South Jersey native Tim Lopez spent over a decade cooking for the Eagles. Now, he’s sharing his stories and recipes.

Forty-seven-year-old Tim Lopez spent over a decade of his life working as the grill chef and first cook for the Eagles. The South Jersey native basically lived in the NovaCare Complex from 2008-20, creating dishes for some of the top names in the sport.

But throughout his 13 years with the team, it wasn’t Brandon Graham or Nick Foles that left him starstruck. Instead, it was Emmy award-winning sports broadcaster Bob Costas.

“I met a lot of sports celebrities, I got desensitized working for the team,” Lopez said. “But I got to make Bob Costas a cheeseburger and he was like a couple hours early for an interview he was doing. No one else was in the cafeteria, so I brought it out to him because I was just finishing up some stuff. He told me to sit down and he wanted to talk to me.

“He was asking me all about my life and I realized about halfway through our conversation that I was being interviewed by Bob Costas. I knew it would never see the light of day, but that was like a standout moment to me.”

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Lopez’s career is full of unique interactions — from sharing recipes with Brent Celek to learning each player’s individual orders, including a common recipe for the team known as the “Wolfpack.”

The chef reflected on his career, discussed blending food culture, and recalled some of his favorite memories with the team ahead of the release of his new cookbook, Kickoff Kitchen, which will be available to purchase on Aug. 26.

Before Lopez joined the Eagles organization, he attended the French Culinary Institute in Manhattan, N.Y., — now known as the International Culinary Center. Through corporate dining, he found a window into the NFL.

But what exactly goes into being a chef for a team with over 50 players and team personnel? The answer has changed over the years.

When Lopez began his job with the Eagles, there were only six people employed in the kitchen by the team. Over time, they expanded to 12 members for a work week consisting of five and a half days — Monday to Friday and some Saturdays, depending on if the team had a home game the following day.

“Not every player is going to eat the same thing,” Lopez said. “I worked closely with the nutritionist and worked closely with the sports science guys that were in the locker room. I learned what time you need carbs vs. what time protein is better and what’s a better diet right after a game or after a heavy training session.”

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Not every meal was the same. Lopez would collaborate with a different chef on the staff, who was responsible for the meal prep of specific players — including Foles and Carson Wentz.

“There were plenty of different player snacks but each player knew what they needed to eat,” Lopez said. “Not saying that they always ate what they were supposed to, but they had people and nutritionists in place that I would work with to get the right proteins cooked the correct way, the correct seasonings, the correct fats that we would use. Because you had to adjust the salt seasoning for certain players. You had to use healthier fats like avocado oil or vegetable oil and butter for certain individuals.”

Over time, Lopez learned each player’s individual requests. By the time Graham walked into the cafeteria, Lopez would have his order of crispy boys with a side of thick rib-eye steaks waiting for him for breakfast.

“What we used to do is take a little bit of waffle batter and make pancakes with it,” Lopez said. “He called it crispy boys and that always stood out to me. And you wouldn’t see him enter the room, you would hear him. He would hit the front of the cafeteria like ‘Hey, T, give me some of them crispy boys.’ And the guys just followed suit. But every single guy had an idea that would turn into their special and other guys liked it.”

Players could order the BG, if they wanted crispy boys with a side of rib-eye steak. Or they could order the Darren Sproles if they wanted a unique breakfast sandwich. But one of the common snacks after practice was something called the “Wolfpack,” which originated in 2016.

The “Wolfpack” consisted of two grilled cheese sandwiches with bacon, seared ham, seared tomato, and a burger with three different kinds of cheese in between.

“That was one of the most interesting sandwiches,” Lopez said. “And when you make a sandwich like that, if it’s a success, you’re going to be making like 60 more of them.”

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The staff typically used a nine-foot flat topped griddle to prep for full service breakfast, lunch, dinner, and an extra meal that came later in the day. They cooked for support staff and anybody involved in Eagles Entertainment. However, dinner was primarily focused on the players.

