I’ve recently taken an interest in training camp chefs and would like to use this thread to discuss and learn more. It’s a pivotal role in guiding a fighter to victory each time out but I feel like camp chefs never get any press or recognition even close to that of a strength & conditioning coach, cutman, etc. A few questions: Are most camp chefs trained chefs/nutritionists or just friends of the fighter that know their way around the kitchen? Have there been any notable camp chefs in boxing that developed a solid reputation and we’re sought after by multiple fighters? Does anybody have any camp chef stories or know of any recipes from specific camps? I know that Wlad Klitschko’s camp chef used to be an active poster here, I hope that he will contribute to this thread if he starts posting again. Any insights into this topic are greatly appreciated.
Really? I hadn’t heard this. I thought he was verified? I took a several year hiatus from posting and so much changed in my absence and I missed a lot of what went on.
This would be a fairly simple exercise. Fight camps often turn on simple food preparation. Like it might just be a matter of supplying steak, pasta, and fruit juice, and you would work out the rest!
Then he went out and attached his name to a grill, bought the rights to it and become a gazillionaire.
Lana Shabazz was, I’m pretty sure, the regular cook/chef for Muhammad Ali for his training camp in Deer Lake, Pa. She published a cookbook: https://www.panoplybooks.com/cooking-for-the-champ-by-lana-shabazz-1979-1st-ed/ Cooking for a fighter in training isn’t just about nutrition (although that’s obviously important) — you can create the most dietary-correct meals known to mankind but if it doesn’t agree with the palate of the boxer you’re serving then it does no good. And considering all but heavyweights are watching their calories (or need to) and most are actually cutting weight, it’s even more important that the ‘good stuff’ they’re being fed meets his tastes. The other thing I’d note is that thinking on athletic nutrition changes all the time. Sugar Ray Robinson dined on steak the night before the fight (and would ask the chef to bring out a glass of the cow’s blood) and he turned out OK, haha. A few decades later the fad was carbo-loading. So the ‘perfect diet’ for an athlete today will probably be out of fashion in another few years or a decade and something else will be the thing — a lot of top athletes are currently going vegan if you pay attention (especially popular these days in the NFL). What’s most important is what the athlete eats on a year-round basis. One meal (pregame or prefight) has a minimal impact — you’re not going to turn into Popeye because you eats your spinach, haha. Emanuel Steward once said that what’s most important in the meals before the fight is that it’s food the fighter is comfortable with: “If he likes McDonald’s hamburgers, let him eat McDonald’s hamburgers,” Manny said. Better to do that than introduce something new (that might be all the rage) that doesn’t sit well on his stomach.
Now THIS is the kind of discussion I was hoping that this thread would attract! Thank you. I had no clue that Ali’s camp chef had written a cookbook, awesome! Wow, that book must have had an extremely limited release to fetch that kind of price. That’s unfortunate, I would have loved a copy of it.
Well, for the price of a click (nothing) you can have her bean pie recipe: https://www.washingtonpost.com/recipes/lanas-bean-pie/14892/
Julian Jackson’s son Julius is a noted Caribbean chef (graduate of the Florida Culinary Institute) as well as being a pro boxer. Here’s an interview: https://www.cuisinenoirmag.com/pro-boxer-caribbean-chef-julius-jackson/
And here’s an educational thread by poster Mike South from 2015 detailing John L. Sullivan’s training regimen including his diet in camp. Spoiler — some things have changed since John L’s day, haha: https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/john-l-sullivan-training-camp.538639/
They'd have to be professional nutritionists because most division other than HW have a weight limit. Look at what Badou Jack done with George Lockhart. That's professional right there.
Chris Algieri wrote a cookbook as well, The Fighter's Kitchen. A lot of the recipes are in the previews on Amazon. He was in Jacob's camp as a nutritionist when he fought Golovkin, don't know if he still is. “This guy can cook his behind off, let me tell you,” Jacobs said. “This guy is the real deal. It was a pure joy to have him in camp and just have great conversations with him, have good nutrition. He understands what it means to be at this level too, which is important.”
