram, just to kind of get some feedback. She was like, you should watch the show named Chop. And I got hooked. Like, when I say I got hooked instantly, at the time it was on Netflix.
And lo and behold, I moved to New York. And my mentor, she's a Southern graduate as well. She's from the world and she's a chef. She's been on Chop.
She's active been on Chop twice. She won the first time. And she lost all of them in the dirt round her second time going. But it might go, I just want to say it got all of my steps.
I started, I worked for Chef Marcus for three and a half years. And while working for Chef Marcus, I interned for Chef Alex together, Noce, and she's a Chop judge as well. And I've also worked hand in hand with Chef Amanda, who was a Chop judge as well. But in the midst of all of that, I told you I was a no-prefer for some LSU players.
lo and behold, Jamal Adams was playing for the Jets. And I hit him up because I had his person. And I was like, yo, Molly, if you need a person, Chef, let me know. He was like, hell, yeah, man, what are you at right now?
I mean, at the time, I was standing in Brooklyn. And I was just, Chef, all the way up into it. Well, not all of his years in Seattle. I mean, not all of his years in New York, but his sophomore year, and NFL ongoing, even in Seattle, was just, even in Seattle, was a chef.
But lately, we have pointed ways so I can spread out some more. That's my market, which has been very successful so far. That is an amazing story. Just, no, just put it in perspective.
The names he just said that he worked with and put the plumes up out there and take a bet on himself. That's huge, man. I applaud to you, Chef. Yeah, I appreciate it, man.
It's just literally it's letting go of all of my stuffs, like manifesting everything, seeing things for yourself, and just trying, not being scared to try. I said all the time, I'm just going to realize that, you know, just want to realize that, man, New Orleans beat no shade to anybody in Louisiana but the Wall Street is about anywhere. Let them know, don't say, don't say, I've been telling my bro bridge, don't say, no bro bridge got some food. I don't know.
That's what I'm, that's what I'm, crawfish ain't too fair, originally, originated from. I know my history about Louisiana. Okay, see, I believe you. What are you?
Chef, I've been trying to tell him this area. That's what I'm trying to tell him this area. That's what I'm trying to tell him this area. That's what I'm trying to say is the birthplace of crawfish ain't too fair bro bridge.
I've been trying to tell him about this area, Chef. You didn't know him? I know it's a beef. I know it's a beef.
I know it's a beef. Five, four, like about school, man, but when I tell you, no matter what part of Louisiana you're from, you go anywhere outside of the state. It's different shine. Yup.
You can shine, man. You can shine. Any category. Not just being a chef.
We just got go get it in Louisiana, man. That's a fact. No, man. No, Steve.
So, working with Jamal Adams, what are some of the type of meals that these high-level athletes, you know, Jamal is a multi-time pro bowler for getting a big-time contract extension and to do that his play on the field had to correlate, what are some of the type of meals that are needed for these athletes to sustain the muscle mass that they have to do to have, to take the toll for the extended longer season? Oh, well, so, man, at one point, me and Jamal became perfect carrying. So, I used to get my hands on some of the freshest fish, some of the freshest vegetables I handcrafted from scratch. So, it's like tedious things.
You just, man. I mean, I'm not from Chicago. I really love what I do, man. I really love what I do.
And I feel like, in order for, you know, athletes to perform at his best ability, man, he has to have the best quality stuff. And I'm not even talking about going to Whole Foods. I'm talking about connecting with local farmers, connecting with local, um, my, my, my, my, my business have all these ingredients, um, organic ingredients that are not processed, that are not, you know, go through different type of machines. I'm talking about form to table dinners.
So, that's the kind of meals Jamal was getting. And, um, I think one of my proudest moments with working with Jamal was he was down to 5% body fat. And like, that was one of, I think that was his, if I'm not mistaken, either that was his last year with, with the Jets or his, all the year before that. But that was one of my proudest moments because like, when I say man, I study everything and thinking the thing about Jamal too is about me working with Jamal.
I don't, I don't remember repeating a meal. I don't remember repeating a dish. So just as competitive as athletes. That's how I took it.
Man, I took that my chef career as man. This is my NBA. This is my NFL. And I got to shine.
