If you follow the wrong people on social media, you would probably get the impression that food for elite sportspeople is just a series of slightly grim and scientific nouns.
Protein. Carbohydrates. Electrolytes. Fuel. Fuel. Fuel.
Every morsel is accounted for, chosen by nutritionists, deliberately designed to maximise performance. At times it feels like eating is the equivalent of putting petrol in a car, rather than the enjoyable experience it is for most of us.
Not if you’re a cricketer playing at Lord’s, though.
The players’ lunches at cricket’s most venerable venue are the stuff of legend, more akin to a high-end restaurant than anything else you would expect at a sports ground. They gained such a reputation that players have claimed they got out early so they could really fill their boots at the lunch table without having to worry about the sluggish consequences in the afternoon.
And they have gained a reputation beyond just players, partly after the Lord’s social media accounts started posting the daily menu.
@tifosports Michael Phelps used to eat 10,000 calories per day 🏊 #Athletics #Swimming #Olympics #Swim #Sport #FYP #LearnOnTikTok ♬ original sound – Tifo Sports by The Athletic
There’s soup to start, then there are typically four options: red meat, white meat, fish and a vegetarian option. On day two of the first Test of this summer, players could choose from chargrilled chipotle chicken supreme, teriyaki salmon fillet, chargrilled lamb cutlets or tomato and mozzarella gnocchi.
Plenty of sides are available too, followed by a range of desserts, always featuring fruit and an ice cream selection.
Today’s offering in the Players’ Dining Room! pic.twitter.com/5x0Gbqy0EY
— Lord’s Cricket Ground (@HomeOfCricket) June 5, 2026
Some players who have specific dietary requests or requirements will have their own food prepared. Some, especially those who are batting before lunch and thus condemned to a pretty tight turnaround, will eschew the lunch room and eat in the dressing room, surrounded by discarded socks and whiffy jockstraps.
It will be served from around 12pm. With the lunch break usually scheduled for 1pm, those not immediately involved in play can get in and start eating early. Once the players have refuelled, other staff are allowed in.
These days, the menus are prepared with at least half an eye on athletic performance. The sous chef, Andy Kennedy, is in touch with the nutritionists from both teams well in advance of games, although in an advisory capacity rather than menus being dictated to him. That does not stop a few less healthy requests: Kennedy told The Daily Telegraph that, a few years ago, an unnamed player requested chicken burgers for all five days of a Test.
Things have not always been quite as geared towards peak performance, and the tales of its past excess are legendary.
Mike Gatting, former captain of England and Middlesex — the county side who plays their home matches at Lord’s — loved steak and kidney pudding, with spotted dick and custard for dessert. That sort of spread is enough to send anyone into a food coma without anything planned for the rest of the day, never mind if they have to play cricket.
The former Middlesex and England batter Mike Gatting (Adrian Murrell/Getty Images)
In The Guardian a few years ago, Mike Selvey wrote: “Three, four, sometimes five courses were brought out: soup, starter, main, pudding and cheeseboard. Just occasionally, during bad weather that precluded play in the immediate future, there might be a bottle or two of the MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club) claret sneaked on to the table as well.”
Mark Ramprakash spoke in hushed tones about the “chocolate lumpy bumpy cake” — this correspondent has no idea what that actually is, but it sounds heavy.
Geoff Howarth, a former New Zealand captain unused to such lavish fare, once vomited on the field shortly after a particularly leaden lunch. “The ground staff had to come out and cover it with sawdust,” wrote Simon Hughes, the former Middlesex bowler, in his book A Lot Of Hard Yakka about the life of a jobbing county player.
New Zealand’s Geoff Howarth once bit off more than he could chew at Lord’s (Adrian Murrell/Allsport/Getty Images)
The lunch room itself is relatively small, hidden away at the top of the Lord’s pavilion. Theoretically each team has a table designated to them: the visitors to the left as you walk in, England to the right. In times past, there was a fairly strict demarcation, but these days international cricketers are more likely to know each other from the T20 franchise circuit, so there is much more mixing and matching.
With both teams dining in such an enclosed space, it can bring opponents together, the edge slightly taken off the competition by a spirit of culinary bonhomie.
Sometimes, the opposite is true — never more so than during the Ashes Test of 2023 after the infamous dismissal of Jonny Bairstow, when the England wicketkeeper wandered from his ground and was stumped by Australia’s Alex Carey shortly before the lunch break.
Most now seem to agree that Bairstow was careless and Carey was opportunistic, but at the time the England team were livid — a fury that continued into the lunch room.
Jonny Bairstow storms off past the jubilant Australian fielders (Stu Forster/Getty Images)
Bairstow was one of the players who usually didn’t visit the lunch room, preferring to eat in the changing room. On that day though, he did go in, but not for any teriyaki salmon. “Jonny was steaming,” Australian batter Marnus Labuschagne told Channel Seven. “Absolutely steaming.”
It might have stopped there had the television screens in the lunch room not replayed the incident. Bairstow, apparently egged on by team-mate Zak Crawley, watched the replay and asked the assembled Australians: “Are you guys happy with that?”
David Warner, never a man who requires much encouragement to speak his mind, replied: “Yeah. Very.”
Bairstow continued to fume. Everyone else tried not to giggle. “Remember at school, when the teacher tells you off and you shouldn’t be laughing?” said Australian all-rounder Mitchell Marsh.
But that tense occasion was very much an outlier. This is usually a place of culinary satisfaction, where players are fed like kings.
Just as long as they don’t forget they have to play cricket afterwards.
Dining and Cooking