Much goes into a Capitals’ game day: morning skate, rest, warmups, and apparently 180 eggs. In a recent video posted by the team, Capitals’ executive chef Robbie Wood took Caps fans through meals on game day, and just how much food they require.
“As much as 12-15 dozen eggs a day,” Wood explained in the first episode of the Capitals’ newest YouTube series Behind the Ease. “We will cook as much as 30 pounds of protein daily.”
Fifteen dozen eggs add up to 180 and if those eggs are spread over a 23-man roster, each Capitals player could be consuming 7.82 eggs on any given game day.
The Capitals’ game-day diets have long been sought-after knowledge and much talked about when revealed, mainly due to the team’s captain, Alex Ovechkin. In the past, Ovechkin has had some rather legendary eating habits, downing a chicken parmesan inspired by area restaurant Mamma Lucia. Former Capitals defenseman Brooks Orpik was originally baffled by the sight, calling it “borderline inspiring” to see one of the world’s best athletes eat the way he does.
“He makes a big display of it too,” Brooks Orpik wrote in a 2018 Players’ Tribune article. “There’s no shame. It’ll be eleven in the morning, way before anyone is really thinking about eating lunch. Ovi will walk into the dining area yelling, ‘Mamma Lucia! Mamma Lucia!’ I don’t know. It’s weird, but it seems normal now.”
Wood and his team make food for the Capitals on practice days, where they may be more creative and present the players sushi.
“Game days are very set,” Wood said. “It has to run like a stop watch. The last thing that a coach needs is to worry about what a food schedule is. And then travel days, we tend to make it a little more casual. Grab-and-go, because they’re going to be getting on a plane.”
In the past, Ovechkin has declined the team’s prepared meals on travel days instead opting for something that better suited him.
“Well I have a special diet, you know?” Ovechkin said jokingly to the press on Tuesday. “I’m not going to tell you what it is. [Our PR guy] knows.”
While Ovechkin wouldn’t dish on his diet, Lars Eller was more willing to in a Q/A with The Athletic. Eller revealed to Tarik El-Bashir that Ovechkin on the team’s chef-prepared meals when traveling, opting for a less-traditional snack.
“Every time we go on the plane he always picks up a footlong spicy Italian from Subway,” Eller told El-Bashir. “He always comes on the plane, he sits down and he just eats this huge, footlong spicy Italian sandwich.”
El-Bashir asked Ovechkin if eating fresh and getting the “spicy Italian from the gas station at Dulles” was part of the diet.
“It’s one of the secrets,” Ovechkin said to laughter.
While we are unsure if Ovechkin still balks at the opportunity of taking advantage of all of Wood’s cooking services, other Capitals players definitely don’t. But, which Capital eats the most? The answer isn’t very surprising.
“I would say Tom Wilson probably takes that,” Wood says.
Wilson, a lorge human, can apparently put down food with the same aplomb that he throws hands on the ice. The big winger previously had his own sponsored line of burgers at area bar and restaurant Clyde’s, which was a delivery option for customers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 43 Burger was both a burger and a Wilson-approved menu that consisted of “4 burgers, 3 sides, and no-nonsense.” Wilson’s specialty craft burger, called the Willy’s Way Burger, featured a cremini mushroom spread and truffle cheese. Clyde’s donated a portion of every sale to DC Central Kitchen.
With the way the Capitals eat, it’s clear that Wood is kept a busy man. While feeding professional athletes may be a pressure cooker, Wood is likely used to that environment as he got his start in fine dining before joining up with the Capitals in 2013 and later creating his own company SuperFD.
Along the way he has found ways to make his life easier while also getting the players prepared better. One of the central ways he has found to best power the on-ice behemoths involves smart ingredient sourcing.
“When I got the opportunity to work for the Caps, I really saw an opportunity in leveraging high-quality ingredients to fuel performance,” Wood said. “The biggest thing that we do is making sure that whatever they reach for is of a quality level that they’re going to be happy with.”
Wood and his team have also worked with multiple nonprofits and other companies throughout the DC area, including DC Greens with the help of CareFirst. DC Greens is “a multiracial organization that focuses on creating cross-sector collaborations, advancing equitable, city-wide policy solutions, and working in solidarity with marginalized communities experiencing poverty and food insecurity.”
So, not only is Wood cooking up 180 eggs and 30 pounds of protein on a daily basis but he’s also finding time to help out with DC area causes. We’ll take our chef hats off to that.
