If you've ever had to feed a young athlete, you'll know you sometimes forget what they look like because their head is always in the fridge. These kids eat a lot and your grocery bill proves it.
Now, multiply that by twenty. Then host a party with thousands of guests in multiple locations while making sure everybody gets a flavourful, nutritious meal. If you can do that, you might be able to do Yves Lowe's job.
Lowe is the Montreal Canadiens' executive chef, and he does all that and more every single day. He didn't start out on the fast-track to culinary exclusivity though. Like many Canadian teens, his first kitchen gig was far from fancy.
"At 15 years I old started at McDonald's. I had so much fun," he smiles. "I realized that it was probably the path that I should follow so I ended up in a cooking school. Got the chance to meet a great chef while I was doing that and I worked for him for like 2 years. And I learned quite a bit over there."
The connections he developed in culinary school and in his early restaurant jobs opened a lot of doors for him.
"I was lucky enough to work in one of the best restaurants back then in Montreal called Mediterraneo," he recalls. "I was there for three years and got along very well with the chef. He helped me out training for cooking competitions."
"I took part in cooking competitions all around the world for five or six years internationally as far as New Zealand, China, Germany."
From there he landed a job as a sous chef at the St.Paul Hotel, then the W in Montreal, where he graduated to head chef. That's where he met a guy called Patrick.
"He became a mentor for me, Patrick," he says. "He was my food and beverage director over there. He moved from that hotel to Bell Centre. A few months later he called me for a coffee and we sat down. We spoke a bit and he was like, you know what? I think you would be a great chef for the Bell Centre."
"I pinched myself and I'm like, are you kidding me? And I ended up over here as a sous chef to start. A year after I was high sous chef. Then I became the executive chef and here I am 10 years later."
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When asked what a typical day for the Habs executive chef looks like, he just laughs because there is no typical day.
"I'm also overseeing the training facility in Brossard for the players," he explains. "The farm team has their own arena in Laval close to Montreal. So I'm overseeing those operation as well. So yeah there's quite a bit."
He says the days are very long and there's always something needing his attention or his problem-solving skills. In the summer he caters some festivals sponsored by Group CH, the Canadiens' management company, but his real work happens during the hockey season.
"I would normally come in about 10:00 in the morning," he says. "I like to take the time to speak with all my chefs, all my sous chefs, but also our line cooks as well. I have 200 cooks and about 20 dishwashers. I like to know each of them by their name and also learn a bit of what they like. To me, it's really important to take some time and speak with them. And so during the morning, I'll walk around a lot of the building, make sure everyone's okay."
"If there's anything I can do to help out, I do. Purchasing orders coming in are quite big. So one small mistake can have a huge consequence. So I want to double check, make sure everyone's all good."
Lowe orders all the food and builds the menus with assistance from his sous chef. And there are a lot of menus.
"We have 6 restaurants in the building, which is pretty unique in the NHL," he reveals. "There's a lot of different menus with a lot of options. We've built that up in the last 10 years and I'm pretty happy with the offerings that we have."
As an executive chef, you'd think Lowe's most important piece of equipment would be a special pan or maybe a particular set of knives. In this case though, it's not a kitchen-related item at all. It's his cell phone.
"It's a big building, your communication is quite key," he says. "The cell phone is very useful. But we also have radios. What's very specific and very unique about an arena like us is that people are all coming at the same time and they want to be fed and they want to be at their seats for for the beginning of the game, right? So you have an hour and a half for to feed about 6000 people."
And then there are the VIPs in the corporate boxes.
"We also have 130 suites and each can fit about 20 people and they obviously all have a buffet and their sweets, right. So right there you have about 2000 to 3000 people depending on you."
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It's a lot of work for one person to handle, even with a team of assistants helping out. What makes it all worth it for Lowe is the love he has for food, coupled with the love he has for hockey...even if he grew up a fan of the Quebec Nordiques. He reveals that a little shamefacedly these days because now he's a Canadiens fan, through and through.
Taking care of a pro hockey team means providing huge amounts of fresh, nutritious food. It also involves catering to the specific diet plans of each individual player.
"In terms of the Montreal Canadiens, we have dietitians that also are putting down ideas for menus," he explains. "So when I took over the job as the executive chef a couple years ago, there was a demand to feed the players properly at the training facility as well. We used to have a catering company that did deliveries, but they wanted to get some sort of private chef service for the players. So I spoke to a good friend of mine. I hired him as a sous chef for the training facility."
His friend who takes care of the meals at Brossard has four other chefs working with him to make sure each player's nutritional needs are met.
"They're more like a big family now. So they know the specificity of each player. It's easier that way. But do you do you get special requests from the players. Some of them have some allergies. And sometimes they request special things."
Like playoff pizza. When Philip Danault wants a slice after a playoff win, it's Lowe's team that provides it. There are also different expectations for different times of day.
"After practice the diet is very simple, like a chicken breast with no spices on it. No sauces. They want to digest their food easily because they know they're going to have a game later on," he reveals. "But after the game, that's normally where they can have a bit of a permission to eat more what we call fun food, right? So chicken tenders are quite in demand on nights after a victory."
He says most of the players, especially the younger ones, don't really demand much special treatment. A lot of them are still developing their palates.
"They're very, very polite," he says. "They're always like, they don't wanna disturb anyone so none of them are picky or anything. They like to taste. So they're tasting, they're learning more about good food and now they're very much more open-minded when it comes to trying new stuff on the buffet."
"They're 19, 20 years old. So yeah, obviously they need to be educated at some point."
And of all the strapping young men he's feeding every day, who eats the most? Lowe says he can't really name names, but he does confirm one thing.
"The goaltenders I would say are probably eating the most really. "
More than Arber Xhekaj or Josh Anderson?
"Yeah. But every human is different. Some are making an effort and they're gonna lose a lot of weight. And then some of them are just gonna keep the same weight all the time. So it depends on where they are in their program."
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Lowe and his crew aren't just there to feed the players. They want to create an atmosphere where the players can feel comfortable and be together while they fuel their bodies. It's meant to be a relaxing time which helps build that much-vaunted family atmosphere the team promotes.
"I'd like to think is that we create that team spirit, that family, you know? They're sitting down altogether eating at the same time and sharing moments, sharing about food. And that's probably something that we can be proud of."
Yves Lowe has come a very long way from his days as that 15-year-old McDonald's cook who cheered for the Nordiques. And he can definitely be proud of the work he does to keep this young Canadiens team in top shape.
He feels like he's a part of it all and hopes that he'll still be providing post-game pizza in the Stanley Cup Finals someday soon.
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