There are few things more important to an NBA player’s performance than his diet. Food is fuel, especially so for the greatest athletes in the world.
But for celebrity chef Christian Bowman, who has worked with some of the league’s biggest stars, including Jimmy Butler, Kyrie Irving, Russell Westbrook, Jayson Tatum and James Harden, cooking is more art than science. Creativity makes the process more fun.
“I’m not the ordinary chef,” Bowman told The Athletic on the latest episode of Stargazing. “I wear my chef coat but sometimes I’m gonna have on some swaggy kicks. I’m also going to bring my business savvy and my mentality and my work ethic. And the food is gonna be off the chain.”
In Episode 6 of Stargazing, The Athletic’s NBA Culture video podcast, Bowman spoke about the process of cooking for NBA players and celebrities, living with Butler in Minneapolis and Philadelphia, the importance of Instagram in finding new clients, his favorite dishes to cook and epic cheat meals, among other topics.
Here is a snippet of our conversation.
Editor’s note: Questions and answers have been edited for clarity.
ASAP Rocky was your first big break. How did you link with him?
Man, it’s crazy. So my pops stays in Atlanta. I went to school out there my sixth-grade year.
