Looking at How Much the Cleveland Browns Get Fed in Their Cafe

Earlier in the week, I was fascinated with the photo of rookie seventh-round offensive lineman Garrett Gilkey signing his contract -- not because he was signing it, but because of the "Cleveland Browns Cafe" that was looming in the background. I wanted to know more about the cafe, and coincidentally, just a few days later, Jamir Howerton of ClevelandBrowns.com went "Inside the Browns Cafe" in a nearly five minute video.

Howerton interviewed Chris Brunst, Head Chef of Flik International, the company that services the Browns' cafeteria. If you don't want to watch the video, I transcribed the segment below.

Burnst: "[Flik] is a food service company that provides what we call platinum service. We really take pride in what we do. It's just a good, healthy, clean way to eat. We at Flik try to source as much locally as possible. The best, freshest ingredients for produce. Our chicken is antibiotic free, natural fresh. We serve the grass-fed beef burgers with no hormones. Our milk is also hormone free. We do cage-free eggs. A lot of that stuff does definitely help the players and coaches and everybody live a healthier, cleaner life. That really transitions into the way they are able to take care of their bodies. It makes a big difference."

Howerton: "How many eggs do you go through?"

Burnst: "We go through a lot of eggs. I'd say we go between 100-120 eggs a day for breakfast alone, so that's a lot of eggs."

Howerton: "How much fruit do you go through a day?"

Burnst: "We go through a lot of fruit. They love the fresh berries, the melons and stuff. We typically go through about 30 pounds of cut fruit and berries each morning.

Howerton: "Between breakfast, lunch, and dinner, I always see a lot of meat here. How much meat do you go through a week, how many pounds?"

Burnst: "I would say roughly between 700-800 pounds -- a lot of protein, but it's what they need."

Howerton: "Let's talk about how the presentation is very important."

Burnst: "Sure. You eat with your eyes, too. We don't want that institutional look of being down in the pans. We elevate the food, bring it up, showcase the food, make it pop, make it look interesting, fun, and taste good."

Howerton: "Let's talk about the different boards you have and the nutritional facts."

Burnst: "We have programs called FIT. It's all nutritional information that's analyzed each recipe by recipe. A lot of time and effort has been put into that to provide the customers with the nutritional information that they are looking for.

Typically right on our signage it will tell you exactly what that product has in it, how many calories, or how many grams of fat and sodium. Then we also have the big boards on the walls that tell how much portions of proteins they should be eating per meal -- how many whole grains, starches, that kind of stuff they should be eating as well as the fruits, vegetables, dairy, and all of that good stuff."

Howerton: "Let's go through a normal, daily routine from the time you guys arrive here in Berea until the time you guys go home. Take us through your daily regiment."

Burnst: "We get here bright and early. Typically, we start serving breakfast at 6 AM. We're here about 4:45, 5:00 in the morning. We're baking off fresh muffins, fresh pastries for breakfast, getting the oatmeal and the grits ready, and obviously getting ready for our hot breakfast items, which we've got turkey sausage, turkey bacon, pork bacon, pork sausage, scrambled eggs, we do a lot of the breakfast sandwiches and breakfast burritos. Once breakfast is over, we fall into lunch around 11:30 AM. After lunch, we break down the line and start to reset for dinner. We pretty much get out of here around 7:30 PM. It's a long day, but it's worth it."

The photos in this post were pulled from this video on ClevelandBrowns.com.