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Alex Claro reached for his trusted knife and cleanly sliced off a piece of salmon with 42 grams of protein in it — the amount Ravens nutritionists determined his client, wide receiver Tylan Wallace, should have.

After 14 years in the food industry, Claro can smell when a dish is missing something and eyeball the “macros,” or nutritional value, in serving sizes.

Wallace, meanwhile, can’t cook and has no intention of learning while his career keeps him busy.

He fits the exact description of clientele Claro wanted to focus on when he decided to pursue a career as a personal chef.

“I wanted to offer my services to people who are health-conscious, who value their time and who don’t have time for themselves,” Claro said.

Wallace, though, created a different challenge for Claro compared to clients who spend long days at their desks. Claro puts to use his studies in nutrition as he crafts meals that will fuel Wallace for arduous training.

“Sometimes people get this false sense of athletes, but they’re human, just like us,” said Claro, who works with multiple NBA and NFL players. “However, they do perform at a very high level, and I like to perform at a high level right along with them.”

Claro, a lifelong Ravens fan, grew up in Chesapeake Beach, where he used to sit in the kitchen at holidays and watch with amazement as his family cooked.

Cooking alongside them, he learned to make his family’s staples, like his grandma’s sausage, peppers and onions in tomato sauce and his mom’s oxtail with rice and peas.

Eventually, his older sister, grandmother and aunt mentioned he should make a career out of his love for cooking.

Claro worked his way up, starting as a dishwasher at Ledo Pizza (which happens to be a sponsor of the Ravens) before making his way to culinary school. He studied at the Woodland Job Corps Center then North Carolina’s Johnson & Wales University, which has a highly regarded culinary program.

Over three years at Johnson & Wales, he built a formal base in the culinary arts through a series of nine-day courses (introduction to baking, introduction to stocks, etc.).

“So that means I had a final every nine days, or practical every nine days,” Claro said. “Imagine a final every nine days.”

After attending Johnson & Wales, he graduated from the Paul Hall Center for Maritime Training with a chief cook certificate, which allowed him to travel with the Navy SEALs and other special forces.

From there, he worked in kitchens at hotels and country clubs across Maryland and North Carolina.

Then COVID hit. And as it did for many, it changed the course of Claro’s life. After being laid off, Claro returned home to find neighbors asking him to cook for them. He also noticed a demand on social media for help meal prepping, so he decided to launch his own business.

Claro started cooking for a variety of customers. He acts as a personal chef for busy families and individuals, a caterer for a variety of events and even an instructor for kids’ cooking classes.

As he worked to grow his network, he reached out to various groups, including nutritionists. He crossed paths with sports nutritionists who connected him with athletes who were looking for a personal chef.

With his background in nutrition and his preference for simplicity, Claro fit the mold for an athlete’s chef. When athletes shared their nutrition charts and explained what macros they needed, he understood.

He just had to cook a few meals to see if he and each client were compatible. He started to accumulate a handful of athletes in the D.C. area. Then, two years ago, a nutritionist who worked with the Ravens connected him with Wallace.

The two hit it off, and Claro finally got to add a player from his favorite team to his client list.

“When I got a Ravens player to cook for, I was like, ‘Oh, that’s so cool because they’re my favorite team,’ but at the same time, we got to play it cool,” Claro said.

Claro, with Wallace listening in, confirmed with a laugh that Wallace is his favorite customer.

While he said Wallace is “very particular” about vegetables (Wallace admitted he’s picky), the wideout is easygoing about the menus Claro comes up with. Occasionally, Wallace will say he misses home and Claro will cook Tex-Mex, or he’ll request something simple like a burger. When Claro meal preps, he’ll mix in dishes like steak and potatoes or chicken and rice with veggies for Wallace to heat up.

Wallace’s nutrition goals are to “maintain his weight and increase recovery and performance with lower inflammation and a whole-food diet,” Claro said. That means the chef provides 42 grams of protein, 90 grams of carbs and 20 grams of fat per meal.

It’s a very different experience than when he cooks for an offensive lineman, Claro said. Linemen require up to three times as much food. However, basketball players might eat the same amount of food as Wallace.

Claro loves working for himself. He said the stereotypes of chefs’ attitudes can be true.

“I don’t have somebody yelling down my back and an old-school chef saying, ‘Oh, he’s sucking,’ and throwing pots and pans,” Claro said.

As he grows his business, he wants to lean more into the world of athletics. As a young chef, he was inspired by Dwyane Wade’s personal chef, Richard Ingraham, whose mission is “optimizing performance through diet, emphasizing both health and the pleasure of food.”