More than a chef: Healthy tips from Jenny Perez

Deep underneath Oriole Park at Camden Yards, below the seating bowl on the right-field line, sits a tiny room that boasts all the colors of the rainbow. It just might be the only area of Oriole Park that isn’t orange and black. The room is alive with several colors and sits buzzing with energy and the sound of laughter… and blenders.

It is 1:00 p.m. and after six hours of food preparation, Orioles head clubhouse chef Jenny Perez stocks the countertops with freshly blended beet juice and green smoothies for the Orioles players and coaches as they arrive for that night’s game. She fills two large bowls with plump red tomatoes and the juiciest orange peaches. She sets aside cups filled with warm, roasted pecans and places leafy green salad and turkey burger patties into the trays of the buffet. Chef Perez is ready for show time.

Just as the manager helps prepare the players for success on the field, Perez helps to keep them energized and educated on how to best nourish their bodies to play the game they love.

“I have to give the players energy to play baseball, but the education part is a whole job on its own because it takes about 10 minutes to explain to everyone what they are eating,” Perez said, as she described how her role as clubhouse chef is more than preparing multiple meals for nearly 100 people each day. “Everyone has improved their eating habits over the past six years -- it’s great. This is a job with purpose and that’s why I love it, because it’s not just cooking.”

Perez began preparing meals for the Orioles in 2013, after former Orioles second baseman Brian Roberts started purchasing fresh kale salads from her market in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. Rather than selecting a meal from the clubhouse kitchen, he would pack a lunch from her market and bring it to the ballpark. Eventually her reputation made its way to the Orioles Baseball Operations team, who hired her to prepare meals for the entire Major League club.

Prior to working for the Orioles, Perez managed restaurants for eight years where she worked with fresh, organic food and observed Greek culture and cuisine. During that time, she decided to become vegan and researched ways to boost her energy, while cutting out certain food from her diet. Her experience cooking with healthy, fresh vegetables and the knowledge she obtained from her research made her the perfect candidate for revitalizing the food culture in the Orioles clubhouse.

“The market and what I started there helped me believe that there was a niche for what I was doing,” said Perez. “The essence of my cooking is fresh herbs and fresh food. I’m open to helping people with my cooking however I can.”

As a new member of the Orioles clubhouse, Perez took full advantage of the saying, “out with the old, in with the new.” Under the ranks of Chef Perez, players said goodbye to frozen pizzas and potatoes and said hello to seasonal, organic produce and lean protein.

While Perez quickly won the hearts of the Orioles players and staff with her delicious cuisine, she also began educating the Orioles on healthy eating habits to accompany the new clubhouse menu.

“It was hard for me initially because they weren’t used to eating like that,” explained Perez. “What I had to execute was difficult. It was talking, educating, and spending hours and hours shopping for healthy food from farmers markets.”

Perez takes the time to sit with all of the players and coaches and educate them on what they are eating. She prides herself in being the person that holds their hand in their food journey and finds excitement in showcasing the changes that can happen to a person when they choose better food options.

Healthy Tips

What are some easy substitutes that anyone can make in their diet to help them stay healthy?
"If you can, go with lighter oils like coconut oil and olive oils, and really learn how to use them, like using olive oil on salads. Those oils are just so beneficial, while the other types stay in the body. So we want to make sure we use the right oils."

How do you make guilty pleasure items healthier for Orioles players?
"What we do is try to make guilty pleasures be the same kind of recipe, but using all organic, grass-fed items and raw oils. So at the very least, we make sure we’re using high-quality ingredients."

For people with a sweet tooth, how can we avoid giving in to those guilty pleasures?
"Well with the players, I teach them how to eat other things. Before they even think of anything else, I’m serving something like a banana stuffed with almond butter, coconut oil and vanilla, so that takes care of that sweet craving. Even sweet potatoes make you think 'Why would I need anything sweet?’ It gets rid of the craving.'"

What about with snacking?
"I focus mostly on snacks like hard boiled eggs and deviled eggs. I use dates a lot because they are great for athletes. With dates, they’re soft and chewy and taste like caramel. So you can literally just blend them in or chop them up with your almond butters, or make them into a protein bowl with chocolate and nuts, and that’s a snack."

What are some of your go-to options to make for breakfast, lunch, and dinner?
"We like using sweet potatoes for everything, because we make them just so good. It’s coconut oil and pink Himalayan sea salt -- that’s it. We bake them in a convection and a steam oven -- but there is a lot of love that goes into them. Guacamole is also a must have -- and that’s another one that we call a snack. Once you have fat like guacamole -- a good fat -- your mind is set and it is not going to crave all of the sugars and the carbs. We always have guacamole, with a homemade salsa and organic chips."

What is one piece of advice you can give someone who may not be skilled in the kitchen, but who wants to eat healthy?
"My focus in life is teaching my clients how to navigate their kitchen and how to think of healthy food as a fun thing and not as a burden. The advice I would give is have patience. It’s not going to happen from one day to the next. But what you can do is introduce one thing, one habit, or one ritual a week.

"You go little baby steps. Don’t go all at once and say, 'I got this book. I got this diet. I’m going to change.' And guess what happens? You fall right out of it and nothing happens. Instead you have to have patience and self-love enough to tell yourself: 'One thing at a time. I’m taking my time.'"

More than a Chef was originally published in the 2016 Third Edition of Orioles Magazine. Orioles How To: Healthy Tips from Baltimore’s Team Chef was originally published in the 2018 Third Edition of Orioles Magazine. Birdland Insider features original content from Orioles Magazine, including new articles and stories from our archives.