Celebrated chefs team up to form Wild's official culinary provider

SAINT PAUL -- The NHL's Minnesota Wild today announced a partnership with KZ ProVisioning, a company formed by chefs Andrew Zimmern, four-time James Beard Award-winning executive producer and host of Travel Channel's Bizarre Foods series, and Gavin Kaysen, chef/owner of Food & Wine Restaurant of the Year Spoon and Stable as well as French bistro Bellecour in the greater Minneapolis area, to be the official culinary team of the Minnesota Wild locker room. In this role, KZ ProVisioning will provide well-sourced, well-prepared and healthy meals to Minnesota Wild players, coaches and locker room staff during the 2017-18 season.

Founded in 2017, KZ ProVisioning represents the first such collaboration in the history of the NHL. With the goal of making athletes' lives and careers longer, healthier and happier, these world-class chefs will provide delicious and nutritious foods, snacks and meals to Minnesota Wild players and staff. Athletes can only compete at peak performance when properly fed, allowing them to train better, recover faster and get better results on game day, and Kaysen and Zimmern, both personal fans of the Minnesota Wild, saw an opportunity to partner on something they both believe in
"Growing up in Minnesota, I have been a lifelong hockey fan. Being able to help our home NHL team by delivering healthy and delicious meals is a phenomenal chance for our company to be more involved with our community," said Kaysen. "Every athlete wants to eat better food, but more importantly, they need to. Better food will yield better performance on the ice. Our hope is that the lessons about quality food and a nutritious approach to cooking will be passed along to the families and children of the players, too. As a dad, and a high school hockey goalie, that is all important to me."
Provisioning is all about the supply chain and was introduced into the popular lexicon during the 19th-century American expansion westward. Explorers, adventurers, land rushers and titans of industry all looked to the West and provisioners supplied the necessary help, with the right equipment and the right foods.
"We love the play on words of KZ ProVisioning because we see our business expanding to include meal services for all of Minnesota's professional sports teams, college and high school teams," said Zimmern. "Food is fuel. The model we are creating fills a desperate need for healthier food for athletes that sacrifices neither satiety nor flavor. We will be utilizing nutrition and wellness specialists in our menu development to make sure that we serve balanced meals to athletes throughout the season. This isn't about dieting, this is about meal -- and performance -- optimization, wellness and enjoyment."
"Many of our players already had a great relationship with Gavin from Spoon and Stable, so it made sense to create a partnership with KZ Provisioning to provide a healthy, balanced food plan for not only our players but their families and locker room staff as well," said Andrew Heydt, director of team operations & player relations.
"Gavin and his group have done a great job providing creative and healthy meals for our team each and every day this season," said Minnesota Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon.
Courtesy of KZ ProVisioning, the Minnesota Wild will be enjoying dishes such as: braised pork shoulder with cumin; shaved zucchini with gooseberry vinaigrette; beef and mushroom stroganoff; bitter greens and scallions with sesame dressing; chicken tikka masala; pork char sui sandwich; tamarind pork roast; and charred eggplant with green beans and rice.

Zimmern is a four-time James Beard award-winning TV personality, chef, writer and teacher. As the creator, executive producer and host of the Bizarre Foods franchise on Travel Channel and The Zimmern List, he has explored cultures in more than 170 countries, promoting impactful ways to think about, create and live with food. He has written three books, appears monthly in Delta Sky Magazine, and is a monthly contributor at Food & Wine Magazine and an entrepreneur-in-residence at Babson College. Zimmern is the founder and CEO of both Intuitive Content, a full-service production company that develops and produces dynamic original content, and Passport Hospitality, a restaurant and food retail development company. He is devoted to his charitable endeavors and sits on the board of directors for Services for the UnderServed and The Taste of the NFL. His life's work is about demonstrating and promoting cultural acceptance, tolerance and understanding.

Kaysen is the chef/owner of Spoon and Stable in Minneapolis and Bellecour in Wayzata. The Minnesota native returned to his hometown of Minneapolis in 2014 after cooking in some of the world's most revered kitchens, including Domaine Chandon (Yountville, CA); L'Auberge de Lavaux (Switzerland); and L'Escargot (London), El Bizcocho (San Diego), and Café Boulud (New York City). His numerous awards include a spot on the Food & Wine Best Chef Chefs list, the James Beard Rising Star Chef award, and a Michelin star during his time leading the kitchen at Café Boulud. Kaysen also helps lead the next generation of young culinarians with the mentor BKB Foundation. A competitor himself in 2007, he now helps Team USA prepare for the biennial Bocuse d'Or showcasing the world's best up-and-coming chefs. In 2015, he led Team USA to a Second Place victory, the first medal for the United States. In 2017, Team USA took home gold.