“I would get there around 4:15 a.m. and sometimes wouldn’t leave until after 11 p.m.,” Lopez said. “I was the opener, so I was always there first. Some nights I slept at the complex, woke up, got the ovens going, got the coffee brewing, got the bacon going, got the hash browns going, and then just started my day. But it was just like being part of this amazing machine and you just get to be this little cog in the wheel, just keep it moving forward. And it was a big family too. They treated us very, very well.”

During his time with the Eagles, Lopez collaborated with chef Gabriel Nesmith to start the Devour the Competition initiative, which focused on learning a unique cuisine from each opponent’s city and feeding the dish to the players ahead of game day.

“Devour the Competition let us kind of get inside the other team’s head,” Lopez said. “If we can make the foods that they’re known for and we can consume those foods, that kind of gives us a little bit of an edge. We’re eating them. And that’s how the name Devour the Competition was born.”

Lopez and Nesmith worked closely together developing the recipes. They would research each city, find the best restaurants, call them and pick their brain. Of course, it wasn’t always easy — many of the phone calls resulted in quick dial tones.

“A lot of people said we’re not going to share recipes or talk to you,” Lopez said. “And then we would go online and we’d do further research, but we really tried to find a way that football can also be psychological. It’s a very psychological game. The fans feel the psychology of it. The players feel it. So, how could we feel it as chefs?”

Among the meals Lopez created were chicken-fried steaks for Dallas, chopped cheese sandwiches for New York, and, of course, Skyline Chili for Cincinnati. When Lopez first made the chili for the players, he heard a lot of feedback from the Cincinnati native Celek.

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“He gave me his grandmother’s recipe because he said ‘If you’re going to make Skyline Chili, you have to make it the way my grandmother made it,’” Lopez said. “And then when I made his grandmother’s recipe, he was like ‘Something’s missing.’ I said ”What’s missing is the fact that grandma made it for you.’ I followed the recipe to a T, but there’s some magic that’s in the hands and the hearts of our nanas. No written, passed on recipe is going to be able to replicate.”

Celek’s grandmother’s recipe inspired the same one inside Lopez’s upcoming cookbook, Kickoff Kitchen. In fact, the entire book was inspired by the Devour the Competition initiative he started with the Eagles.

“It’s about the home connection to all of these fandoms throughout the NFL,” Lopez said. “[Forget] the Dallas Cowboys, but the food in Dallas is awesome, right? The food in Washington is awesome. California foods are great. Foods from the Northeast are great. Foods from the South are great. We can still celebrate these foods. And that’s kind of what this book is about. It’s Devour the Competition, but expanded to include the whole NFL in one cookbook.”

The cookbook includes 64 game-day recipes inspired by every NFL team — including an appetizer and an entrée for each team. The two recipes inspired by the Eagles are cheesesteak egg rolls and a roast pork sandwich.

“A lot of people are going to say you got to do a cheesesteak,” Lopez said. “Our town is known for cheesesteaks but it’s also known for so many different ways of making a cheesesteak … So, what I leaned into instead is the Italian Philly pork sandwich. That’s got huge ties to the Italian roots of Philadelphia.

“And then I said I’m not going to totally ignore the cheesesteaks. So, for the appetizer I went with cheesesteak egg rolls.”

Lopez promoted the book ahead of the Eagles’ preseason game against the Cleveland Browns at the “Hungry Dawgs” tailgate. Setting aside his Super Bowl LII ring, he started to prepare one of the Browns’ recipes: A Polish boy sandwich.

Bystanders watched the chef work as Philly Santa and a puppy wearing a “Dallas Sucks” chain, sat on the floor beside him. Once Lopez added the finishing touches, he began handing out samples to fans in N lot.

“When [NFL fans] look at this cookbook, don’t be like well, I’m going to ignore all of our rivals,” Lopez said. “Don’t look at it that way. Look at it, getting outside your comfort zone. I want you to taste the NFL, taste the different flavors that are all over this country and maybe it’ll help you get inside their heads on game day.”