Allen Campbell grew up in Chelmsford, worked in the restaurant industry in the Boston area and became the personal chef for Tom Brady and Giselle Bündchen. Allen Campbell’s impressive career makes him a leader in sports nutrition. Now the North Shore native is leveraging his network for a new healthy living video series featuring professional athletes from Boston and beyond. After spending a decade in the restaurant industry and not caring about his health, Chef Campbell knew it was time for a lifestyle change.
“I was in my mid-to-late twenties and decided it wasn’t working,” he says. He got sober, started watching what foods he ate, and took up CrossFit, calling the fitness component “the fun part.” Starting with small changes that eventually developed into big changes, he gradually developed the philosophy of a healthy lifestyle that he still adheres to today: When cooking, health comes first and the focus is on whole, unprocessed foods.
When Campbell met Tom Brady’s former personal chef, who fired him shortly thereafter, it felt like fate – and it skyrocketed Campbell’s career. His approach to nutrition “was exactly what Tom was looking for,” says Campbell, who says working with Brady and Bündchen’s family was a fantastic fit. “We agreed from the start.”
A sports nutrition specialist, Campbell has written two books – The Game of Eating Smart, in collaboration with Julie Loria and MLB, and the TB12 Nutrition Manual – and he contributed to all the recipes featured in the New York Times bestseller “TB12 Method.” become. He is the owner of AC Kitchen, an organic food and lifestyle brand focused on local organic produce and wild protein. It has a meal plan program, a home delivery service, and a cooking matchmaking program for people looking for a personal chef to improve their eating habits.
Campbell has also worked with many other Boston-based or raised athletes, such as Patrice Bergeron, Jack Eichel (a fellow North Shore native), Charlie McAvoy and Kevin Hayes, who appeared in the first episode of Campbell’s new series, “The Chef Allen Show.” In the first episode, Campbell joins Hayes for a workout session at his gym and then takes Hayes to his home kitchen to whip up some healthy post-workout treats. Campbell and Hayes both grew up in the Boston area and have similar backgrounds, Campbell says, so “go in there and talk to his coaches, take him back to my kitchen and show him what’s really happening.” . “It was a lot of fun,” he says.
MALK Organics (which makes filler-free oat and almond milk) sponsored the first video in which Campbell Hayes shows how to make dairy-free chocolate milk and brownies. “There is a superstition, especially in baseball, about drinking chocolate milk after a game,” says Campbell. That’s why he developed a healthier post-workout drink with ingredients like electrolyte-rich coconut water, protein-rich sacha inchi seeds, raw cacao, MALK, etc. and raw local honey. His brownies also flip the script on the traditionally delicious dessert, replacing butter with coconut oil, regular flour with oat flour, and white sugar with coconut sugar.
In his cooking and recipe development, Campbell avoids potentially inflammatory ingredients such as white sugar, gluten and dairy. When he has time, he makes his own alternative milk from almonds, water, vanilla and a pinch of salt. “That’s hard to find on the market, and that’s how MALK makes its almond milk,” he says—all whole foods, with no gums or fillers. “When [MALK] “I reached out, I was already in the process of buying their milk,” Campbell says.
He plans to film eight episodes of “The Chef Allen Show,” each featuring a different sponsor and professional athlete, and since his athlete network is largely based in Boston, viewers will be treated to appearances by some Red Sox and Patriots players calculate. All episodes will be available on YouTube and social platforms.
His best advice for people looking to improve their diet? “It starts with small steps,” he says. Maybe start by taking a look at your dinner time. “Do we eat at 10 p.m. and then go to bed at 11 a.m.?” says Campbell. This is one of the worst eating habits, he says, because sleeping on a full stomach can affect digestion and sleep quality.
Maybe you eat a lot of processed sugar every day or don’t get enough protein (at least 50 grams per day). Once you’ve identified the eating habits you want to change, it’s time to get to the “doing” part. [eating well] “A plan, a priority, just like everything else,” he says, just like our careers and our families.
But Campbell doesn’t preach a restrictive lifestyle. “I love all the things that everyone from here loves. I still love Italian food and I still love the taste of Mike’s cannoli and all that stuff.” For him, it’s about finding healthier alternatives to foods that don’t make him feel his best self. And he says that sometimes, for example, if a relative baked muffins with white sugar, then “when in Rome”.
Campbell remains approachable in his nutritional philosophy, recalling how stuck in his habits he was before he got sober and started eating better. Healthy eating is not an all-or-nothing game, but rather a series of choices. “Every time you eat, are you contributing to success, longevity and well-being?” he says. Because our bodies deserve that special care—it’s “all we really have to carry us on this journey,” says Campbell.
Find Chef Allen’s recipes and more at allencampbell.com.