HOLLADAY — During his basketball-playing days at Brigham Young University, Rafael Araujo would eat a bucket of KFC chicken — all legs — by himself, sharing only a couple of legs with his wife, Cheyenne.
But those days are gone, said Araujo, now a center with the Utah Jazz. "It was cheap to do when you're in college and don't have much money. I was eating a lot of bad fats."
But when Araujo (his name is pronounced HA-f-eye-ell a-RA-U-joe) joined the Jazz this season, he and Cheyenne stopped eating fast food and hired a personal chef in hopes that good nutrition would give him a competitive edge.
"We thought, 'What else can we do that would help?' because this season is really important for him," Cheyenne said. "We felt nutrition would be a kind of a secret weapon, because he's doing everything else; he's working out really hard.
"Hafa requires a lot of fuel for his big body, and we wanted to make sure he's eating certain things to get his body prepared on game day and for recovery afterward for his muscles."
So they hired Jim Rowan, a chef at the University of Utah, to provide his main meal of the day. When Araujo gets home from team practice and/or his own personal workout at around 1 p.m., the Jazz player is greeted with the aroma of grilling steak — a rib-eye so large that Araujo refers to it as his 'Flintstone' steak. Fresh tortellini pasta, blanketed in a creamy tomato sauce, and broccoli sauteed with garlic round out the meal.
Some days the family's entree might include grilled-chicken breast, salmon or sashimi (raw fish), and it could be accompanied by Araujo's favorite vegetable — kale, mixed with mustard greens or red chard and jazzed up with flavored vinegars.
"Cleaner, leaner food," is how Rowan describes it. "I got him away from butter and high-fat to olive oil and leaner meats. And cleaner starches, like wild rice and whole-wheat pasta, or regular pasta without heavy sauces — maybe a really nice tomato sauce with a just a little bit of Alfredo on top."
Although Araujo hasn't seen a lot of playing time so far, last Wednesday night he contributed to the Jazz's win over the San Antonio Spurs. In a game televised on ESPN, he scored a season-best seven points and defended against Tim Duncan, one of the NBA's top players.
"I wasn't playing much, so I've got to be sure I'm doing everything I can to be ready for an opportunity like yesterday," Araujo said. "I'm working to be a better basketball player. That's what got me in the NBA, working hard."
Rowan has also cooked for Deron Williams this season and for Andrei Kirilenko part of last season.
"Mainly I give them what any good executive chef can give — good, well-balanced meals," Rowan said. "When I was a chef at Gonzaga University, I worked closely with the rowing and basketball teams, and at one point I was in the upper class of cycling and very physically fit. So I've always been very interested in nutrition. Formal nutrition training — no. Informal training — yes."
Although his personal-chef services are unrelated to his university job, he said he has the advantage of being able to seek advice from the dietetics professors and grad students.
"For Hafa, he probably burns 8,000 to 10,000 calories a day," Rowan said. "A lot of people think these athletes only have to play a couple of hours during a game, but I know for a fact he's in the gym no less than five to six hours a day. You can't afford to have bad meals, especially on game day."
Meanwhile, Cheyenne watched Rowan as he worked in her kitchen. So a few weeks ago, when Rowan had to take a break from his private clients due to new job duties on campus, she was able to take over meal preparations.
"Cooking isn't one of my talents, but it's been fun trying to improve on a weakness. I'm slowly learning how to feed this big boy," said Cheyenne, who has an associate's degree in math from Arizona Western College, where the couple met. Besides raising their 2 1/2-year-old daughter, Tais, she's working on a bachelor's degree in recreation management from BYU.
While students at BYU, the couple ate a lot of frozen lasagna and all-in-one skillet dinners. In 2004, they moved to Canada when he was drafted by the Toronto Raptors.
"That's when I got turned on to slow-cooker meals," she said. "And I got my first Betty Crocker cookbook that I experimented with."
The Araujos said one of the benefits is that Rowan offered a varied menu, cooked fresh every day. While Rowan declined to name a dollar figure for his services, he said it's comparable to that of "nice meals at one of the better restaurants in town."
"Cheyenne wanted to learn to cook, and they realize that this is a luxury, that they won't be able to have a private chef all the time," Rowan added. "I'm willing to teach anyone who will stand next to me. This has given her a chance to stretch her legs and try working on new stuff."
Cheyenne learned to use a cast-aluminum grill top that fits over her stove burners. "We love our grill," she said. "I can do steaks or chicken or salmon. And I can fry eggs to make hot sandwiches, with mozzarella cheese and tomatoes and ham."
A fried-egg sandwich is part of Araujo's usual breakfast, along with a shake made with a protein supplement, bananas and a scoop of ice cream, plus a bowl of fruit salad. He leaves the house to practice by 8 a.m. He usually gets home around 1 p.m. for lunch, followed by a game-day nap — "His power hour," says Cheyenne.
"Then he showers and leaves the house by 3:30 p.m. for the game. He likes to eat some more pasta on game days; the carbs seem to sustain him through the day."
Meanwhile, Cheyenne makes a hearty soup in her slow-cooker that will be ready by the time the family gets home from the game.
"I just feel better eating a good meal at home than going out and eating a hamburger; it's more healthy," said Araujo, a Brazilian native. "That was really hard when I came to the States, because my mother always made a big meal, and something different every day."
Although they've tried several Brazilian restaurants in Utah, Cheyenne has yet to master those specialties, "Because I don't know how to make it the way his mom does it," she said. "Those beans and rice have a special flavor to them."
But the couple appreciates Utah's Mexican restaurants, which weren't as available in Toronto. "I'm from San Diego, and I just wanted a good burrito," said Cheyenne. "We love Cafe Rio here."
But some all-you-can-eat restaurants might be wary of having Araujo as a customer. He speaks fondly of a $25, all-you-can-eat buffet in Brazil. "Every day I would go there after practice, and I would sit there and keep eating for four hours."
CHEYENNE'S CROCK-POT SOUP
1 pound beef stew cubes
2 potatoes, cut in pieces
4 carrots, cut in pieces
1 onion, chopped
1 can diced tomatoes
1/4 cup water
1 beef bouillon cube
Place all ingredients in the slow cooker. Cook five hours on high or 10 hours on low. — Cheyenne Araujo
BROCCOLI WITH GARLIC
2 cups broccoli florets
1/2 to 3/4 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
Pinch of salt
2 grinds of pepper (preferably multicolored peppercorns)
2 tablespoons (about 2 cloves) chopped fresh garlic
Coat pan with oil and heat over medium-high heat. Add broccoli. Continually stir while adding salt and pepper. When broccoli turns bright green and tender-crisp, add the garlic and continue to stir-fry until garlic is golden. Take care not to let the garlic burn. —Jim Rowan
E-mail: vphillips@desnews.com