Manwell McLean is known as Chef Hoppie.
He has been cooking and baking for years. It started when he was a kid as just a hobby and has grown into a passion he can’t live without. A passion that has caught the attention of big names like Ezekiel Elliot and Deion Sanders.
So yes, Chef Hoppie is the guy who "feeds Zeke."
“I started the baking business when I was 11 or 12 years old. It wasn’t anything crazy or big,” McLean said. “I was just taking things to football practice and church and sometimes to school.”
It was at youth football, where he played for Deion Sanders in his Truth league, McLean really got cooking and found the recipe for success.
We first met McLean in Oct. 2019. His operation was small, but he already had several high-profile clients. Many of them were players on the Dallas Cowboys team.
A year later, he made a big announcement first on NBC 5 Today.
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“Me and Zeke are working on opening a meal prep business called “Hoppie Preps.” It will be a fun meal prep business. I have a lot of clients and athletes coming in and living in DFW to workout. They will say they have tried the other big brands and they just aren’t good. They leave the big brand and then they come to me. So it just made sense we got this business started.
The good news doesn’t stop there for McLean. In the last year, he has partnered with appliance and household, grilling brands to expand his culinary business.
“I am still driving four to five hours a day to make all my food deliveries and sometimes I am going to the grocery store two and three times a day. I’m still very busy and basically doing it by myself,” McLean said.
Even though he is busier than ever, he said he is still delivering Fried Chicken Thursdays to The Star for a group of Cowboys players who never want to miss a meal.
