mmmmmmmmm
I nearly had tears in my eyes when I read the phrase, "crab-stuffed steak."
FLAVOR OF LOVE: Chef Loving's menus keep Pistons' Hamilton fueled
BY KRISTA LATHAM
FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER
It's not yet 11 on a Sunday morning, but chef Shawn Loving is up and at it early, his tall white hat sitting high on his forehead, a hustle in his step as he works to prepare a VID. That's a Very Important Dinner.
Sauce for one portion of the dinner menu -- parmesan chicken skewers -- bubbles in a large pot on the stove. Loving whisks in some spice, his tongue sticking out like a basketball player going up for a jump shot.
Loving, with his high energy and quick feet and zealous concentration, not to mention that jutting tongue, isn't unlike his very important client.
This is Richard Hamilton's dinner.
And this is Loving's life, day in and day out, at least when the Pistons are in town.
Up and at 'em early, cooking grits or chicken salads or crab-stuffed steak, food that will provide the spark in the step of the always-energetic Pistons shooting guard.
While Hamilton is in Detroit, hardly any food enters his mouth that Loving and his assistant, Jeff Bailey, didn't personally prepare.
The Detroit native and owner of Loving Spoonful in Farmington Hills, and his small team of helpers, are solely responsible for making sure the Pistons' leading scorer eats right. From breakfast to his postgame meal, Loving and his team cook it and deliver it to Hamilton's house.
No other Piston uses a full-time chef, and Loving takes the job seriously.
"I take pride in it," Loving said. "It's a very nice thing to go to his house and watch him eat and have him be happy and know that he's sleeping now because he's full. It's nice to know he's eating the food I gave him, he's not eating some fast food or something that's not healthy or that's not cooked straight from the heart, something that's fresh and nice."
How Chef and Rip came together
On this day, Loving has more than just the normal meal plan on his to-do list. At noon, he must have a table of luncheon foods and snacks ready for Hamilton and his crew to devour when they arrive in Detroit at a photo shoot for Boost Mobile.
And after lunch, he'll return to the restaurant to finish the dinner and transport it back to Detroit for the evening portion of the shoot.
It's a busy day, as usual.
"I follow his schedule," Loving said. "His schedule is my schedule. When you sign up for this, you sign up for all the pros and the cons."
The lunch menu includes turkey quesadillas and tuna salad, as well as a smorgasbord of snacks -- trail mix, tortilla chips with turkey dip, M&Ms, Mike & Ike's and Cracker Jack. Those treats are mostly intended for the crew that undoubtedly will tag along with Hamilton.
But that's not uncommon. Loving always works to please a large number of mouths. He never knows exactly how many friends Hamilton will have at his house to partake of a meal.
That's just one of the things Loving has had to learn since becoming Hamilton's personal chef four years ago.
Loving graduated from Schoolcraft College in the 1990s, made his name working for the Walt Disney Co. in Florida and Europe, and returned home to teach at Schoolcraft and open his first restaurant.
Life changed quickly for Loving when Hamilton was traded to the Pistons from Washington in 2002. Before Hamilton even arrived in Detroit, he sent a family member to find him a chef.
One day, a man came into Loving Spoonful, ate his meal and then asked to speak with the chef.
"He said, 'Would you be interested in cooking for someone very important?' " Loving said. "And I said, 'Well, sure.' "
A few weeks later, Hamilton's uncle returned and asked him to prepare a meal and told him whom it was for. What he didn't reveal was what kind of foods Hamilton enjoyed.
So Loving made his usual -- a variety of simple comfort foods with an eye for detail and his trademark Loving touch. He took the spread to Hamilton's house and set it up while a stylist finished braiding Hamilton's hair in the basement.
"First time I met him, obviously I was nervous," Loving said. "Not nervous because I didn't have comfortability or confidence in my food, but just because, I wasn't asked to bring fettuccini alfredo. I was just asked to bring some food. I have no idea what he likes, what he doesn't like."
But Hamilton liked the meal, and he hired him.
And even today, he never tells Loving what to fix.
"I have all the say, but I'm the type of person that really doesn't complain," Hamilton said. "Whatever he cooks, I eat. I like everything he makes. It's all good."
What Rip likes
Hamilton has anything but a predictable palette.
"He likes Japanese, Italian, soul or Southern, comfort food," Loving said. "He likes a good meatloaf if you've got it. He likes a good steak if you've got that. He enjoys a nice white chicken lasagna. He loves fish. He loves sea bass. He loves barbecue salmon. He loves scallops. There's really no seafood he won't eat."
