Photos courtesy of Paleo With Love
Food
BY DANIELLE BRODY
INSTAGRAM: @DLB1022
Chef, trainer and Astoria resident Ryan
Brown not only gives CrossFit members
a workout of the day, but he also serves
them a meal of the day.
Brown, who has a background as a professional
chef and currently works as a coach at
CrossFit Dynamix (36-5 20th Ave., Astoria),
combined his two careers when he started
Paleo With Love, a home-cooked meal delivery
company, last year. The concept started
in a gym where Brown was working, and has
expanded mostly through word of mouth
in the CrossFit community from Astoria’s
Dynamix to five gyms in three boroughs.
Meals come in containers with the
company’s signature logo of two nuzzling
bears on the front. His dishes like Kona
pulled pork with roasted squash and kale
tomatillo, Italian squash spaghetti bake
and blueberry “cheesecake” are all made
without sugar, dairy, beans or grains, which
are prohibited on a paleo diet.
The paleo diet is pre-agricultural,
meaning it emphasizes healthy meats,
fruits, vegetables and fats. No processed
foods are allowed either.
36 JUNE 2018 I LIC COURIER I www.qns.com
Paleo With Because of these restrictions, Brown’s
meals are missing a lot of ingredients
people love — but Brown said people
crave his food and he has built a loyal
following.
“I pay attention to the quality of the
batches I cook,” Brown said. “It’s not
just throwing a carb, a fat and protein
in the box.”
Sticking to a paleo diet and doing
CrossFit helped Brown transform his own
life when he was working as a chef in
Florida. At about 28, he was out of shape
and overweight.
“People don't trust a skinny chef,”
Brown said.
A doctor told him he had 90 days
to make a change, or he'd need to go
on medication. Within a month of doing
CrossFit and eating on a paleo diet,
Brown lost 20 pounds.
When he returned to the doctor, his
cholesterol had gone down and his triglycerides
had increased. His doctor told
him he could be in a commercial on how
to make a healthy change.
Once he moved to New York with his
wife, he worked at The Capital Grille on
Wall Street and the now defunct Ouest.
There, the long hours of working took a
toll on his health. Eventually, he quit his
job, and put his CrossFit training certification
to use, coaching at a gym in Brooklyn.
Given his background, he was able to
offer nutrition counseling to his clients.
At home, Brown was still cooking. He
made creative, tasty recipes even within
the limits of the paleo diet.
He tested recipes on his fellow
coaches, who started paying him to bring
them home-cooked, paleo lunches. Then
members caught on and wanted to try,
too. From there, the idea behind Paleo
With Love was born.
In August 2016, he gauged interested
from CrossFit members in his network
and decided to start the business. With
the help of a coworker, he created a website,
then sent an email with a menu and
started taking orders in January 2017.
He didn’t have the capital to open a
brick-and-mortar storefront, so he uses a
shared kitchen at an entrepreneur space
in Long Island City, which also offers
counseling and resources to small businesses.
There, he cooks twice a week
with the help of up to three staff members,
and fulfills orders the same day so the
/www.qns.com
