Chef Sam Diminich with Christian McCaffrey. Photo courtesy

Chef Sam Diminich, the owner of Your Farms, Your Table, is the new personal chef for Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey. Diminich will provide McCaffrey with meals five or six days per week while the athlete is training during the football off-season.

“He wanted to definitely incorporate a locally sourced, clean diet into his off-season regimen,” Diminich says. “He believes strongly in the mind-body experience.”

Like Your Farms, Your Table’s offerings, Diminich’s daily menus for McCaffrey center on what’s available from local farmers. They’re also designed with an elite athlete in mind, with lean proteins and no dairy or gluten, and dishes are made using clean ingredients.

“What I eat today, I know is going to impact me on Thursday and Friday — I know it because I know myself,” Diminich says. “I’m aware of that and I’m conscious of what I consume. He thinks the same way. A lot of athletes do.”

Diminich’s work day starts around 6 a.m., when be begins prep for McCaffrey’s breakfast at the Your Farms, Your Table commissary kitchen space. He’ll travel to one of McCaffrey’s homes to cook and serve breakfast, then heads back to the kitchen space to do work for Your Farms, Your Table’s delivery clients as well as prep McCaffrey’s lunch, which he’ll serve around noon. He’ll do the same for dinner.

A sample menu for a day of meals includes poached eggs, Brussels sprouts, brown rice, and a quinoa bowl for breakfast; black garlic-glazed quail for lunch with a citrus salad using Napa cabbage and dandelion greens; and a dinner with duck as the main course.

Business has continued to steadily increase for Your Farms, Your Table’s home delivery three-course meals, as well. Diminich has been growing his team to expand customer capacity and provide more locally-sourced meals to Charlotte.

“What I’ve really come to find out, I learned and I was hoping for, is that we can take our farm-to-table approach to community-wide,” Diminich says. “When we talk about community, normally we talk about people like us or people that are already in the loop on food. But we want to expand that conversation and make that all inclusive. Maybe you’re talking about the underprivileged on the west side of Charlotte, or even athletes who live a rather privileged life. I think our conversations, our approach to food and community especially, supporting our local suppliers should be community wide, edge to edge.”