Besides Hamilton's palette, Loving also had to learn his language.
"I found if he says, 'This is banging,' that's a good thing," Loving said. "Or 'off-the-chart,' or 'yes, sir' -- all these mean it was good. It worked."
Although Loving, who also has cooked for LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Webber and Beyonce Knowles, is technically Hamilton's employee, they've forged a bond that goes beyond that.
Hamilton playfully calls out, "Cheeeeef," when he sees his cook.
Meanwhile, Loving obsesses about how his food might affect Hamilton's game.
"Most people watch the games like, 'Oh, yeah, they hit a shot!' " Loving said. "I watch with one eye going, 'OK, he's hit seven of 10 shots, this is good.' Or if he has a bad shooting night, I'll think, 'Oh God, what did he eat?' "
Hamilton never demands anything, but Loving still sometimes makes meals or hunts down snacks on the fly.
Take Sunday, for example. As he and his staff arranged in the trailer the food they brought, a representative from Boost Mobile relayed a message from Hamilton. He'd like breakfast, if possible. But if not, that was cool, too.
Loving didn't hesitate. He grabbed some money and sent his assistants off in a truck to track down eggs, bacon and bread.
He's happy to do it, to find whatever food Hamilton wants to keep him satisfied and energized.
"The plate doesn't lie," Loving said. "If it's empty and he sits back and catches his breath and kind of looks like a bobblehead, you hit a dish on. If you see he's not attacking the plate, well, you shouldn't have to ask, 'Did you like it?' "
He didn't have to ask Sunday.
Hamilton cleaned a plate that Loving created in the trailer, mixing up eggs on the small countertop, slapping bread into the mixture to make French toast, and frying up bacon in a pan.
Hat on, tongue out, a touch of love in everything he did.
Sample menu at Chez Rip
*
Breakfast
• Grits mixed with eggs and cheese or waffles with peaches and pecans.
Lunch
• Grilled chicken salad, tuna salad, or his favorite, a sweet corn soup.
Dinner
• Crab-stuffed steak or barbecued salmon or white chicken lasagna.
Dessert
• Lemon cake copied from a Hamilton family recipe. Or a gooey butter cake.
FLAVOR OF LOVE: Chef Loving's menus keep Pistons' Hamilton fueled
BY KRISTA LATHAM
FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER
It's not yet 11 on a Sunday morning, but chef Shawn Loving is up and at it early, his tall white hat sitting high on his forehead, a hustle in his step as he works to prepare a VID. That's a Very Important Dinner.
Sauce for one portion of the dinner menu -- parmesan chicken skewers -- bubbles in a large pot on the stove. Loving whisks in some spice, his tongue sticking out like a basketball player going up for a jump shot.
Loving, with his high energy and quick feet and zealous concentration, not to mention that jutting tongue, isn't unlike his very important client.
This is Richard Hamilton's dinner.
And this is Loving's life, day in and day out, at least when the Pistons are in town.
Up and at 'em early, cooking grits or chicken salads or crab-stuffed steak, food that will provide the spark in the step of the always-energetic Pistons shooting guard.
While Hamilton is in Detroit, hardly any food enters his mouth that Loving and his assistant, Jeff Bailey, didn't personally prepare.
The Detroit native and owner of Loving Spoonful in Farmington Hills, and his small team of helpers, are solely responsible for making sure the Pistons' leading scorer eats right. From breakfast to his postgame meal, Loving and his team cook it and deliver it to Hamilton's house.
No other Piston uses a full-time chef, and Loving takes the job seriously.
"I take pride in it," Loving said. "It's a very nice thing to go to his house and watch him eat and have him be happy and know that he's sleeping now because he's full. It's nice to know he's eating the food I gave him, he's not eating some fast food or something that's not healthy or that's not cooked straight from the heart, something that's fresh and nice."
How Chef and Rip came together
On this day, Loving has more than just the normal meal plan on his to-do list. At noon, he must have a table of luncheon foods and snacks ready for Hamilton and his crew to devour when they arrive in Detroit at a photo shoot for Boost Mobile.
And after lunch, he'll return to the restaurant to finish the dinner and transport it back to Detroit for the evening portion of the shoot.
It's a busy day, as usual.
"I follow his schedule," Loving said. "His schedule is my schedule. When you sign up for this, you sign up for all the pros and the cons."
