Nick DiGiovanni stops by the Delish test kitchen to let us in on the secrets behind the diet of one of the greatest athletes to ever live, Tom Brady. Nick has cooked for some of the biggest names in pop culture, but the GOAT is in a class of his own, and his diet proves it!
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00:00 Now, the best part of cooking anything, getting to taste.
00:03 I won't lie, the strawberries help a little bit.
00:05 Hey, I'm Nick DiGiovanni,
00:06 and throughout my career as a chef,
00:08 I've been lucky to cook
00:08 for some of the biggest stars out there,
00:10 including Gordon Ramsay, Mr. Beast,
00:12 and even the goat himself, Tom Brady.
00:14 Today, I'll be making one of Tom Brady's favorite desserts,
00:17 avocado ice cream,
00:18 something I imagine he'd probably enjoy
00:20 after a big game or a long day of practice.
00:22 (upbeat music)
00:25 (upbeat music)
00:28 Now, you're probably thinking to yourself,
00:32 avocado ice cream?
00:33 That sounds creative, and you'd be right.
00:36 But the thing is, Tom Brady has to avoid dairy in his diet,
00:38 so he's gotta get creative with his desserts.
00:40 My favorite part of this recipe is how simple it is.
00:43 We've got all our ingredients laid out here,
00:45 starting with our cocoa powder, some dates,
00:47 some raqqa shoes, an avocado, coconut,
00:50 and even this protein powder,
00:52 which is a chocolate protein powder
00:53 that happens to be Tom Brady's own protein powder.
00:56 And the first thing we'll be doing is soaking these cashews.
00:59 So with these cashews,
01:00 what I'm gonna do is add them to a bowl
01:02 and then pour over some very hot boiling water.
01:05 So what this is gonna do is break down those cashews.
01:08 When you blend it into the ice cream,
01:09 we want the smoothest and creamiest ice cream
01:11 we possibly can have.
01:12 The reason I'm doing this first
01:13 is so we can let it sit
01:14 as we prepare the rest of our ingredients.
01:16 That way, our cashews will be as soft as possible
01:18 when it comes time to blend.
01:19 So the next thing we'll do is pit our dates.
01:21 And essentially, what these are gonna do in this recipe
01:23 is give us that sweetness
01:24 that we desperately need for an ice cream.
01:26 Whether you've tasted a date plain or not,
01:28 you'll probably find it in tons and tons
01:29 of energy or power bars.
01:31 As I pit the rest of these dates,
01:32 I'll tell you a funny story
01:33 about how I actually came to make this video with Tom Brady.
01:36 I wanna eat like you for a day.
01:37 Oh, all right.
01:38 We actually reached out to him
01:40 just like we would any other guest.
01:42 And I have to say, I was pretty surprised
01:44 'cause it was right around playoffs time.
01:45 So I sort of figured he'd probably be more focused
01:48 on training for the game
01:49 than making avocado ice cream with me.
01:51 The biggest thing that I remember
01:52 from the actual day of the shoot
01:53 was the fact that I was so surprised he was okay
01:56 with taking the knife
01:57 and actually throwing it into the cutting board
01:59 'cause all I could think about was
02:00 what if Tom Brady cut his finger or his hand off?
02:03 Everyone was gonna blame me.
02:04 - Let's make an ice cream sundae.
02:05 A perfect spiral.
02:06 - I love avocados.
02:08 - This next step here is probably
02:09 what I'm most looking forward to, to our recipe today.
02:12 So we get to open the coconut,
02:13 which you can really pick any method you want for this.
02:15 My biggest tip here would be to make sure
02:17 that you grab yourself a young coconut to use here.
02:20 Not only will you be able to drink
02:21 that delicious sweet water that's on the inside,
02:23 but it's also gonna have that nice flesh
02:24 around the edges that we're gonna use for the ice cream.
02:27 The exciting part here is that we get to pick our weapon.
02:30 Chef's knife or mallet.
02:32 And if you so choose, you can also run outside
02:34 and throw it against the ground as many times as you want,
02:36 but it's a little bit less food safe.
02:38 Because I'm so much more comfortable with it,
02:40 I'm gonna choose the chef's knife.
02:41 You certainly have to be careful at this part here
02:43 because you wanna watch your fingers.
02:44 But my favorite thing to do
02:45 when opening one of these coconuts
02:47 is slowly slice off the edges on the outside
02:49 until you see that inner part of the coconut
02:51 start to get exposed.
02:52 Then you'll be able to break in
02:53 and find that liquid and the coconut flesh.
