Plainfield ‘celebrity chef’ Aaron Sain whips up business with cooking, bodybuilding skills – Shaw Local

When Plainfield resident Aaron Sain was a culinary student at Joliet Junior College in the early 2000s, he never thought he would one day cook on WGN TV, as he did on March 28.

He didn’t expect to work with high-profile clients like entertainer, Nick Cannon and NFL player Aaron Donald and be featured in national publications.

And he certainly wasn’t thinking about not finishing his degree and running his own catering company, Insanely Fitness Food.

No, Sain, 43, was thinking about not ruining the muffins at JJC’s Friday night dinner.

“I had a job to do,” Sain said. “And I didn’t want to mess it up.”

Friday night dinner was an outstanding dining experience for the community led by JJC culinary students. It is now called the Thursday Night Supper and is held at JJC’s Thrive Restaurant on the college campus.

Sain said he reached JJC at 6.30 am on the same Friday. Class didn’t start until 9:30 a.m. He received a strange look from the Renaissance Center staff, but he didn’t care.

“I remember it like it was yesterday,” Sain said. “Chef Vonhoff came in when I was putting out my muffins and looked at me like, ‘See if I come in at 6 a.m.’ But I took it very seriously.”

Florida’s Keith Vonhoff, a retired JJC chef professor, is proud of Sean’s “career and culinary journey.” Sain said he was a good student with a “sponge-like mind” and was “always attentive and eager to learn.”

“It’s had a huge impact on a lot of professional athletes and regular people,” Vonhof said. “The journey is far from over and I look forward to seeing his goals and future achievements.”

“Just someone from the east side of Joliet.”

Sain said he grew up in a “rough” home on Joliet’s east side, where his parents, Wardy and Diane Sain, still live.

Wardy Sain has worked as a physical education teacher at Washington Junior High School and Laraway Middle School, served as program director for the George Verden Buck Boys & Girls Club, and was honored as an Everyday Hero by the Herald-News in 2020.

“He was also a referee for the police league for basketball, so the whole neighborhood and the community knew my dad,” Sain said. “I was running at the time. But I knew I had a limit.”

Sain’s first memory of cooking was pushing his chair into the oven to watch his mother make French fries.

“It’s so simple, but it’s so sweet and so good for me that I lose my mind,” says Sain. “I was like, wait a second. Did you do this with eggs, cinnamon, bread and milk?’

By the time she was 15, Sain was cooking for family and friends.

In the year After graduating from Joliet Central High School in 1998, Sain studied culinary arts “mainly because cooking was easy for me,” he said.

Sain said some of his professors are Michael McGreal (Chair of the Culinary Arts Department), Tim Bucci, Mark Muczynski and Fred Ferrara (retired). He soon discovered that studying cooking was not the same as cooking at home.

“It was like being in the army at times,” Sain said. “They don’t pull any punches… if your dish isn’t proportionate. They prepare you for the real world.

But Sain also discovered that a commercial kitchen was the ideal environment for him.

“No matter where you’re from, all kinds of people come together and share one language, which is food,” he said. “This is a great equalizer – food.”

Body structure and reading parameters

When Sain had a child, JJC quit and needed a better job to pay child support. While at JJC he supported himself by serving food, cooking and washing.

He first started working for ComEd as a meter reader and later as a substation operator, making $50 an hour, he said.

In the year In 2013, a bodybuilding friend introduced Sain to the sport. Sain loved bodybuilding but hated strict diets. He corrected the glitch in his diet with his cooking skills and posted the results on social media.

“And people are like, ‘Man, these dishes look amazing! You can’t look like you’re eating,’ said Sain. “Everyone is so used to the bodybuilder’s standard diet.”

Food requests poured in, leading Sain to launch Insanely Fit Meals in 2015 – leading to a crazy busy schedule.

“Now I get my meals at different gathering places,” says Sain. “Now I’m cooking and serving before starting a career in comedy. I learned that at some point, hopes and dreams must turn into decisions and actions.

“I realized that at some point, hopes and dreams must turn into decisions and actions.”

– Aaron Sain, chef, trainer and owner of Ensignly Fitness Foods

A journey into the unknown

One day, a bodybuilder called Sain and helped him cook and train. Sain said he made good money at ComEd and his bills were paid. What should he have done?

“I chose to take the journey to the unknown,” Sain said.

Sain currently leases a commercial kitchen space for his own Fitness Foods, but is looking for a kitchen of his own. Although Fantasia’s behind-the-scenes video for her “Bad Girl” music video features Sain as a fitness trainer, Sain feels the business is less about glamor and service.

He gave the example of a busy lawyer who doesn’t have time to cook healthy meals for herself. Buying Saine a meal prep kit allows her to take care of herself and get her work done.

“It’s all just different levels of service,” Sein said.

Sain is especially grateful to those who helped him along the way.

“I would like to thank the community I grew up in, the people who watched this little boy grow up and everyone who had a word of encouragement for me or said ‘don’t give up,'” Sain said. . Because I’m from the east side of Joliet and I’m crazy enough to believe that, sitting on my mom’s porch, I can be among celebrities, that I have marketable talent.

For information, visit arronsain.com.