I asked a simple question. What does it say on your contract?
Same job. Same building.
Same responsibility for players worth tens of millions.
Sixteen different names for it.
Now look at everyone else in that same building.
Coaches, physios, doctors, psychologists, nutritionists.
Every one of them has a professional body. Every one has a qualification that takes years. Every one has a protected title you cannot use until you've earned it.
I can tell you exactly how to become a sports nutritionist. Degree, master's, probably a PhD after that.
It's long and it's hard, and it is completely clear.
Now tell me the route to becoming a performance chef.
There isn't one.
There's a food hygiene certificate, twenty-odd years of graft, and a lot of 'hoping someone notices.'
Here's why you should care about that...
So you can have two chefs, same title, same money.
From the outside, nobody can tell them apart.
Every other job in that performance team comes with a qualification attached and a clear answer to "what happens if we don't have one?"
Yours doesn't.
That isn't a reflection of the work. It's a reflection of the fact that nobody ever defined it.
And this isn't your fault. The industry grew faster than it built a way in.
The responsibility arrived. The training and support never followed.
Reply to me with your decisions, not your duties.
Not "planned and delivered daily menus".
Try:
Most chefs I meet undersell themselves badly in interviews, because they've never put the judgement into words.
That list is the start of your own standard. Right now, it's the only one you've got.
We were surveying head chefs across elite football in the UK.
This was meant to be the easy one, before we got to the interesting questions.
We got sixteen different answers, including:
This was meant to be the easy one, before we got to the interesting questions.
We got sixteen different answers, including:
- Head chef
- Performance chef
- Executive performance head chef
- Training ground head chef
- Players' performance chef
- Catering manager
- Chef
Same job. Same building.
Same responsibility for players worth tens of millions.
Sixteen different names for it.
Now look at everyone else in that same building.
Coaches, physios, doctors, psychologists, nutritionists.
Every one of them has a professional body. Every one has a qualification that takes years. Every one has a protected title you cannot use until you've earned it.
I can tell you exactly how to become a sports nutritionist. Degree, master's, probably a PhD after that.
It's long and it's hard, and it is completely clear.
Now tell me the route to becoming a performance chef.
There isn't one.
There's a food hygiene certificate, twenty-odd years of graft, and a lot of 'hoping someone notices.'
Here's why you should care about that...
- a title with no standard means there's no benchmark
- no benchmark means your work only counts if somebody happens to see it
So you can have two chefs, same title, same money.
- one is reading the training schedule before planning the menu
- one isn't
From the outside, nobody can tell them apart.
It also makes the role easy to cut.
Every other job in that performance team comes with a qualification attached and a clear answer to "what happens if we don't have one?"
Yours doesn't.
That isn't a reflection of the work. It's a reflection of the fact that nobody ever defined it.
And this isn't your fault. The industry grew faster than it built a way in.
When I walked into Leeds United in 2016, one woman was feeding a first team and an academy on £2000 a week, at a club whose top signing that season cost £50m.
Nine years later I was at Chelsea with thirty chefs in the building.
Nine years later I was at Chelsea with thirty chefs in the building.
The responsibility arrived. The training and support never followed.
So here's one thing to do this week, before anything changes.
Reply to me with your decisions, not your duties.
(I may feature them in the next newsletter, or across PCA media.)
Not "planned and delivered daily menus".
Try:
- The time you changed a plate because of the schedule
- The time you modified existing recipes to achieve a new goal
- The time you questioned a supplement someone handed you
- The time you pushed back on something that would have hurt a player
Most chefs I meet undersell themselves badly in interviews, because they've never put the judgement into words.
That list is the start of your own standard. Right now, it's the only one you've got.
See you next Monday,
Ness.
Elite Sport Nutrition · Culinary Excellence