Today we’d like to introduce you to Ramaj Young.
Hi Ramaj, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I’m Chef Ramaj Young. I’m originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota, and currently based in Las Vegas. I’m a sports performance chef, educator, and founder of The Nourishment Network and Essence Athletics. A lot of my work centers around food literacy, performance, and food sovereignty.
I’ve wanted to be a chef for as long as I can remember. I graduated from Le Cordon Bleu in Las Vegas in 2016, and ever since then I’ve been exploring the food industry from a lot of different angles. Working in fine dining in Minneapolis eventually opened the door for me to step into fitness meal prep and performance cooking, and that led to opportunities cooking for professional athletes.
In 2021, I took my business to Miami, which expanded my perspective a lot. not just professionally, but personally. Years later, that journey brought me back to Las Vegas, back to where my culinary dreams really began.
Now, most of my work involves helping athletes manage their nutrition, recovery, and performance through intentional cooking and food education. Alongside that, I teach workshops and lead activations in athletic and wellness spaces focused on food literacy, discipline, emotional regulation, and community centered food sovereignty.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I’ve definitely battled with myself throughout entrepreneurship. There’s been a lot of failure, uncertainty, and moments where I questioned my identity and my abilities. I’ve struggled with self-criticism, with showing up for myself consistently, with finances, with understanding my value, and with learning how to charge for my work in a sustainable way.
I’ve also struggled with thinking big and then feeling overwhelmed trying to bring those ideas to life. Entrepreneurship can really expose every insecurity you have. But at the same time, there’s been a lot of beauty and magic in the process too. A lot of growth. A lot of lessons. Sometimes you really do have to learn how to move through the unknown while still believing in your vision.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
What I do through The Nourishment Network and Essence Athletics really comes from my own life and my experience working in food production, performance cooking, and community spaces. I think a lot of people hear terms like “food insecurity” or “food sovereignty” and think they’re just political or economic conversations, but to me it’s much deeper than that. It impacts how we think, how we regulate ourselves, how families function, how communities connect, and even how we value ourselves.
I’ve seen what happens when people lose connection to food, not just access to it, but understanding it. I’ve worked in high level food environments, private performance cooking, and everyday community settings, and one thing I keep seeing is that people are overwhelmed. We’re busy, disconnected, overstimulated, and a lot of our relationship with food has become reactive instead of intentional.
That’s really where my philosophy comes from.
To me, food is ancient communication. It’s not just calories or macros. It’s communication between the earth, the body, the mind, and the spirit. Every culture throughout history understood food as ritual, medicine, gathering, healing, and survival. In modern consumer culture, we treat food like a transaction instead of a relationship.
A big part of my work is helping people reconnect to that relationship in a practical way. Especially athletes and young people. In sports, we talk so much about discipline and performance, but we rarely talk about how nourishment affects emotional regulation, focus, recovery, leadership, and self-worth. You can’t out train disconnection. Eventually the body tells the truth.
I also speak openly about trauma and food. Anxiety, stress, survival mode, overconsumption, restriction, emotional eating. These things are real, and they affect families and communities every day. I’m interested in helping people build awareness around their habits without shame. I think discipline works best when it’s rooted in care and understanding, not punishment and inhumanity.
What sets this work apart is that I’m not just teaching nutrition. I’m creating spaces for people to think differently about nourishment and their role in the food system. Whether I’m speaking at an athletic camp, a men’s healing conference, or a community event, I want people to leave feeling more connected to themselves, more informed, and more intentional about how they nourish their lives.
I’m most proud that we’re a social enterprise building something that can exist in both performance spaces and community spaces at the same time. The model is designed so that work in professional and organizational settings helps support access to food literacy and wellness education for youth and communities that may not otherwise have it.
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
Mentorship has played a huge role in my journey. I’ve been fortunate to have people pour knowledge into me throughout my career, and I try to return that same energy however I can.
A lot of the mentors I’ve found came from simply reaching out to chefs and people I admired, asking questions, showing genuine interest, or even offering my time and labor just to learn. Sometimes I’d go work in someone’s kitchen for free for a day just to experience their systems and build a connection.
To me, mentorship is really about reciprocity. I support people, celebrate their growth, and stay curious. In return, they feed me knowledge, experience, and wisdom that continues shaping the way I move through food and community today.
Contact Info:
- Website: Nourishment.network
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nourishment.network?igsh=MTh3b296a2JnMTZhMA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
