The England rugby player on trying anything once – even if it’s cod sperm, pig’s heart and strawberry custard
My first memory is being taken for Indian food at the Cookham Tandoori on the High Street – I remember the poppadoms, the onions, the chicken tikka. I remember being taken for my fifth or maybe my fourth birthday to the Pizza Hut. I hated school food. I love fish now but I just hated it then. And strawberry custard, something you never see except in educational establishments.
I was consuming the most food when I came to Wasps. I was eating six meals a day – 250-300g of protein, 300g of carbs, 250g of veg, six times every day. It was extensive, horrific. And tedious. We would cook while having breakfast – the chicken poached by my mum, me eating and cooking fish in the oven, my dad making potatoes. And it wasn’t creative cooking – poaching all that chicken was as dull as dishwater. I got bored of eating. Just chewing, thinking, “When is this portion going to end?”
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