One of the highlights from his time there came when Ebuen got to spend a couple of months cooking breakfast for the Raptors in the locker-room.

From there, he jumped to TFC as sous chef, where he does menu planning, food ordering and cooking alongside head chef Elaine Flamenco to ensure the players eat healthy meals that taste good, so they perform at their peak out on the pitch.

“My favourite part of the job is cooking food that I like to cook and trying to make it healthy for the players — giving myself that challenge of I know what I want to cook, but how do I make it healthier,” he said.

You might assume cooking for elite athletes, some of whom earn millions of dollars, would be more pressure than working in a posh restaurant; not so, Ebuen says.

“You would think it’s more intense because of the guys, but it’s not,” he said. “They’re a very humble group of guys who would eat anything as long as it tastes good and as long as it’s healthy for them.”

And the hours are a lot saner too, he noted.

There are some other perks to the job, too, Ebuen said.

For instance, when the TFC squared off against the Impact in Montreal for Game 1 of the MLS Eastern Conference final Nov. 22, Ebuen and his colleagues from the kitchen were in the stands.

TFC President Bill Manning had invited the kitchen staff to come along, rented them a bus and hotel rooms.

“Where in the life of a cook can you do that?” Ebuen said. “As a fan, it was awesome.”