Redskins convert space into cafeteria to serve healthier options

WASHINGTON — Washington Redskins tight end Niles Paul stopped by his locker before a recent practice to drop off a carry-out plate of baked chicken, black-eyed peas and rice.

The mini-feast would become dinner later that evening for a player who doesn't cook, one of the many advantages of playing for a NFL team with a full-time, fine-dining chef.

It's quite the change from Paul's previous options.

'Probably Wendy's, and get a Baconator,' he said.

Over the last 13 months, the Redskins have changed the diets of many players by converting the basketball and racquetball courts in the Redskins Park basement into a made-to-order, healthy-options eating establishment.

There's a chef with a French cuisine background, a sous-chef, five cooks and a full-time nutritionist creating some 350 fresh-from-scratch meals per day — mostly breakfast and lunch — for the players, coaches, support staff and other employees.

'If I was going to take a leap from the fine-dining branch, why not go polar-opposite and try to do clean-eating for a football team and see where it goes,' said the head chef, 49-year-old Jon Mathieson, a top name in the D.C. dining community who was hired away by Redskins owner Dan Snyder.

Teams invest more than a hundred million dollars annually in player salaries, yet they often fuel those high-performance bodies with standard fare catered from a local restaurant during the week.

That's what the Redskins did until the start of last season, setting out lunches of Mexican, Italian, barbecue or other fare — whatever the catering company had to offer — much of it containing heavy sauces and empty calories.

Of course, the team did win three three Super Bowls while eating McDonald's hamburgers for lunch in 1980s and early 1990s.

'But they were also smoking cigarettes and drinking malt liquor," tight end Logan Paulsen said. "The culture's