BEREA, Ohio — The Cleveland Browns rookies have been hard at work since arriving in Berea for their minicamp earlier this month, learning the ins and outs of the NFL—but their most recent lesson came off the field and in the kitchen as the organization partnered with Baldwin Wallace University for a "Rooks to Cooks" course.
On Monday afternoon, the Browns rookies took a trip down the street to BW's Center for Innovation and Growth where they were led in a cooking course by the university's dining services staff.
"Eating healthy. Being able to cook for themselves outside of the Browns facility, I think those are all really important things," said Matt Regula, assistant director of dining at Baldwin Wallace University.
The seven drafted players—Cedric Tillman, Siaki Ika, Dawand Jones, Cam Mitchell, Isaiah McGuire, Dorian Thompson-Robinson and Luke Wypler—along with undrafted free agents—Mohamoud Diabate, Thomas Greaney, Hassan Hall, Lonnie Phelps, Jeremiah Martin, Tanner McCalister and Charlie Thomas III—all joined the course.
As the rookies filed into the room and arrived at their individual cooking stations, they started off with lessons in nutrition. From there, things got competitive as the players were given six minutes to build a healthy, but gourmet, parfait. Once they were done, they had to run the dish out to their station for judging.
Following the parfait build, the rookies came back into their makeshift kitchen area, where they watched an instructor teach them knife skills and other cooking techniques from a projector as he worked along with them.
Players got to grab fresh produce of their choice for what would be a stir-fry dish. With the lesson of protein being important in their diets, the rookies could choose from chicken, steak, shrimp, scallops and tofu among other ingredients.
It was a fun-filled day with a lot of friendly competition between the teammates. A lot of pride was built along the way as well.
"I'm definitely going to start impressing everybody I know when it comes to cooking with all the little ins and outs and details and how to hold the knife. They're going to think I'm a top-tier chef for sure," Dorian Thompson-Robinson said.
The Browns rookie quarterback was excited about being able to learn about cooking, hopeful that the lessons he received Monday at Baldwin Wallace can help him in his future.
"For me, I hope to start a family one day, and I know my kids, my wife are going to want meals and stuff like that. So for me, if I can learn now all the ins and outs of cooking and also get really good at it, I feel like I could help myself later on in the future," Thompson-Robinson said.
That was the goal of the day. For rookie pass rusher Isaiah McGuire, the experience was well received.
"It's all part of getting acclimated, the transition from college to the NFL. Obviously, there will be some different things that you have to learn on the field, off field, but this was a great opportunity for us to come together, create that brotherhood, that bond, for us to go and contribute to the team," McGuire said.
Chopping and slicing, frying and flipping, the Browns rookies made their stir fry dishes with the watchful eyes of BW staff. After their dishes were done, the rookies had one last challenge—plating.
"Presentation means a lot when it comes to cooking," McGuire laughed as he shared his biggest lesson learned of the day.
Awards were presented to winners, scored on things like timing, cleanliness, and presentation. Thompson-Robsinson didn't get an award, but he was still pleased with his dish.
"It's all about the taste, the quality. And mine didn't necessarily look the best, but it for sure tastes the best. And that's all that matters," he laughed. "When you go to a restaurant, you don't want something that looks nice and pretty to taste bad. You want something that's going to fill you up. And I feel like mine did that today."
The Browns rookies walked away with lessons on life outside of college and on their own. The added bonus was the bragging rights.
"I may even walk into the cafeteria tomorrow and try to teach the chefs a little something back there," Thompson-Robsinson joked.
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