ALAN MURCHISON

performance.chef alanmurchison

The man behind the Performance Chef moniker is Michelin-starred chef Alan Murchison, who, since his retirement from 25 years in kitchens, has turned his hand from fine dining to fuelling his fellow athletes. Known in the culinary world for his high-end restaurants and in the public eye for his TV appearances on the Great British Menu, Murchison is also a dedicated amateur cyclist and age-group world duathlon champ. On his social accounts, he shares glimpses into his training triumphs and disasters, retweets nutritional advice from experts he follows, and gives you the recipes for the meals he eats to fuel himself.

Murchison’s dishes may now be a far cry from his restaurant days in terms of presentation, but his meals are designed to maximise nutrition benefits for runners in order to fuel training and feed recovery without missing out any of the flavour. His Instagram features dishes such as Bircher muesli studded with almonds, pistachios and fresh fruit; spicy chicken and chickpea tagine; and pimped-up omelettes, proving sports nutrition can be delicious and uncomplicated. Beyond the main meals, we enjoy Murchison’s creativity with sports supplements – his recovery ice lollies made with electrolyte powder and high-protein yoghurt are a particular revelation.

His Performance Chef business provides bespoke nutrition plans for elite athletes – to date he’s fuelled runners such as Charlie Grice, Andrew Butchart and Tracy Barlow to victory – but his social media feeds will inspire runners of all abilities to use the power of nutrition.