|
Athletic
Performance Chefs - June 2003
One of the great
aspects of a chef's occupation is the seemingly endless opportunities.
Imagine, for example, going to your favorite professional
athlete's home and cooking dinner for him or her - and getting
paid to do it. Or cooking for an Olympian and then seeing
him or her win a medal. That's just what many chefs are doing
today, according to Tom Stieber, Chief Executive Officer of
Big City Chefs, a national company based on the West Coast
that specializes in placing qualified chefs as personal chefs.
"We have a team of chefs, and many of them cook for professional
athletes," says Stieber. "We have numerous San Diego
Chargers as clients; many of the players are actually encouraged
by their trainers to hire personal chefs."
Most of the chefs that are placed through
Big City Chefs have formal culinary training and restaurant
experience. "There are many good chefs out there, but
those with education and restaurant background ensure quality
for our (customers)," adds Stieber. Some chefs have four
or five players as clients, but this doesn't mean they cook
for each of them every day. They go to the athletes' homes
and prepare, package, label, and freeze a week's worth of
meals that can be reheated. They also include reheating instructions.
The one thing that most personal chefs have
in common is the benefit of flexible hours. Terese Hollander
and Dionisio Esperas, chefs and co-owners of A Healthy Kitchen,
a cooking school and personal chef service in Sacramento,
Calif., cook for Mateen Cleaves, a guard for the Sacramento
Kings. "We started teaching classes on healthy meal alternatives
and it was just a natural outgrowth for us to cook for athletes
and their personal trainers," says Hollander. Esperas
and Hollander are not only business partners, they're also
engaged to be married and the flexible hours offer them time
as a family. Stieber concurs, saying, "What my chefs
always tell me is that their lifestyle is so improved. The
restaurant work may have been fine when they were younger,
but now many of them are starting families and the hours are
so much more conducive to family life."
Christy Bundy, chef and owner of The Gracious
Gourmet, a personal chef service in Ridgeland, Miss., currently
cooks for Grady Jackson, defensive tackle for the New Orleans
Saints. She was recruited through The Personal Chefs Network
and majored in dietetics in college, something that easily
incorporates into her current job. "For a while, Mr.
Grady was on a low-fat, low-carb diet to lose a few pounds,
but now I'm just cooking regular meals for him," states
Bundy.
According to The American College of Sports
Medicine, athletic performance and recovery from exercise
are enhanced by optimal nutrition. Most athletes realize this,
and so do their chefs. "We cook Mateen fresh meals every
few days," states Hollander. "Everything he eats
is organic so we tend to do a lot of his shopping at a natural
foods co-op. Mateen realizes that there is a direct link between
what he eats and his athletic performance."
Most chefs are hired for general cooking
for the athletes, but some are hired short term and with a
specific purpose in mind. "I recently cooked for a professional
baseball player during the off-season," says Toni Belveal,
who operates her personal chefs service in Gold Canyon, Ariz.
"He hired me to help him gin weight and muscle mass without
adding fat, which we were able to accomplish." The athlete
she cooked for is a player on a major Midwest team and while
he was "bulking up" he consumed a whopping 4,000-5,000
calories a day. His dinner was 2,000 calories alone. Prior
to accepting the challenge, Belveal worked with the player's
nutritionist and did a lot of her own research. "One
of the biggest challenges was trying to come up with meals
that could reach 2,000 calories, yet, at the same time, be
low in fat. I took basic foods, such as pasta and meatloaf,
and reworked them. Cooking for him was like cooking for a
family of four."
If cooking for celebrity athletes sounds
like a dream for a chef, it should. The hours are desirable,
and the chefs can still be creative. Many operate their own
businesses. "I think if you're organized, it's a great
career. You're able to be creative with menus and recipes,
you set your own hours, and and you can interact with clients,"
states Hollander. Working for an individual can be challenging
but also rewarding and, for a chef looking for more manageable
hours while still flexing his or her creative wings, this
may be just the ticket. Bundy expounds, "It can be a
challenging position. You don't know their personal preferences
at first and having something different from week to week
is also important. But I work for myself and it's very rewarding.
Being your own boss is unique. It's not an opportunity that
everyone has."
While many athletes hire chefs to work with
them on a one-to-one basis, some cook for entire teams. Such
is the case with Jacque Hamilton, CEC, executive chef at the
Olympic Training Center in Colorado Spring, Colo. She and
her staff cook for hundreds of athletes every day, and the
kitchen is open from 7:00 A.M. to 8:30 P.M. "Most of
the athletes eat five times a day. They burn off the calories
as fast as they consume them," says Hamilton. "One
thing that makes us unique is that we have nutritional analysis
available for all of our foods," she continues. "It's
difficult sometimes, as a chef, because you know that certain
things would be better if you added cream or butter, but you
can't. I drive the nutritionist nuts."
Just because the numbers are larger doesn't
mean that the chef doesn't get to know the athletes personally.
Many come into the kitchen to greet her and some have special
requests. "If there is a particular athlete who needs
something special we will cater directly to him or her. When
you're working directly with the athletes you get to know
them. We have televisions in the kitchens, which we turn on
during the games, and it's a very personal experience when
you see them on television because you know them. These sports
are their lives." - Joseph
George
More
News
|
