Under normal circumstances, Garman serves a buffet-style breakfast and lunch inside the Warrior Ice Arena kitchen. While some players request personalized orders, the majority come and go before and after practice or morning skate to load up their plates as they please with whatever is on the menu for that day.
Now, the operation has become far more individualized. With a finite two-week practice period on the schedule, Garman has been able to map out a menu in advance and send it to the players and staff, who text in their selections for each day at the start of the week.
They choose from a fish, meat, or vegetarian option for both lunch and dinner, while everyone receives the same sides, with the exception of those with allergies.
On Day 6 of camp, for example, 42 players and staff members chose from three protein options for lunch: crab cakes, chicken sausage, or vegan risotto. The sides were spaghetti squash, asparagus, and creamy rice. For dinner, the protein options were swordfish, roast beef, and tofu stir fry, with roasted carrots, snap peas, and bulgur as the sides.
"This is an even more detailed way of doing it because it's individualized," said Garman. "What we've been able to do is create a week's worth of menus for lunch and dinner, pulling from a lot of classics, what we know the guys really like...from that, we've been able to build a day-to-day list, label everything so all we have to do is assemble. It's definitely a little bit more personalized than usual."
With Garman now providing dinner, he has been able to open up his catalogue of recipes and introduce the players to a number of meals that they otherwise wouldn't see within the normal rotation throughout the season.
"You're used to doing so many different things for the guys at lunch, not really offering dinner to them," said Garman. "There's quite a few things in my repertoire that I've never really been able to get to them or show them because it just didn't make sense for the lunch period, the time frame. With that option being available for them now, it's been nice to dig into a few of those."