he noted.
Trout sushi paired with coffee kombucha might not be the conventional champion’s breakfast, yet it’s become a favorite among tennis players at Wimbledon.
As athletes increasingly seek sustainable food options, they are also gravitating towards gut-friendly choices that align with a microbiome-focused diet, as highlighted by the tournament’s culinary team. Recent studies have established a correlation between gut health and athletic performance, emphasizing the importance of dietary adjustments.
“Gut health and probiotic products are very popular. We’re aware of that so we’re absolutely thinking about that,”
commented Joe Furber, the senior food and drink manager at Wimbledon.
Adding to this, head chef Sam Kent remarked, “It’s something we’ve improved on for this year,”
The offerings aimed at promoting gut health include plant-based, fiber-rich foods like beans and fermented items such as kombucha. Wimbledon is also part of a growing trend among sporting events transitioning from beef to venison, a meat lower in saturated fat with a reduced carbon footprint sourced from wild deer in London’s royal parks.
“If a player walks into our restaurants and wants to focus on their gut health, we have provided them the options there, but also the information telling them that this is what’s got good gut health in it.” stated Dr. Luciana Torquati, a sports nutrition researcher at the University of Exeter. “Supporting gut health is important for athletes, especially when training or competing in hot weather,”
“Foods containing live cultures like yoghurt and kefir, probiotic supplements, alongside prebiotic foods and supplements may promote a diverse microbiome and help support digestive and immune health, improve nutrient absorption, reduce gastrointestinal symptoms. “Together, these factors may help athletes better tolerate demanding conditions and reduce the risk of gastrointestinal symptoms and illness that can negatively affect performance.”
Last year, over 20 stadiums, including Brentford and Twickenham, began offering wild venison, and golfer Rory McIlroy featured elk—similar to venison—on his Masters champions dinner menu this year.
Head chef Bryn Williams mentioned, “We swapped our beef for venison in a lot of spaces a few years ago. Venison is fundamentally a more sustainable meat, with a lower carbon weighting … There is an abundance of venison in this country.” He added that venison is now featured throughout the entire Wimbledon venue.
“It eats a wild diet, so it’s naturally eating what’s good for itself, it lives a good life, and so it is nutritionally dense, it has a really high level of protein as well – people are looking for high levels of protein in their red meat, and it’s naturally lean, it’s got a much lower saturated fat content. So you’re talking about something that’s really good for you as a person, and really good for the planet,”
The focus on sustainability and local sourcing extends to other ingredients, which include British chia seeds and quinoa, lemongrass cultivated in North Wales, and chalk-stream trout from Hampshire—deemed “Sushi is always popular with the players, it’s number one … across the board,” than the now-phased-out salmon, according to Kent.
The trout is prepared for dishes like California rolls and nigiri. “We can’t make enough of it, they absolutely love it. We have a full-time team of on-site sushi chefs and they are producing from the very early hours of the morning.” Kent noted. “Absolutely, sushi is available at all times of the day.”
When asked if players indulge in sushi for breakfast, he added, “We take the coffee grinds from that each day and we brew that into a fresh kombucha. The coffee grinds are obviously something that are naturally wasted, they have many great uses, such as being used for compost, but also really interestingly, you can brew it into kombucha,”
The kombucha, introduced this year, is crafted from old coffee grounds collected from the venue. “So you’re giving a second life to that product, but also then producing something that is both pre- and probiotic and much lower in caffeine … It’s a really great breakfast start that also has loads of good gut benefit.” Kent explained.
“You will see slightly weird things, like someone will have pasta with cake on top,”
Strawberries continue to be a Wimbledon tradition, with approximately 2.8 million sold annually. Any surplus is repurposed into jam for the subsequent year, as well as a strawberry sauce for the chicken karahi served in the restaurants.
For Wimbledon’s tennis professionals, the key remains ensuring they consume sufficient food to sustain them through their lengthy matches. “You will see slightly weird things, like someone will have pasta with cake on top,” Kent remarked.
