This story was excerpted from Bryan Hoch’s Yankees Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
NEW YORK -- Bernie Williams had a knack for making it look easy on the baseball field, patrolling center field and drilling line drives with grace. His second career has seen him strike all the right chords on stage as a jazz guitarist.
In the kitchen? That’s a step outside of the four-time World Series champion’s comfort zone. Williams is always up for a challenge, though, which he proved by recently joining Chef Adam Sobel at Bourbon Steak at Essex House in New York for a feature with MLB’s “Off the Plate.”
“I remember being a young Minor League player; first, second year in the Minors,” Williams said. “There were four or five people to an apartment. We didn’t have money to go out and eat every night, so we just went to the grocery store to get a whole bunch of stuff. I was appointed the cook for the group. Whether it was good or bad, we would have to eat it, no matter what.”
If only Williams -- and his roommates -- had access to Sobel back then. The chef’s first tip: don’t “Bern, Baby, Bern!” the meal.
“I grew up in Puerto Rico, so I am more partial to Latin American cuisine,” Williams said. “I finally learned how to make rice, baked beans, a little pork shoulder.”
This time, Williams worked as a sous chef, helping prepare a Nova Scotian lobster pasta that Sobel promised would become “your new go-to dish at home when you need to impress.”
Williams had the right coach: Sobel, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, trained under legendary chefs including Gunter Seeger, Charlie Trotter, Daniel Boulud, Guy Savoy and Michael Mina.
Sobel, who appears frequently on television, said Williams is his favorite Yankee. His fondest baseball memory: sitting in the Yankee Stadium bleachers for Williams’ home run in Game 5 of the 2001 American League Championship Series vs. the Mariners.
“If I could do anything,” Sobel said, “there’s two things. One would be to hit a 99 mph fastball and then play guitar like Derek Trucks. That would be my superpower.”
Williams helped Sobel with the latter, jamming on rhythm guitar at the restaurant before serving dinner for Sobel and Yankees radio broadcaster Dave Sims.
“I don’t really get star-struck -- [but] Bernie is my favorite Yankee,” Sobel said. “I get to cook for amazing, incredible people all the time. I cooked for Barack Obama’s 20th [wedding] anniversary.
"But the only time I was left speechless at a table because I got starstruck was with Derek Jeter. I don’t know what happened to me. He’s amazing.”