Wimbledon tennis stars are chowing down on bizarre meals at the tournament, including cake on pasta and sushi for breakfast, according to chefs at the All England Club. Head chef Sam Kent revealed: "You will see slightly weird things, like someone will have pasta with cake on top." Asked if players eat sushi for breakfast, he said: "Absolutely. Sushi is available at all times of the day. We can't make enough of it, they absolutely love it. We have a full-time team of non-site sushi chefs and they are producing from the very early hours of the morning."
Sushi Around the Clock
Sushi, including nigiri and California rolls, is available to players at all hours. Kent noted: "We don't have a few players asking me for crazy things every day. They just pile their plates up with what's on offer." The demand is so high that a dedicated team of sushi chefs works from early morning to meet it.
Sustainability Drive at Wimbledon
Meanwhile, venison from London’s royal parks is replacing beef in restaurants around the grounds as part of an environmentally conscious drive. This initiative includes reducing food waste and even extends to Wimbledon’s iconic strawberries. Of the 2.8 million berries ordered from its Kent supplier every year, some are left over. The excess strawberries are frozen and used to make jam served at the club year-round, as well as in a strawberry sauce coating fried karachi chicken served to the public in its walled garden area. Unused food is distributed to local charity City Harvest using a van nicknamed Vandy Murray.
Innovative Food and Drink
Wimbledon chiefs are also brewing used-coffee grounds into low-caffeine kombucha for players for the first time. Kent said: "You're giving a second life to that product, but also introducing something that is both pro and pre-biotic and much lower in caffeine. It's a really great breakfast start with loads of good gut benefits."
Carbon Neutral Goal
Beef is among a number of ingredients being gradually replaced on menus across the All England Club as it seeks to become carbon neutral by 2030. As well as being "really good for the planet" and "fundamentally more sustainable" than beef, Wimbledon’s chefs praised the versatility of deer meat. Venison is being served in burgers and ragu in the club’s less exclusive restaurants, while it also appears as carpaccio and tartare in its more expensive dining areas.
Other Sustainable Swaps
In its drive to become more sustainable, the club has also used chalkstream trout from the River Test in Hampshire to replace salmon and substituted mashed peas for avocados. Brynn Williams, who is in charge of The Renshaw where debenture ticket holders dine for £467.50-a-head, said venison is also "nutritionally dense". He said: "You're talking about something that's really good for you as a person and really good for the planet."
Expert Comments
Joe Furber, the All England Club's senior food and drinks manager, said: "Venison is fundamentally a more sustainable meat [than beef], with a lower carbon weighting." He added: "We have an abundance of venison in this country." The introduction of venison has been carried out in conjunction with Levy, Wimbledon’s official caterer, which has already rolled the meat out at its other venues, such as Twickenham and the O2 Arena.
Gut Health Focus
Wimbledon’s chefs have combined their environmental focus with a growing appetite for foods that are good for the gut. Players are now drinking kombucha made from used coffee grounds gathered across site, seen as having a probiotic benefit. The granola used in the coconut chia pudding served in the players’ dining area is not bound using refined sugar but mugolio, which is made by green pine cones collected and fermented in spring.