I got to put myself in the best position to become a big, emotional star chef. So that's how I take it. Now, with some of those different meals, and like you say, for a portion of time going Presbyterian between Presbyterian and vegan, what are the qualities in that eating habit in a diet that helps these athletes? And why are we seeing a lot of athletes transition to those type of diet?
Honestly, when it's, it's just, it's not hard for me to explain it, but it's going to sound weird, but you're much more aware and light on your feet. And you don't, you're not, you don't feel like heavy when you're, especially after just a regular citizen. Like when I tell you when I became a Presbyterian, I was able to run like four or five miles a day. And I use running.
I use exercise and then call you as mental health too, besides going to a therapist on my good and bad days. Like it makes you, it just makes you like, I don't, it's hard to explain, man. It's just like, I said, when you eat clean, you dress clean, you feel clean, everything around, it's like a, it's like a working machine. When you give like your, your car, your truck, a new oil change and fresh gas, it runs different.
You know what I'm saying? So that's kind of what it is. Like, you know, you have to be careful. What kind of read me to eat because read me sticks on your stomach for a while.
It takes, read me longer to digesting in your body. When you get a fresh ingredient and you get fresh vegetables with the contained water, man, it's, it's, it's like a well, a well on machine. Like that's exactly what it is. So I think that's why a lot of the athletes are making sure they, um, transitions to these vegan and pescetarian guys because your, your body, your body works better.
That makes sense. You learn as long. You, you're not shortness of breath and you're able to put in that extra work in the gym or extra field time or extra, you know, cardio and it pushes you to a limit in your mindset. So let me, well, like, yo, I feel clean.
I feel my mind is set. Like it's a real thing. You always you eat. Okay.
So if you eat clean, you think clearly you move, you move better. It's like, it's like, I'm not going to say it's weird, but it's just like a mindset. It's really a mindset thing as well too. So do you, do you think that, um, you know, some of the misconceptions are it's like you talk about the biggest attribute of you where it's not having a meal repeating?
What are some of the different types of meals that you're prepping for these athletes that are kind of different? Like, what is the go to vegan dinner? You know, what's the stake of the vegan people? The stake of the vegan person.
I mean, um, it's kind of hard to say because I have so many recipes and I don't have like a, like, um, I don't have a favorite. So let's say, let's say this. I have this, um, this pasta dish, right? So, um, I use, when I make fresh and fresh pasta, I use gluten-free gluten-free flour.
I may use egg yolks, but the egg yolks come from heirloom eggs. And heirloom eggs is basically free range chicken, like chicken that all in like a farmer's backyard and they're not processed or not, you know, run through a system or stuff like that. And the yolk is very, very rich, meaning that it contains very high on vitamins in the, you know, in the egg yolk that in our turn into a pot. You know, ground up some spinach and throw that into the spinach, but then I also make my own tomato sauce.
So like, my favorite tomato sauce to make is yellow heirloom tomato sauce. And I roast it all. Like, it's a process. People just think, oh, you're just going to get changed by some tomato sauce on the store.
No, everything correct. See, everything correct. I'll see, I'll be seeing them on the ground. Just everything I hear.
See Chef, I want to ask you this. Me and my significant other start going gluten-free and dairy-free. Does that play into what you're talking about about for the athletes to help them in their bodies and maintain it? If you're dairy-free, watch how much, and we live in itself too.
So we suffer from allergies, we suffer from a whole bunch of stuff. I haven't gone sick in a long time, I'll be honest. Exactly, exactly. When you step away from dairy, all the extra flim you have in the morning and all that, like, bro, it's going to be gone.
Like, I make my own oat milk. I make my own oat milk. Wow. See, wait, that's a big question.
How do you do you buy the oat milk from Target? How do you get the milk from out of the oat? It's not a milk out of the oat milk. I really like sugar, water, you know, bread, roll, and oat milk.
Maybe some vanilla puree. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah.
Like, some of the stuff is so simple. It's just time consuming, you know, down south and in New York and Seattle is fast-paced, so people just have to go grab and go grab and go. But I definitely got rid of like, out of my personal diet. I don't consume a lot of dairy at all.
