Bear Down Kitchen, Daniel Perez are the secret sauce to Arizona football

The Star is continuing its series, “Behind the Bear Down,” which focuses on five glue pieces of Arizona football on a weekly basis in the fall — most of them year-round. Up next: Danny Perez, executive chef.

On the floor above the Arizona football offices at the Lowell-Stevens Football Facility, there’s another team that operates on a daily basis — and they’re a pertinent link to the UA football chain.

Even though the chefs at Bear Down Kitchen don’t contribute touchdown passes or pressure on the quarterback, they assist with recovery and body fuel. They’re an extension of the UA football program.

So much so, Arizona football added Sands Club executive chef Daniel Perez as the team’s executive chef. Bear Down Kitchen chef Karl De La Ossa is Arizona’s executive sous chef.

“It’s a privilege to be a part of their staff roster,” Perez said. “It feels nice to know they support what we do. Even though we’re not part of what happens on the field, we certainly feel like we’re part of what happens off the field. It’s been great to have a partnership with the leadership in the football operation and the coaches.”

Between the Sands Club, a membership-only lounge and restaurant in the Lowell-Stevens Football Facility, and Bear Down Kitchen, Perez has a 40-person staff — 18 just at Bear Down Kitchen, which serves Arizona football players and other UA athletes breakfast and lunch in a buffet format.

Bear Down Kitchen has two omelette stations, fountain drink and coffee station, smoothie station, a salad and fruit bar, a sandwich bar and occasionally a pasta and taco bar for lunch. Sometimes the staffers will put their own twist on the food, like the “Froot Loop” pancakes served on Wednesday.

Perez, who is employed by third-party management company “Oak View Group,” which specializes in venue management, is also in charge of in-stadium catering during home football games in the fall.

“We’re very blessed, because we work in this environment,” Perez said. “When you look out that window and see that (points to the field at Arizona Stadium), our turnover is low.”

Perez says Bear Down Kitchen, which serves breakfast and lunch, averages 450-600 visitors daily, from athletes to coaches and administrators.

“I think as things change with the roster, that number will fluctuate,” Perez said. “But when it’s a solid day and all of the athletes participate, it can certainly be in that number. This staff is also open to faculty and staff who want to come up and pay out of pocket. It’s not just for the athletes. If there are coaches or anyone else that want to pay out of pocket, they’re more than welcome to.”

Perez said Bear Down Kitchen uses an average of 25 dozen eggs daily and spends anywhere from $20,000 to $30,000 weekly on food for breakfast and lunch. Some of the ordered food is locally sourced. The burger patties used at Bear Down Kitchen are from Sonoita Ranch.

“Grass-fed patties that come from Arizona and are for an Arizona team,” Perez said.

Perez grew up in Tucson and graduated from Tucson High. His current workspace at Arizona Stadium used to be metal bleachers. After high school, he “kind of just fell into” culinary arts, he said. Perez attended culinary school in Phoenix and had a busboy and pantry job at Royal Palms Resort and Spa in Phoenix.

Perez returned to Tucson and was a chef at J.W. Marriott Starr Pass for 17 years and La Paloma Country Club for two years.

“Working in big resort settings was my calling after culinary school,” Perez said. “I got an opportunity to do a lot, see a lot and take care of the teams that visit us. Those big events helped guide feeding the masses.”

Perez mastered cooking breakfast and said, “If you can be a really solid breakfast cook, you can cook in any line.”

“To be able to do 10 over-easy eggs in 15 minutes, do basted eggs and poached eggs and cook omelets and make sure that the breakfast pieces are well, then the rest of it kind of falls in line, because you got to be pretty timely, very accurate and multi-task,” Perez said. “I think cooking breakfast for me, from the time that I started, it’s how I started to love being on the line and the adrenaline rush of working on the line and cooking.”

Since starting his role at the UA just over two years ago, Perez has met with nutritionists from the Arizona football team and other teams weekly during the season.

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“Even during the offseason, we meet almost weekly to go over future plans and understand what they’re trying to do with each team and specific athletes,” Perez said. “If you’re trying to lean out or maintain (body weight), the diet plan has to be specific.

“How do we offer that in a dining room setting that’s kind of buffet style? You can still walk up and get an omelette any way you want it, but on the line, you still have fruits, roasted vegetables or proteins, so you can maximize how you have to eat. That partnership is constant.”

Added Perez: “We also want to make sure that we take care of some guys that have some specific dietary needs that may have a preference of being a vegetarian or having to eat gluten-free. So them having a direct access to myself or to the chefs is huge, because they can just be like, ‘Hey, I don’t find anything that I can eat. Can you come help me out?’ And then just being able to address that with our team and helping them out is crucial for the relationship and they treat us like we’re part of a team.”

Arizona senior Ty Buchanan, a 6-6, 314-pound offensive lineman, is a vegetarian. Perez said, “Ty and I text often” about vegetarian-friendly food at Bear Down Kitchen.

“It’s coming up with a really nice black bean burger or a veggie burger, or buying some of the non-meat items that are available out there and have good nutrients that he likes to eat,” Perez said. “So it’s constant conversation and then we make sure that as we develop menus, some of those (vegetarian-friendly) items are already there.”

Unlike other restaurants, Bear Down Kitchen “has a crystal ball” and predict when there’s a rush of patrons depending on the practice schedules of UA sports during the year.

“I know when the teams are coming in here to eat,” Perez said. “I know catering venues. I know when the games are. I know when we’re open upstairs (at Sands Club) to our members. We try to make sure that our team has a very good life balance. So when they’re here, they’re fully engaged and taking care of business.”

The most enjoyable part of the role as Arizona’s executive chef for Perez is the connection the players have with the chefs and Bear Down Kitchen staffers.

“They know my team by name,” added Perez. “Our team knows some specific things with them as well.”

Bear Down Kitchen chef Saud Gallegos said his role “makes you feel like you’re part of the team.”

“You get to see what the boys love and some of them have special requests,” Gallegos said. “You get to really know the guys from the stomach first. It’s cool to see how they eat compared to other people. They don’t eat like most people.”

De La Ossa’s mantra at Bear Down Kitchen: “We’re in the business of making champions.” But there’s a “family environment here, and I think that’s what helps us level with the football players and recruits and everyone that comes in.”

Sometimes, the BDK staffers are more than just chefs to the Arizona football players.

“They’ll come to vent to us,” De La Ossa said. “Sometimes they’re happy, sometimes they’re sad. We have multiple hats. Sometimes we’re Dr. Phil and then we’re also just chefs. We’re definitely critics sometimes, too. We know our football and we love sports. If you come in here asking for 10 eggs, you better produce.”

Bear Down Kitchen is also a classroom, too. In the spring and summer, Perez and other chefs will host cooking and grilling classes that have anywhere from 25-30 players.

College athletics is a bottom-lime, results-based business, especially at the Power 4 level. Perez and the Bear Down Kitchen team “are in the people business and recognizing that these young men and young ladies also want to feel like they’re at home and have a place to go eat,” he said.

Arizona isn’t the only school to prioritize nutrition and hire full-time chefs, positions “that could also be a great recruiting tool” for college football programs.

“As a parent, you bring your kid in here and do a walk-through and you see how your son or daughter will be taken care of with their food and the emphasis we put on conscious eating and the education pieces of it, that’s a great thing to be able to say to recruits,” Perez said.

“We feel proud to be a part of that process as well and showcase that we take care of our athletes very well at the University of Arizona.”