From childhood friend to Chief’s personal chef: ‘Whatever he’s feeding me is keeping me young,’ says Travis Kelce

Kumar Ferguson has a meaty behind-the-scenes role in the Kansas City Chiefs coming season: fueling professional athletes, the personal chef to Travis Kelce shared.

Since 2016, Ferguson’s full-time job is to worry about what’s for dinner, so Kansas City Chiefs tight end Kelce doesn’t have to. He prepares three fresh meals a day, so his childhood friend — who is questionable for Thursday’s season opener against the Lions thanks to an injury — can focus on routes and game preparation.

“It’s fun, but I do take it seriously,” said Ferguson, the founder of KuEatsFresh who also is known simply as Chef Ku, “just knowing that I can have some type of impact on his health. I try to just bring my best to that to make sure he’s equipped on the field and fueled up.”

Travis Kelce arrives for the Chiefs’ Aug. 19, 2023, preseason matchup against the Arizona Cardinals; photo courtesy of the Kansas City Chiefs

“It’s a creative space,” he continued. “It’s cool because we all grew up together. So we all support each other. We’re all pushing each other. It’s a high-intensity environment, but the support from everybody just makes it really cool and worthwhile.”

Through his work with Kelce and the recipes and tips available on his website, Ferguson promotes his philosophy of intentional eating, he shared, which has also helped him lose 100 pounds.

Click here to check out the KuEatsFresh recipe site.

“Everything about Travis’ diet and what we do is intentional,” he continued. “Everything is for fuel, for comfort, hydration, nutrition. There is purpose behind every dish. You go into the grocery store with that mindset. You go into the kitchen with that mindset. You put that intention into the food and then you hope that it translates to optimized health.”

Two years into cooking for Kelce — which Ferguson does in the offseason, too — even the Chiefs team nutritionist started taking notice, he noted.

“She was super impressed how Travis looked, his body metrics,” Ferguson explained. “His performance output matched his diet; that’s something that labs want to see. So we just got a lot of cool reviews. Things started picking up from there just as far as working with other guys on the team and trying to help out.”

In the lead-up to the Super Bowl in 2020, Ferguson noted, he started to do meal prep for several other Chiefs players, as well. He realized this took his focus away from Kelce, but it inspired him to create a yet-to-be-named startup — and app — that matches professional athletes around the country with private chefs.

“That’s the community and network I’ve been building,” Ferguson explained, sharing the community has grown to about 5,000 and includes professional basketball players, Olympic athletes, and UFC fighters. “It’s just a safe space for professional athletes and professional chefs to do business.”

“(The athletes) call and we do a consultation and see what their needs are, where they’re located, and then I find and source the best chefs that are near them,” he added.

Click here to follow Kumar Ferguson on Instagram.

Plum salad — an example of a KuEatsFresh dish prepared for Travis Kelce — featuring plums, bacon, tomatoes, candied pecans, and goat cheese

Family-style fuel

Ferguson’s journey as a personal chef started with fueling his family and neighborhood in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, he shared. He started cooking to help his mom — who was working full time and going to school — at home.

“It started with my little brother asking who’s cooking dinner,” he recalled. “And if it wasn’t me, he wouldn’t come downstairs. So I was like, ‘Oh, OK, I might be onto something.’”

Kumar Ferguson, KuEatsFresh, with a plum salad he prepared as an example of a KuEatsFresh dish for Travis Kelce

Food was always a centerpiece in his multicultural family — his mom is Indian and his dad is African American — he noted. Growing up, he learned to cook soul food like fried chicken and macaroni and cheese from his aunts on his dad’s side and he took a trip to India that allowed him to get a taste of all different types of Indian cuisine.

“I feel like food just played a big part in our social gatherings coming up,” he explained. “We were a real tight-knit family. We would all eat together and hang out.”

Soon that extended to sharing his home-cooked meals — a lot of wings and rice — with friends and neighbors, Ferguson said, by taking a plate to a friend who hadn’t eaten all day or making a meal for a mom whose son had joined the military.

“I’ve just grown up in a tight-knit neighborhood — family style — just taking care of everybody or trying to, at least,” he said.

So during his fourth season with the Chiefs, it was Ferguson who Kelce reached out to for help in the kitchen, even though he isn’t classically trained. Ferguson — who Kelce started playing community basketball with in fourth or fifth grade — was working as a truck driver at the time, he noted, on what he considered a food tour of the country.

“(Kelce’s) like, ‘Hey, man, I want to take my diet seriously,’” he recalled. “‘You want to come out to KC and help me out with that? Whatever you want to do, I’ll help you, and we just kind of support each other.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’”

Travis Kelce with Kumar Ferguson, KuEatsFresh; photo courtesy of Kumar Ferguson

Championship cuisine

Two Super Bowl championships later, Ferguson is still showing up every morning to Kelce’s house to prepare three meals, which Ferguson refers to as healthy steakhouse cuisine with filets being the tight end’s favorite.

“When he was in college, he’d be going home back to Cleveland, and at 2, 3 a.m., his dad would be outside on the back porch, grilling filets for us,” he said. “That’s kind of it’s kind of just been instilled in him.”

“We’re all just (Midwest) northern dudes,” he added. “Steaks, chops, chicken, and stuff like that, but I try to bring a modern flair to it.”

Travis Kelce practices in a Sept. 4, 2023, photo courtesy of the Kansas City Chiefs

Last season, Kelce — at the age of 33 — garnered a record-breaking 1,338 yards for a tight end. And in an interview before the Super Bowl, he credited his nutrition.

“Shout out to KuEatsFresh, my man Kumar Ferguson,” he told a Yahoo Sports reporter. “Whatever he’s feeding me is keeping me young.”

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Despite the pressure of fueling one of the top players in the NFL, Ferguson said he is thankful he landed in Kansas City.

Kumar Ferguson, KuEatsFresh; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News

“Kansas City is super cool,” he explained. “Everybody here has been very friendly,” he said. “Coming from Cleveland, we’re real blue-collar, down-to-earth folks and I feel the same out here. Everybody’s hard working, cool, laid back. The support has been nice. I’ve been able to accomplish a lot being here.”

It doesn’t hurt that the food is top-notch, too, he noted.

“The barbecue here is literally the best,” Ferguson added. “And I’ve been to every place (as a truck driver). I feel like I know something. I also like the diversity of the food scene here. You can go down to the River Market and you can go to Le Fou Frog for traditional French food. And then in the same area, you can go have African food. Moti Mahal over in Westport is a fantastic Indian buffet. The steakhouse’s here are cool. I feel like Stock Hill does really well. Nguyen Pho and Grill over in the River Market, they have the best pho that I’ve had around the country. So it’s nice to be able to dip into all these different food genres.”