Clowney's Chef dishes on dinner prepared for Sean Payton
Saints head coach Sean Payton visited with Jadeveon Clowney on Friday evening. But Clowney's chef, Chef Ash, may have been the star of the night.
I spoke with the extremely personable Chef Ash about the last night's four-course meal she prepared for her client, Jadeveon Clowney, and his New Orleans guests, Sean Payton and his two assistant coaches. I was curious about the details of that night's affair and the atmosphere during and after dinner.
Following the appetizer, she described the evening's salad for the next course. "That was a fresh berry salad. Basically, it was a salad with baby spring mix. And then it had fresh Louisiana strawberries, fresh blueberries, and raspberries. The salad was served with a nice vinegarette."
The main course consisted of a grilled ribeye with loaded garlic mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus. Chef Ash completed the dinner for the evening dining with a Creme Brulee as the desert. After tasting the desert, she told me Sean Payton came into the kitchen and told her how "great the dinner was" for him. She remembered the evening with Coach Payton, Clowney, and the coaches to have had "great vibes" the whole night, which is a positive sign of Saints fans.
Credit: Chef Ash, IG account; Personal Chef to Jadeveon Clowney
Louisiana cooking is not strange for someone like Sean Payton. Being a chef from Louisiana, Chef Ash took an interesting path to get to the evening she had with Payton and Clowney. Most Louisianians help one another. Before she began her own catering business several years ago, Chef Ash had got into trouble as a teenager in Slidell, LA. Her mother encouraged her to work for a catering company. In three years, her time with the caterer helped to cultivate her passion for cooking. "I learned so much from that catering company, and I have always had a job in a restaurant...from fast food to fine dining," recounted Chef Ash.
Her big breakthrough came approximately seven years ago at Christopher's of Carey that gave her a chance to cook at the Slidell four-and-a-half star restaurant. Christopher, a classically trained chef, hired her after she prepared a mouse for him. "I learned so much from him...and he gave me that confidence that I can do this[cook professionally]," as Chef Ash pondered the past.
It was a conversation high school friend Steven Whitehead that changed her life's direction once again. Whitehead and Deon Hodges own ProTrusted, and both train Jadeveon Clowney in the Houston area. Whitehead had not spoken with Chef Ash for 15 years. It was Whitehead who saw her cooking passion and her "consistently putting in work over the course of time" via Facebook.
He and Hodges recommended that Eagles' Fletcher Cox hire Chef Ash for one of his events in Dallas. Cox flew her to Dallas, where he hosted 15 Philadelphia players while training at his ranch. Her next assignment was to cook for wide receiver Alshon Jeffrey in Houston. "While cooking for Alshon Jeffrey, I met Jadaveon Clowney, and it was history from there. He wanted to know if I would cook for him," remarked Chef Ash. The rest is history.
She has gone from catering, fast-food, four-star restaurants, and now cooking for an NFL star and his family in her short professional career. Hopefully, Saints fans would like her to return to Louisiana with Clowney this season on track to a Super Bowl win in Tampa in February.
We shall see.
Chef Ash can be contacted on Instagram at @atasteofchefash for more information on her catering services in the Houston, TX area. ProTrusted can be found at @protrusted on Instagram for their professional athletic training services.