02:55 As you can see, we're already starting
02:57 to expose the flesh of the coconut,
02:58 but I am gonna take things just a bit further
03:00 and go around those edges
03:01 so that we have enough space to get in there
03:03 and get the coconut flesh.
03:04 So as you can see now,
03:05 there's a very, very thin layer of flesh on the top,
03:07 which we can easily break through to get all that water.
03:10 I'm just gonna very lightly puncture that with my knife.
03:13 Let's dump out our coconut water.
03:16 (water gurgling)
03:18 That's a lot of coconut water.
03:19 So much more than I thought there would be.
03:21 Now, looking at this water
03:22 actually makes me think about the fact
03:24 that I've always used regular water,
03:25 which is what the recipe often calls for,
03:27 and specifically what Tom Brady's recipe calls for.
03:30 But I would be curious to see what happened
03:32 if you used coconut water in the recipe
03:33 instead of regular water.
03:35 So if one of you wants to try it,
03:36 comment below if it works out.
03:37 It's time now to collect all of this coconut meat,
03:40 which I'm gonna get by scraping down the sides
03:42 of the coconut with a spoon,
03:43 and it should come right out.
03:45 Growing up in New England,
03:46 I was, of course, very excited to make a video with Tom.
03:48 And I have to say, of any collab I've ever done,
03:51 it was probably the only time I've ever been nervous.
03:54 I also remember being really surprised
03:56 when he walked in the room just by how tall he was.
03:58 He's a super tall guy.
03:59 And the best part is he's really nice.
04:01 We had a lot of fun making the video.
04:03 Funnily enough, the coconut meat
04:05 almost looks like ice cream.
04:06 This coconut meat here is what's gonna make our ice cream
04:08 really milky, really creamy,
04:10 and we need that given this is a vegan ice cream.
04:12 The coconut is gonna come in and save the day.
04:15 We're almost done prepping all our ingredients.
04:16 Next up is this avocado,
04:18 which I also have another fun trick for.
04:20 Believe it or not, I saw this trick
04:21 in one of Gordon Ramsay's videos,
04:23 and if you haven't seen it already,
04:24 he actually wrote the foreword to my cookbook.
04:25 I've gotten some fantastic tips from him in the past,
04:28 and I wanna share this one.
04:29 We'll start by slicing our lemon,
04:31 and I actually have this special way of slicing lemons
04:33 that I outline several times in my book as well,
04:36 where you don't really get any seeds when you cut it.
04:38 Very simply, you slice off one end,
04:40 and right away you can just tell how clean of a cut this is.
04:43 Then you flip it over, slice off the other side,
04:45 then lay this piece flat and cut off the last two sides.
04:48 This leaves that core of the lemon
04:50 with all the seeds in the middle,
04:51 and a few nice slices of lemon that you can easily juice.
04:54 The avocado, we're gonna slice the classic way.
04:56 Slice in the center and come all the way around
04:58 with your knife, then twist and separate,
05:01 then carefully whack into the pit with your knife,
05:04 and twist and pull.
05:05 Now, as for the trick, all you're gonna do
05:06 is squeeze some of that lemon juice into the avocado,
05:09 then rub all that juice around
05:10 so it's coating every surface of that avocado,
05:13 and you won't have it oxidize.
05:14 It won't turn brown.
05:15 Okay, it's time to blend.
05:16 We're gonna add our fresh coconut meat,
05:18 our cocoa powder, our protein powder,
05:21 our dates, our water, and our avocado,
05:24 which still has not turned brown.
05:26 Oh, and I almost forgot.
05:27 Don't forget your soaked and strained raw cashews.
05:30 Oh, and speaking of cashews,
05:33 before I blend and make all this noise,
05:35 I wanna tell you about one last little fun thing
05:37 I did with Tom.
05:38 I made a video where for the entire day,
05:40 I cooked and ate the way Tom Brady does,
05:42 and my favorite recipe of the day
05:44 was this cashew dressing that was vegan
05:46 and went on top of the salad
05:47 and was probably one of my favorite dressings
05:48 I've ever made, just for a little texture.
05:50 Whoa, that is really good.
05:52 I can't wait for the rest of the salad.
05:53 It makes total sense,
05:54 given that he's one of the best athletes I've ever lived,
05:57 that he's gonna follow not just a strict training regimen,
05:59 but also a very strict diet,
06:01 but even for me, just for one day,
06:02 it was hard to eat that way.
06:04 It was so incredibly restrictive.
06:06 No dairy, no nightshades,
06:07 so that means things like tomatoes and eggplants
06:09 and peppers.
