Between practices and games, Brophy varsity football players Ezra Benjamin ’28 and Josh Finch-Logan ’26 are trading their cleats for aprons. On the field, they are known for their athleticism; on TikTok, they are known for plating meals like birria tacos and carne asada, reaching the feeds of hundreds of their classmates.

What started as a simple way to show friends their skills in the kitchen has evolved into a digital culinary journey. Despite their shared status as student-athletes, their paths to the kitchen were distinct, one rooted in deep family tradition and the other sparked by a desire to create and his no-recipe philosophy. Together, they are redefining what it means to be a student-athlete at Brophy, proving that the discipline required for football can translate to the process of cooking delectable protein-based meals.

While both athletes now share their work on the same platform, their journeys to the stove look very different. For Ezra Benjamin, cooking was an inescapable part of his upbringing. “Growing up, I was cooking a lot in my family,” Ezra Benjamin noted, mentioning that his mother, father, and two older brothers were constantly in the kitchen. 

Encouraged by his peers and inspired by creators like “Cooking with Kya,” Ezra finally decided to hit record. Now, his videos are a family affair; his mother and sister are his biggest fans, and his older brothers jump in to help whenever they are home from college.

Josh Finch-Logan, on the other hand, was driven by the specific goal of digital storytelling. “I always wanted to be a content creator,” Josh Finch-Logan explained. After cooking for friends who raved about his food, he decided to turn his hobby into a production. 

Unlike the typical home setup, Josh invested in his craft, purchasing lights from Amazon and a portable stovetop to create a dedicated filming space in his family kitchen. While Ezra relies on the foundation of his family’s recipes, Josh embraces a more experimental no-recipe type of philosophy, pulling inspiration from YouTube and then just shooting it to see what happens.

These two student TikTok chefs have some favorite dishes they have made. For Ezra, that moment came early on with a stovetop staple. “I made birria tacos… on my stovetop in my kitchen,” he recalled. At the time, he only had about 20 followers, but the slow-cooked Mexican classic struck a chord. The video was pushed out to his local circle and beyond, skyrocketing his following to over 200 overnight.

Josh’s big hit was equally rooted in flavor and connection. His favorite creation to date was a carne asada dish he filmed with his cousin. Reflecting his spontaneous style, the meal wasn’t bound by a strict recipe but by love for the process. “It was fun to make, and I liked the Mexican flavors,” Josh shared, noting that the end result exceeded his expectations. 

Whether they are perfecting a pass on the field or a sear in the kitchen, both Ezra and Josh plan to carry their content creation into their college football careers to document the high-protein fuel required for elite athletes. Josh is already looking at the long game, hoping to one day translate his TikTok success into owning his own restaurant if his journey under the stadium lights ever comes to an end.