At all, so I make everything from scratch. Like, you know, no shade to nobody, you know what I'm saying? Because there's all respect, I respect everybody's craft, but I can't call myself a chef if I can't make it from scratch. Okay.
That's real. And speaking of your chef abilities, let's jump into, because we know the episode from here tonight, so we don't want to know details about the episode. But what was it like going under the bright lights of mentors I've worked there, people you've worked with has worked there. You understand the level of type of competition that they're looking for.
And just from me hearing what you talk about doing everything scratch, everything from scratch, everything fresh. That's the type of cooking that normally wins in shop, not to let the people, not to say where I'm thinking the wins don't go, but I'm pulling for you tonight. So what was it like being under the bright lights of chop? Okay.
I want, I want, I want, when you guys watch the show, if you guys are able to watch the show, I want you to have an open mind. I can't make what I want to make in 30 minutes, so I have to adapt. It's all about adapt. And just how like, just how the Patriots always adapt in a second half and like teams always adapt in a second half.
That's how it is. I think on your seat type of show. So I played really well, you know what I'm saying? That's all I can give y'all.
But being in a bright light, I'm not going to lie to you. I thought I would be nervous, but all I did was smile because it goes back to me. It goes back to me being in my apartment in the Palisades, right off the Southern campus, two o'clock in the morning coming home practicing dishes. So one of the judges asked me, you know, how you feel about being here.
And I was like, man, I manifest myself here. So like, I'm fine. I'm fine. Where everything goes, I'm fine with it.
Because it's just something I pray for. It's just something I've always saw me doing. I didn't, I just never do this coming fast. They just showed me that what God has for you.
And I'm excited for the world to know my story. And then my story doesn't just include me. It includes the people around me. It includes my university.
And it includes my upbringing. That's awesome. I'm glad you got to say it on our airways, because I definitely appreciate it. No problem.
It's from here for me. No, maybe my voice is not great. I'm happy to see him thrive. You know the real one.
I got to give it to you. Hey, man, like that, that class of 2010 class is just golden. 2010 is very different. We were bad.
We were a different type of group, man. Like we have some awesome people and we still have people thriving in our class, man. The father. Yeah.
Father. Father. Yeah. That's how flow with the best loves.
Do you want to give the best love? Want to give the people your social media when you can watch you when you can keep up with your website, everything. Erasti Williams. Okay.
So my social media is at chef or I WMS is just a abbreviation of my name. That's a art that chef or I WMS. And you can keep up with me. I think I don't know when it's going to drop, but I teamed up with Coca Cola and NFL to do a couple of recipe commercials for tailgating.
So you guys can look out for that. And yeah, I'll be dropping in. You know, hopefully one day I can do something with K. O K, man.
I'll do this one. Basic job. We can do some make some noise in Lafayette. That's a fact.
And then make sure y'all look out for him on the Food Network tonight. That was on a chop airing at eight o'clock central time. My guy, chef, chef Big Chef. Erasti Williams, man.
Thank you for coming, Chef, man. I really appreciate it. No problem. That was my guy.
Erasti Williams. Again, y'all got to look out for him. He's going to be on episode of Chop Tonight. Then that was a great interview.
No, look, man. I appreciate it. That was awesome. And see, I know you are a fool kind of sooner.
And then it's just big because like, you know, my girlfriend is in culinary school and trying to do that. So everything he was saying, like, I hear at my house. So, like, I appreciate it. And I know, so now I have to give my skills up because if he's making pasta at home, I'm feeling inadequate.
I've seen him with the little machine. I've got to give a copulation. But no, no, no. I'm putting, I got to raise the stakes on my own self.
I got to start making my own pasta from scratch. I need to start making my own tomato piece from scratch. Yeah, now that you need to definitely do it. It's hard.
All you do is put, you just rose the tomato soda. It's hard. It's hard. It's hard.
You know, I'm just getting on my step one of gumbo. I'm not ready for the people to have my gumbo. But I'm going to step one of the gumbo. I got you, I got you.
Okay. That makes sense. I'm going to step back from this break. We got to go through NFL, training camp, big news coming out also.
Seamus Winston, he's saying all the right things. Hey, lookin' good. He's looking good. The report out of campus is good.
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