As brave in the kitchen as he is on the diving board, we sat down with Olympic gold diver, cookbook author, and national treasure Tom Daley to discuss all things food.
"For me, food is about bringing people together."
Tom appreciates a recipe and loves being able to try new things, but also admits he's not afraid to stray from instructions. "Change things, add things, take things out you don't like, add new things in because food is such a personal preference."
However when asked what sparked his interest in food, he recalls the sense of community that it has brought throughout his life. From sitting down as a family at the dinner table to living in London with his partner, where they used to host a Monday night dinner club for 12 to 16 people, "it was a way of bringing all my friends together in one place."
His dream dinner party would be a similar set-up, consisting of an arrival drink for his guests, of champagne, water, whatever they please. For starter, is a French onion soup. "That's one of my favourite things to make. It takes a bit of long time to get the onions ready and like do it properly, but a good French onion soup is like my favourite."
The table is dressed with fancy candles and bottles of wine, but the vibe? "It's very family style, very casual." One thing Tom likes to do for dinner parties is to have lots of different sides but one main dish- "I always love to do is a salmon en croute. If you just buy the puff pastry, it's just laying the filet of salmon on this puff pastry and then making a cream cheese, spinach, garlic and mushroom mixture in a pan, laying it on top, wrapping it in the pastry, in the oven it goes and you've got yourself a salmon en croute."
But his one condition? "I always get other people to bring dessert."
In 2008, at the age of 14, Tom qualified for his first Olympic Games in Beijing. Growing up training to be an elite athlete didn't entirely impact his typical teenage-boy diet, however he does recall being in a constant state of hunger. Not only was he spurting upwards along with his fellow teens, but was training "5 hours a day, six days a week". So, while he had to be mindful of what he ate, in that period of age 14 to 17, "I just remember just I felt like I was always eating", he laughed.
"I would raid the sushi station quite often..."
The Beijing Games were the first of many for Tom, so naturally, we wanted some inside scoop into the food scene at the Olympic Villages around the world.
"The amazing thing about the Olympic Village is that dining hall, it's so big. It's the size of four football pitches all put together. And it's food from every kind of cuisine you can imagine. Anything that you would want to eat, you could get there and it was 24 hours a day." In Beijing, he recalls a Peking duck section. "That was always a fave of mine back in 2008 with the spring rolls and the pancake rolls." In London, he was fond of the quintessentially British jacket potato section whereas in Rio, the barbecued section of food like skewers, rice and salad caught his eye. In Paris, they were often short on food which was a challenge for the athletes. Ever the optimist, Tom claims they made up for it with "the most amazing dessert stand. The pastries were top notch." Then there was Tokyo, the home of his favourite cuisine. "I would raid the sushi station quite often."
"It's a very boring breakfast, but I knew exactly what I was getting."
So what was the meal that fuelled Tom to win gold at Tokyo? He admits the answer is nothing glamorous. Tom's competition was at 11:30am, which was early considering finals are normally in the evening. "I remember waking up slightly later in order to make sure that the last thing I ate was my breakfast. And I made sure that for the build up to the Olympics, I basically ate the same thing for breakfast, lunch and dinner so that there was no variation in anything that I did... For breakfast, I would have scrambled eggs and a bowl of porridge... It was as simple as that. And then I did my warm up training and then had half a protein bar and then I was ready to go."
After a two-year break and some persuasion from his son, Tom returned to diving, this time as a father of two. Thankfully, finding the time to cook proper meals for training whilst being a dad wasn't a concern.
"I feel like cooking just forms such an integral part of my everyday life. And I always get the kids involved..." From tearing up salad leaves and chopping carrots with kid knives to baking a cake at the weekend, "it is just about getting them involved in seeing and tasting everything that I'm making. And food wise with the kids, well, I don't make them anything separate." Sometimes they'll approve, sometimes not so much, "but it's nice to be able to have them try as many new things as possible." His eldest son's current favourite is a chicken mole enchilada, "a slow cooked sauce that has kind of like a chili and chocolate base. It's like a red sauce with chocolate added it. It's so delicious with enchiladas, corn tortillas with chicken and cheese in the middle."
Today, as a retired athlete, Tom admits he doesn't eat as much because he doesn't burn as many calories, but food, and the way it brings people together, is always something that he will enjoy. "That's what I look forward to about the food experiences, who's going to be around the table and what conversations are we going to have." His go-to recipe from his cookbook, Tom's Daily Plan, is for Chicken, Mozzarella, Pesto Filo Parcels. "It's literally as simple as chopping up everything and chucking it into the oven wrapped in a filo pastry. And, you know, you bake it for 25-30 minutes and outcomes this like filo pastry parcel that's all crispy. And then you open it up and it's got the chicken and pesto. It looks fancy, but it's super easy to make."
"I miss a greasy spoon..."
Now based in LA, there are many things he misses about British cuisine "I miss a greasy spoon, going to get a full English. I miss good baked beans. I miss squash, I miss HP sauce and good sausages. They don't do good sausages in America."
Tom Daley 1.6 Seconds is now available to stream on Discovery+.
