(Left to Right) George Lorenzana, Jorge Marquez, Jessica Campos and Jeneci Chavez.
By: Javier Mico-Crump
Quotes from Jessica Campos and Janeci Chavez have been translated into English from Spanish. The Spanish version of the article is available here.
Behind every professional sports team are countless people whose work is essential to the players’ success. Among them is the kitchen staff, responsible for carefully planning and preparing the meals that fuel athletes for competition. At Real Salt Lake and the Utah Royals, the majority of the kitchen staff is Hispanic, and their connection to their culture shapes not only the food they prepare, but also the relationships they build with the players they serve.
For many of Utah soccer’s kitchen staff, their passion for cooking stemmed from an early age by watching their moms. That was the case for George Lorenzana, Levy Restaurants Director of Operations, who grew up with a Guatemalan father and an Uruguayan mother.
“I always loved just being beside her, cooking with her,” said Lorenzana. “For me, food kind of encompasses everything— your happiness, your sadness. It’s a very emotional thing, but also a very healing thing as well. So I just have a big passion for food, and it's a big part of my life.”
From operations down to the chefs and cooks, nutrition and the health of the players is always the number one priority. Lorenzana acknowledges that feeding the teams can be a big responsibility.
“The dietitians support us a lot with matchday minus one (the day before the game) for the players, really making sure they have the proper nutrition and the right meals for optimal performance on the field,” he said. “That’s so important to us, especially with the academy boys. They live here, they're away from their families, they’re away from their moms and dads, so we try to provide them with the best meals as if they were at home getting a meal from their parents.”
Sous Chef Jessica Campos, who hails from León, Guanajuato, Mexico, agrees, and points out that nutrition is one of the least appreciated aspects of player performance.
“We always try to focus on nutrition,” said Campos. “The dietitians inform us when [the players] have games, if they need more carbohydrates and things like that. We take pride in being able to do this day to day, and honestly I think it's something that not many think about or consider important. Nutrition goes hand in hand with what they do on the field, and sometimes it isn’t highlighted enough.”
Culture is a significant aspect of cooking, and it often shows up in the recipes that the kitchen staff prepare for the players. Both Campos and Executive Chef Jorge Marquez, who was born in Peru before moving to the United States, still use the skills they learned during their childhood to bring hispanic dishes to the training facility.
“I’m proud of my roots, my family, and it's something that I carry with me every day,” said Marquez. “The flavors, new techniques that I’ve learned along the way, it’s great. It’s very rewarding to do and to also learn about other cultures.”
“Its very beautiful because you feel like you’re representing part of your culture,” Campos said. “I’m from Mexico, and besides that, in the kitchen there are almost only men, and the fact that there are already more women in the kitchen and that we have shown that we are strong, it’s nice to represent. Living in Salt Lake, working for the team, and representing the Latino culture itself feels very, very nice.”
Not only does food allow the staff to tap into their cultural heritage, but it also helps them build a close relationship with the players. Each meal is a manifestation of a special hispanic hospitality that is made evident by the players’ reactions to the food they make.
“A single recipe would just give you a part of the food that we are providing here, but it’s the communication, the love that we pour into every single meal that I think it gets missed sometimes,” Marquez said. “But the players know — the way they react and the way they receive the food, it shows through their faces.”
At Utah soccer, food has also become a way to share hispanic culture with those who are less familiar with it. Everyone from academy players to internationals on the first teams have found ways to connect with hispanic heritage through meal time.
“It’s nice because you see them genuinely enjoying it, and when I don’t give them tortillas, they look for tortillas,” recalled Campos with a smile. “It’s not even just the Latinos that ask for it, it’s people from other countries, and it’s nice that [our culture] gets known.”
Janeci Chavez, a cook on the kitchen staff from Arequipa, Peru, has even started to teach Spanish to some of RSL’s young academy players.
"It's about making them feel at home, making it their second home,” said Chavez. “Same with my kids from the academy. They’re learning Spanish because I teach them things like, “This is how you say this,” and they’ll ask me how to say different foods and drinks in Spanish. They love it because I applaud them and encourage them, and it makes them happy. That’s what I love about being Latina—being able to help people, because I know what it feels like to be in that position too.”
For the kitchen staff, their role extends far beyond preparing meals. Through food, language and the traditions they carry with them, they have created a sense of home for players who may be far from their own families. What began as a job in the kitchen has become another way to care for the people they feed — and, in doing so, they have become part of the Utah soccer family.
“A majority of players know me, and they know I like to be yelling in the front row, supporting them every game, not only the men but the women, too,” Chavez said. “They’re my children, and you support your children in the good times and in the bad. That’s why I’m always there, whether they win or lose, because for me they’re everything. They’re the best. I’ll be there for them no matter what, to give them a hug and congratulate them.”