The lunch menu includes turkey quesadillas and tuna salad, as well as a smorgasbord of snacks -- trail mix, tortilla chips with turkey dip, M&Ms, Mike & Ike's and Cracker Jack. Those treats are mostly intended for the crew that undoubtedly will tag along with Hamilton.
But that's not uncommon. Loving always works to please a large number of mouths. He never knows exactly how many friends Hamilton will have at his house to partake of a meal.
That's just one of the things Loving has had to learn since becoming Hamilton's personal chef four years ago.
Loving graduated from Schoolcraft College in the 1990s, made his name working for the Walt Disney Co. in Florida and Europe, and returned home to teach at Schoolcraft and open his first restaurant.
Life changed quickly for Loving when Hamilton was traded to the Pistons from Washington in 2002. Before Hamilton even arrived in Detroit, he sent a family member to find him a chef.
One day, a man came into Loving Spoonful, ate his meal and then asked to speak with the chef.
"He said, 'Would you be interested in cooking for someone very important?' " Loving said. "And I said, 'Well, sure.' "
A few weeks later, Hamilton's uncle returned and asked him to prepare a meal and told him whom it was for. What he didn't reveal was what kind of foods Hamilton enjoyed.
So Loving made his usual -- a variety of simple comfort foods with an eye for detail and his trademark Loving touch. He took the spread to Hamilton's house and set it up while a stylist finished braiding Hamilton's hair in the basement.
"First time I met him, obviously I was nervous," Loving said. "Not nervous because I didn't have comfortability or confidence in my food, but just because, I wasn't asked to bring fettuccini alfredo. I was just asked to bring some food. I have no idea what he likes, what he doesn't like."
But Hamilton liked the meal, and he hired him.
And even today, he never tells Loving what to fix.
"I have all the say, but I'm the type of person that really doesn't complain," Hamilton said. "Whatever he cooks, I eat. I like everything he makes. It's all good."
What Rip likes
Hamilton has anything but a predictable palette.
"He likes Japanese, Italian, soul or Southern, comfort food," Loving said. "He likes a good meatloaf if you've got it. He likes a good steak if you've got that. He enjoys a nice white chicken lasagna. He loves fish. He loves sea bass. He loves barbecue salmon. He loves scallops. There's really no seafood he won't eat."
Besides Hamilton's palette, Loving also had to learn his language.
"I found if he says, 'This is banging,' that's a good thing," Loving said. "Or 'off-the-chart,' or 'yes, sir' -- all these mean it was good. It worked."
Although Loving, who also has cooked for LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Webber and Beyonce Knowles, is technically Hamilton's employee, they've forged a bond that goes beyond that.
Hamilton playfully calls out, "Cheeeeef," when he sees his cook.
Meanwhile, Loving obsesses about how his food might affect Hamilton's game.
"Most people watch the games like, 'Oh, yeah, they hit a shot!' " Loving said. "I watch with one eye going, 'OK, he's hit seven of 10 shots, this is good.' Or if he has a bad shooting night, I'll think, 'Oh God, what did he eat?' "
Hamilton never demands anything, but Loving still sometimes makes meals or hunts down snacks on the fly.
Take Sunday, for example. As he and his staff arranged in the trailer the food they brought, a representative from Boost Mobile relayed a message from Hamilton. He'd like breakfast, if possible. But if not, that was cool, too.
Loving didn't hesitate. He grabbed some money and sent his assistants off in a truck to track down eggs, bacon and bread.
He's happy to do it, to find whatever food Hamilton wants to keep him satisfied and energized.
"The plate doesn't lie," Loving said. "If it's empty and he sits back and catches his breath and kind of looks like a bobblehead, you hit a dish on. If you see he's not attacking the plate, well, you shouldn't have to ask, 'Did you like it?' "
He didn't have to ask Sunday.
Hamilton cleaned a plate that Loving created in the trailer, mixing up eggs on the small countertop, slapping bread into the mixture to make French toast, and frying up bacon in a pan.
Hat on, tongue out, a touch of love in everything he did.
Sample menu at Chez Rip
*
Breakfast
• Grits mixed with eggs and cheese or waffles with peaches and pecans.
Lunch
• Grilled chicken salad, tuna salad, or his favorite, a sweet corn soup.
Dinner
• Crab-stuffed steak or barbecued salmon or white chicken lasagna.
Dessert
• Lemon cake copied from a Hamilton family recipe. Or a gooey butter cake.