Who Is Kara Arbadji?
Kara Arbadji is a performance chef for the New York Jets. However, she is a woman of many talents as she also does hospitality and social media work for the Jets culinary department as well. She is a recent college graduate from the University of Delaware with a degree in food science operations and management.
First Stint With The Jets
Two summers ago, Arbadji first worked with the Jets as she applied to a bunch of jobs in the area and the Jets were one of the first companies to get back to her. Her first phone call was with FLIK Hospitality who was hired by the Jets. Her first phone interview was more generic and more questions about her. However, her second phone call interview was with head chefs Jess and Patty and they clicked from there.
Her role or roles for that matter was a little bit of everything. She did a little bit of everything for them ranging from social media and graphics in house of content for Instagram and TikTok. For her work in hospitality, she was making sure the refrigerators were full as well as the coaches quarters. On the culinary side, she was prepping food and action stations where it is build your own bowls.
Even though she did mostly culinary, she is confident in her culinary experience and wants to expand her horizons and go above and beyond. So in addition to culinary, she also wanted to see how far she could go with her other passions in social media and hospitality.
Manifestation Is Key
Landing a job after college can be difficult especially depending on the field. It is even more difficult to land a job in the sports industry. However, she believes she manifested this job five years ago her senior year in high school. Her senior year capstone project was on nutrition in high school athletes and she spent the year creating different recipes and working with the team captains of the different teams to create something that would benefit them.
She mentions now it is crazy she is working for an NFL team and that she most likely wants to stick with professional sports.
Second Stint With The Jets
When she was done with her internship, the Jets offered a full-time position but she was going back to school for her senior year at the University of Delaware. They reached out to her this past summer but she wanted to focus on going to researching and developing food products. However, due to her struggling to find jobs in that field when September started, she called back asking if they were still hiring.
She is currently there part-time which allows her to focus on other interests such as working as a fitness coach and personal training stuff. Another reason she wanted to go back is she loved the atmosphere there and she loved her boss.
What Got Her Into This Unique Field?
Two of her biggest passions are health and fitness. The Jets were a perfect match for her as she gets to look at meal plans and try to help athletes recovery and the best types of food to help fuel their bodies to ensure they perform at their absolute best.
Day In The Life
Arbadji’s day in the life at work changes depending on her hours. Sometimes she will go in at 6:30 in the morning to prepare for breakfast which is from 7-9 am. Some of her tasks are putting out the breakfast foods and preparing for the day. Also, she at times makes overnight oats for the players to go fridge and other to go items.
Or, she may be tasked for setting up and preparing lunch which is either 11-3 or 12-3 pm where she prepares and cooks the food. Sometimes she gets to interact and engage with the players while building their meals.
Freedom & Specialty Dish
Now that she has been in her second stint with the Jets, Arbadji has a lot more freedom and flexibility which she is very grateful for. She made up a protein doughnut recipe and her chef gave her free reins as she knew Arbadji is looking for a research and development position which allows her to build her portfolio.
Out of all of the dishes she has made, both cooking and baking she prefers baking because she likes taking desserts and putting a healthier spin on them and making it more performance based. Her favorite thing she has ever made was the doughnuts and she mentioned they were a hit.
However, the process of making the donuts was a long one as it took awhile. Usually, she is only used to making around six while she is at home, but now it is a much larger scale as she had to make 120 which took a total of four or five hours.
Surreal Moment
She mentioned working for the Jets was definitely a surreal feeling as she gets to interact with and see the players daily. She also mentions, it is exciting that she feels like a part of it and almost playing a role.
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