Thanks for reading my very first Bloom Foods blog post! I wanted to take some time to introduce myself and my story to Houston…so here it goes!
My name is Chester Chambers. I was born in Durham, NC. My parents grew up in Virginia, and they both graduated from Duke University (I’ve been a Duke basketball fan from the jump!)
My parents’ work led our family around the country; over the span of 12 years, we lived in St. Louis, Dallas and Maryland. When I lived in Dallas, my brother and I started playing soccer for club teams around the city. Through Thierry Henry, I became a fan of Arsenal and Barcelona. I fell in love with the beautiful game.
This marked the beginning of my health journey – given that I played soccer 3-4 days per week, I stayed in great shape, regardless of what I ate. My passion for soccer led me to pursue it at the college level, and in my senior year of high school, I was lucky enough to be accepted into MIT! Given my background in math and science, I was eager to bring the same passion I had for soccer to my studies and decided to major in chemical engineering.
As Cambridge turned from green to bright orange, gold and brown, the grueling soccer season began. In turn, the intensity of my fitness routine dramatically increased. I began training or playing soccer 6 days per week. To fuel up, I loaded my dinner plate with chicken and pasta at our campus dining hall, where I had an unlimited meal plan. I didn’t know much at all about nutrition and I put on 25 pounds of what I thought was healthy weight in college (most of it was in the form of muscle).
Upon graduating from MIT, I joined ExxonMobil in Houston, TX as a Process Design Engineer. Although it was difficult for me to adjust from a flexible college schedule into a 9-5 job, my co-workers made the experience enjoyable. After a few months and an oil downturn, I was moved onto an IT project. I became very interested in coding during this time, and I taught myself HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python and other coding languages in my spare time.
Comment: Are any of you sports fans as well? Comment on your favorite teams below.
Ever wonder what’s it’s like to be a student at MIT? Leave your questions below and I’ll do a live video with answers!
TUNE IN TO MY NEXT POST TO HEAR ABOUT THE FILM THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING FOR ME!
Wow, thank you for sharing your incredible journey, Chester! Can’t wait for the next post.
Favorite Team(s): I grew up cheering on the Spanish National Team and always admired their tiki taka style of play. After following FC Barcelona for many years, I began to enjoy watching Manchester City in the late 2000s. Really sad to see “El Mago,” David Silva leave this year!
***Questions about MIT***
What was the hardest class you took there?
What is one of your favorite spots on campus?
Amazing post! Super pumped about the next post to see how you got into food at the level you are today!
How did your love for food and cooking begin?