This is what top Premier League footballers eat at home - as revealed by chef who cooks for them

A Michelin-star trained chef who cooks for top
Premier League stars in their home has lifted the lid
on what they love to eat.
Jonny Marsh, 26, counts Manchester City trio Kyle
Walker, Kevin De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan among
his clients and turns up at their homes to make them
dinner.
Working closely with City’s nutritionists, Jonny tailors
the meals to each player, hoping to improve their
performance on the pitch and recovery when they’re
at home.
He spoke to the Manchester Evening News about
what he cooks for them - and you might be surprised.
“They want things like shepherd’s pie. They’re really
down to earth,” Jonny said.
Walker loves homely food, De Bruyne is into spicy
tastes and ‘Ilkay loves an obscene amount of garlic’,
he joked.
“I try to think a bit outside the box, but make it so it’s
still homely,” he added.
Of course, this isn’t your usual, fatty Shepherd’s Pie.
Jonny uses carrot or swede mash and turkey mince to
‘keep it super clean and lean’.
He whips up everything from healthy katsu curries to
barbecue pulled chicken tacos and one pot wonders.
Creating daily individual menus, Jonny drops off food
twice a week to De Bruyne and his family, and he
cooks in Gundogan and Walker’s kitchens almost
every night.
Despite working in the stars’ palatial pads, Jonny says
it couldn’t be more normal.
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“I go over, Ilkay probably has his music blasting,
chilling on his phone and asks me what he’s having
for tea. I take that worry and hassle off them.
Everything is done for them,” said Jonny.
Gundogan’s knee injury suffered against Watford last
season means the midfielder is watching his weight.
“He’s a foodie, he loves eating”, the chef says. “He’s
been brought up in that Turkish environment where
everything’s about food.”
To aid the player’s recovery, Jonny has been feeding
him an abundance of ginger, garlic and turmeric, as
they contain healing properties.
The chef says he allows Gundogan a few carbs, like
sweet potato, or broccoli with cous cous, to keep his
weight in check.
Jonny says he can’t take all the credit, but De Bruyne
is ‘arguably at the fittest he’s ever been’, and there’s
been a big difference in the player’s body fat since
the pair began working together 11 months ago.
The young chef believes the secret to his success is
the use of Michelin-star techniques to create tasty,
low-fat meals, such as cooking all meat with a sous-
vide water bath - a process in which food is vacuum-
sealed in a plastic pouch and placed in a hot water
bath.
Jonny's dishes include:
He says this method locks in all nutritional value,
keeps the meat succulent and eliminates
contamination risks.
Turning his back on one Michelin-star technique
however, Jonny uses zero oil in his cooking and
trades it for ingredients like lemon juice and soy
sauce to create dressings.
The 26-year-old began his career working for free at
the now defunct Le Petit Blanc, when world famous
Michelin-star chef Raymond Blanc walked in.
After two days of observation, Blanc offered Jonny a
prestigious apprenticeship at his two Michelin-starred
restaurant, Le Manoir Aux Quat’Saisons in Oxfordshire.
The budding chef was not only the youngest person
to have ever done the apprenticeship, but the only
person to have been offered it without applying.
“I was 16, doing my GCSEs earning £25 a day. I
thought I was balling,” he chuckled.
“But I was so, so young. I never had a goal to be a
Michelin star chef but it gave me the training I
needed,” he added.
After leaving Le Manoir, Jonny set-up pop-up
restaurants and began working with a photographer
friend who had a blog.
Jonny’s cooking content garnered almost 30,000
views on YouTube in just four days, catching the eye
of Borra Garson - the woman who discovered Jamie
Oliver - which led to a YouTube series.
Despite this, Jonny couldn’t catch his break: “I kept
being told you can do it but you’re too young. You
don’t have that edge,” he said.
Ready to give up, he began working on a millionaire’s
luxury yacht, found his passion in private chefing and
set-up the business Aurora Food Ltd.
“I was coming home after a 16 hour day, staying up
all night sending out my CV and videos for over six
months.
“One day, I got a call from a player liaison officer at
City who said Kevin De Bruyne wants his Christmas
holidays doing,” said Jonny.
The City midfielder then hired him full-time, with
Walker and Gundogan signing-up a few months later.
How do you simultaneously juggle three world-class
players’ needs? “Organisational skills, focus and a
high level of training. That’s my edge,” he said.
The chef, who lives in Hale, Cheshire, gives the
players detailed explanations of all dishes, including
ingredients and their benefits in order to provide a
first class experience - even if it’s a simple, home-
cooked meal.
“I want to bring restaurant standards and quality to
them. They feel comfortable, they know what they’re
eating and know what to expect,” he added.
When asked if any of the global superstars have been
divas, he said: “I think I’ve got the three most easy
going football players ever.”
With talks underway to take on even more players and
a potential cook book on the cards, the footie chef is
certainly on his way up.

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