06:10 He even avoids a lot of things like fresh fruit,
06:12 which have a lot of sugar,
06:13 but for me, I wouldn't be able to do it.
06:15 The first thing you'll notice after blending this,
06:20 it smells exactly like brownie batter.
06:23 And the craziest part is,
06:25 it also actually pours a little bit like brownie batter.
06:27 For this next step here,
06:28 you just wanna put it in whatever pan you like.
06:30 I'm gonna use a loaf pan,
06:32 'cause that'll make it really nice and easy
06:33 for me to scoop it later once it's hardened.
06:35 And I'll admit, this part of the process
06:37 makes me wish these were brownies,
06:38 but unfortunately, that's not something Tom will eat,
06:40 which makes me wonder if there's anything at all
06:42 in my cookbook that Tom would actually eat.
06:44 Though, when I scan through it,
06:45 I do imagine he might be interested
06:47 in the air fryer salmon,
06:48 which does have a little bit of mayonnaise,
06:50 but if you make it homemade,
06:51 I bet he'd give it a shot.
06:52 Even though this recipe doesn't necessarily count as baking,
06:56 it actually is one of those recipes
06:57 where I would say you wanna lick the spoon.
06:59 It tastes just like brownie batter too.
07:02 We're gonna cover this now with plastic wrap
07:04 and toss it in the freezer,
07:05 where it should set for a couple of hours,
07:07 but that timing's gonna vary based on your freezer at home.
07:09 Anytime I'm doing this with ice cream,
07:11 I also have a good little trick.
07:12 Instead of placing the plastic wrap across the top,
07:14 make sure you push it down
07:15 and sit it on top of that ice cream.
07:18 And what that's gonna do is make sure
07:19 you don't get any freezer burn.
07:20 You can't enjoy ice cream without toppings,
07:28 so I am gonna add a few fun little toppings
07:30 on my ice cream here.
07:31 Keep in mind, they do have to be vegan
07:33 to go along with the avocado ice cream,
07:34 so I'm gonna top it with coconut flakes,
07:36 a few cocoa nibs, and some strawberries,
07:38 because he wouldn't let me eat strawberries
07:40 on the day we actually made this together.
07:42 Fun fact, he doesn't not eat strawberries
07:44 for dietary reasons, he actually just hates the taste.
07:46 Before I dive in, it looks amazing,
07:48 and if I handed this to anybody,
07:50 I don't think they'd know it wasn't
07:51 just regular plain old chocolate ice cream.
07:53 So without even tasting it,
07:55 this definitely passes the visual test.
07:57 Now, the best part of cooking anything, getting to taste.
08:00 Wow.
08:05 Part of me is in disbelief that we made this
08:07 using avocados and coconut and unsweetened cocoa powder.
08:11 We've already talked about how this could fool you
08:13 by just looking at it.
08:13 It looks like chocolate ice cream,
08:15 and it tastes a lot like chocolate ice cream.
08:17 I thought it would be a little bit more grainy,
08:19 but it's extremely smooth,
08:20 probably because we soaked those cashews.
08:22 It's really chocolatey, but not too chocolatey,
08:24 which I like.
08:25 I don't enjoy chocolate-flavored desserts
08:27 if they hit you with too much chocolate,
08:28 but this is perfect.
08:30 Overall, it's actually a really well-balanced ice cream.
08:33 The consistency is smooth,
08:34 and I would say passable as regular ice cream.
08:36 The flavor is perfect.
08:37 I was so nervous that I would taste a lot of that avocado
08:40 or some of the dates,
08:41 but it somehow all comes together in a perfect way.
08:44 I remember sitting with a bunch of my college roommates
08:46 a few years back, watching the Super Bowl,
08:48 when the Pats played the Falcons,
08:49 and came back from 28 to three,
08:51 which Tom did do a little joke about
08:52 and reference when we made our video together.
08:54 - Three dates, 28-3.
08:57 - And now I realize, that moment,
08:58 watching them win against all odds,
09:00 could have only been better
09:02 with a little bit of his avocado ice cream.
09:04 If you're watching this,
09:05 I imagine you've got a sweet tooth, just like me.
09:07 And I've got this entire section of sweets and treats
09:10 filled with plenty of delicious desserts
09:12 that I know you'll love in my new cookbook.
09:13 You can buy "Knife Drop" on Amazon, Barnes & Noble,
09:16 or anywhere books are sold.
09:17 And don't forget to go to delish.com
09:19 to check out more recipes.
09:20 Bye.
09:21 (upbeat music)
09:23 (upbeat music)