THE CYCLING CHEF
As a Michelin-starred chef, Alan Murchison knows how to make complicated food. But with his new book, his focus is on tasty, simple dishes for time-poor cyclists...
Top chef and cyclist Alan Murchison has a new book out and alongside three recipes from it, we chat with him about his new food philosophy.
Iread a recipe for risotto the other day, which said you needed to stir it anti-clockwise. I’ve never heard such a load of bollocks in all my life.”
A Michelin-starred, sweary fitness fanatic chef from Scotland (no, not that one), Alan Murchison is keen to plug what he sees as a gap in the ever-booming cooking and nutrition book market. The Cycling Chef is a book for cyclists that not only fuels them, but is enjoyable and fits around their time-poor lifestyles. His aim is tasty, nutritious, simplified food. “This risotto recipe was
making things unnecessarily complicated. You’re cooking rice with stock, that’s it. I want to get rid of all the nonsense, because it doesn’t matter.”
Since stepping out of restaurants several years ago, Murchison has, through his Performance Chef business, been working with athletes of all abilities, from British Cycling’s podium programme (he’s been Team GB’s chef since last year) to amateurs looking to better themselves. He’s a former international runner, 2015 London Duathlon winner with an impressive 19.05 10-mile time-trial PB to his name. He knows how cyclists operate, he knows what they want to eat and he knows how to make it for them. The book is stuffed with recipes that he knows work, having had time to refine them for the past four years on real people with big goals and busy lives.
“With a book,” he says, “most chefs want to do a vanity project, something that shows off all their tricks. I know how to make it complicated but I’m so over that it’s not true. I’m quite happy to do poached eggs with crushed avocado, or an omelette or one-pot dish. So often it’s over-complicated. My benchmark is ‘can you buy it in Tesco?’ and ‘can you do it in under 30 minutes?’ Because that’s what people want.”
“This risotto recipe was making things unnecessarily complicated. You’re cooking rice with stock, that’s it. I want to get rid of all the nonsense”
The book is part what to eat, with the recipes, and part why and how, with guides to the nutrition cyclists’ need to hit their goals and nutrition plans to plot their roadmap to success. Like the recipes, these sections, peppered throughout the book, are more accessible than the usual.
The plans address a common issue, that cyclists are often good at completing their training sessions, but lacking when it comes to sticking to their nutrition plan. “We’ve all done it, come in from a hard ride and inhaled whatever is in the house. Shopping hungry is one of the most dangerous things you can do. I’m a strong believer in the idea that we only ever do two things: the things we enjoy and the things we’re held accountable for. And that applies to food. The accountability comes from having it written down in a plan.”
He sees a big difference between how elite cyclists go about their nutrition compared to amateurs. With a few exceptions, the elite cyclists eat everything, including meat, dairy and grains – all things that are popularly excluded in diets in 2019, for health or ethical reasons. In terms of professional athletes, he “can count the