This is a Times article so is behind a paywall. It is about the Chef at Quins.

What is your weekly shopping list at Harlequins?
Bear in mind we only train and eat here three times a week; in total we go through about 200kg of meat. At least 100kg of that is chicken. We would go through about 800 eggs a week, not as many as we did at British Rowing. We go through about 15kg of oats per week and more milk that you would care to imagine. The numbers are big and these boys do eat a huge amount of food.

Performance nutrition as a science has been around for a long time now, but an understanding of food, that you can produce a real tasty meal that is also nutritious, is very new. I am still shocked sometimes what people think is acceptable to serve to our greatest athletes. Food needs to look great and it needs to be delicious, then you can fit in the science underneath.

The players come in on a Monday morning for recovery, so it is about getting as many anti-inflammatory foods in them as possible, lots of berries lots of nuts and seeds. Turmeric is another great one, to try and ease any joint problems or swelling.

Tuesday is often a big training day so I might feed them bircher muesli for breakfast in the hope the carbs will power them through the session.

As we come into the winter, it is about keeping them fit and well, so we use lots of zinc-rich foods around these winter months to help boost their immune systems, which means sourcing as many green vegetables as possible. Green smoothies are not popular but we do a lot of curries and get lots of spinach into them.


We get to points in the season where we start picking up a few injuries and there are ingredients we can use that hopefully in some way speed up the rehabilitation process. We might decide that we need to go big on beef gelatine because we have a few hamstring issues.

What would the biggest, most powerful England rugby player eat compared to an England footballer who might be built for speed?
There is not a huge amount of difference in the types of food that they would eat, the difference would be the portion size. Within football there is a huge amount of superstition, so it has to be the same thing at the same point on game day minus one (the day before the game) and the same thing on match day. Everybody has their set meals and if you don’t provide them, then God help you!

I work directly with an England rugby player. Dinner on game day minus one for him would be a huge bowl of pasta and probably 200g of lean protein, something like turkey, and a little bowl of salad. He would then have some yoghurt, berries and sliced fruit. Game day would start with a very light breakfast, omelette or scrambled eggs, and not very much for lunch at all, if anything. Three hours before the game he would have a small amount of pasta, no more than 100g including the meat.

One of the England footballers always has spaghetti Bolognese with extra tomato sauce and pesto and a good helping of cheddar for dinner and a huge bowl of rice pudding. It would be scrambled eggs for breakfast, one breast of chicken and maybe 50-75g of boiled rice for lunch, then the same pre-match pasta dish.

Harlequins players collect their lunch, while footballers often have their meals cooked in front of them
Harlequins players collect their lunch, while footballers often have their meals cooked in front of them
IAN TUTTLE FOR THE TIMES
In football we generally cook everything live in front of the players. They come along and will want fish or steak and we will cook it. It takes a long time to get used to juggling that many pans with 23 footballers stood in front of you!

After a match, if you have run around for 90 minutes and want a piece of my fried chicken, you absolutely deserve it. Food at that point in sport can bring everybody together, regardless of a result. It is nice to get a tasty hamburger or piece of chicken, without any quinoa, seeds or nuts in sight.

Game day plus one (the day after the game), it is about replenishing and making everybody happy. If you have won it is reward, if you have lost it is a pick me up. It is nothing wild. There are no big cakes around. A lot of it is perception, making something look or taste a little bit naughty by wrapping it in artificial newspaper or buying a KFC type box and putting bits of my chicken into it and making it a bit fun.

Do you feel part of the triumphs? What kind of a thrill is that?
It is immense. That is why I turn up at work every day, because I want to be part of these winning teams.

Working with British Rowing was the first time in my career where I realised the importance of food on morale within a professional sports environment. I would potentially be the only person who was smiling and not shouting at those guys. They would come into that crew room and we would give them really delicious food that was fuelling them and aiding their recovery.

I remember sitting in the pub on the Sunday finals day watching the women win their silver medal in the eights and having a tear running from my eye because you get incredibly drawn into it.

At the World Cup in Russia, I genuinely thought I was having a breakdown every game. The Colombia game was the worst 120-plus minutes of my life. You are sat there in the technical seats behind the bench for the game, it goes to extra time and then it is 1-1. I couldn’t sit there any longer and watch the game so I decided to go back to the dressing room. There was a tiny TV in the dressing room in the corner. Once you had come into the dressing room you weren’t supposed to go back out pitch-side. Hendo [Jordan Henderson] obviously missed his penalty and then Eric [Dier] stood up to take his and scored. I literally bounced out of the dressing room, knocked this burly Russian security guard over and just ran.

Something incredibly special is happening there with England. You can’t comprehend as a cook you would ever be part of that small group.

Omar Meziane is the Harlequins club chef, he worked with the England football team at the 2018 World Cup and is contracted through to the European Championships. Before joining Harlequins, Omar fuelled Great Britain’s rowers through the Rio de Janeiro Olympiad. He has written a book with James Haskell, the England flanker, called Cooking for Fitness. He was talking to Alex Lowe.

It says they only train at Surrey Sports Park 3 times a week I thought they were there 5 days a week where do they go the rest of the time?

They do classroom sessions as well as weights and outdoor skills training.

Captains run would be once a week and they play Friday, Saturday, or Sunday so I guess they deserve a day or two off. This would be at least one day during the week. Then there are travel days for each squad. That’s probably why it’s only three days at Guildford. They also have to have time and space for the ladies at Guildford.

Well that was not the impression we got from Billie at start of season he said they only come to Stoop for Capt run and matches? Nico I am aware of that but it as all at Surrey Sports Centre?

Anyone who went to the antiques fair at the Stoop a couple of weeks ago will have seen the team on the pitch on a Sunday. Wouldn’t have thought that was a captain’s run.

And in terms of SSP, I was under the impression that the ladies (and youth teams) don’t use the same pitches as the men so I don’t think there is a need to allow times for other teams.

Obviously the gym, etc is more communal but it’s not beyond the wit to have the other teams in there when the men are elsewhere - especially as none of the other teams habitually play on a Saturday afternoon.

I assume that the chef considerably reduced his order once JJ left.

I feared the local KFC may have needed to lay off three or four staff...

It was Subway in Guildford that suffered.