Trout Sushi and Gut Health at Wimbledon
Trout sushi accompanied by kombucha may not be the traditional breakfast choice for champions, yet it has become a preferred option for tennis players at Wimbledon.
According to the tournament’s chefs, athletes are increasingly seeking sustainable and gut-friendly foods that align with a microbiome-focused diet. Recent studies have demonstrated a connection between gut health, which can be enhanced through dietary adjustments, and athletic performance.
“Gut health and probiotic products are very popular. We’re aware of that so we’re absolutely thinking about that,”
said Joe Furber, the senior food and drink manager at Wimbledon.
“It’s something we’ve improved on for this year,”
added head chef Sam Kent.
“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.”
Gut-Friendly and Sustainable Food Offerings
The tournament’s gut-friendly menu features plant-based, fiber-rich foods such as beans, as well as fermented products like kombucha. Wimbledon has also transitioned from beef to venison, a meat with lower saturated fat and a smaller carbon footprint. The venison is sourced from wild deer culled in London’s royal parks.
“Supporting gut health is important for athletes, especially when training or competing in hot weather,”
said Dr. Luciana Torquati, a sports nutrition researcher at the University of Exeter.
“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.”
Venison and Sustainability in Sports Venues
Last year, over 20 stadiums, including Brentford and Twickenham, began serving wild venison. Earlier this year, golfer Rory McIlroy included a venison-like dish on his Masters champions dinner menu.
“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,”said head chef Bryn Williams, noting that venison is now available throughout Wimbledon.
“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,”he added.
Local and Sustainable Ingredients
The focus on sustainability and local sourcing extends to other ingredients such as British chia seeds and quinoa, lemongrass cultivated in north Wales, and chalk-stream trout from Hampshire. The trout is considered far more sustainable than salmon, which has been phased out, according to Kent.
The trout is used in California rolls and nigiri.
“Sushi is always popular with the players, it’s number one … sushi is absolutely always popular across the board,”said Kent.
“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. Sushi is available all times of the day.”
When asked if players eat sushi for breakfast, he responded,
“Absolutely, sushi is available at all times of the day.”
Kombucha Brewed from Coffee Grounds
The kombucha, introduced this year, is brewed using old coffee grounds collected from the site.
“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,”said Kent.
“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.”
Traditional Wimbledon Staples and Player Preferences
Strawberries remain a Wimbledon staple, with approximately 2.8 million sold annually. Any surplus is used to produce jam for the following year and a strawberry sauce served with chicken karahi in the restaurant.
However, for Wimbledon’s tennis players, the primary concern is consuming sufficient food to sustain their lengthy matches.
“You will see slightly weird things, like someone will have pasta with cake on top,”said Kent.
