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the cycling chef on the go - ride day recipes to fuel up, replenish and restore. alan murchison. bloomsbury hardback 192pp illus. £22

time was when mrs washingmachinepost was all but obsessed with tv cookery programmes, of which there was (and still is) an inexplicably large number. though evolution has brought them together on their own channels rather than leaving them as culinary punctuation to normal viewing, they have shown an admirable persistence. would that the cycle show had displayed a similar level of tenacity.

though my other half was courageously self-employed as a childminder at the time, she implied that there might be a few spare hours available to augment our usual victuals, whereupon i imagined arriving home to an impressive spread of comestibles. unfortunately, it transpired that, along with millions of others, the act of watching programmes about cooking rarely translated into actual cooking, in our actual house, utitlising our actual oven.

i, on the other hand, could burn corn flakes without deliberately trying; even boiling water was not safe from my ministrations. apparently, platefuls of charred botulism do not a happy menu make. and therein lies the fallacy of the following book review.

bearing in mind the above mentioned book was kindly supplied by bloomsbury sport well in advance of publication, the cunning plan had been to choose one or two of mr murchison's comprehensive recipes, acquire the listed ingredients, and produce remarkable similar foodstuffs to those pictured and described within the book's 192 pages. however, as the saying goes, 'the best laid plans...' i will not bore you with the intervening happenstances that prevented the plan from being anything close to cunning, but suffice it to say there remains a notable scarcity of ride day recipes within the croft.

author and chef, alan murchison is remarkably well-versed in his metiér, able to clearly explain the rationale behind the selection of recipes included within 'the cycling chef on the go'. disappointingly (for him, not you or me), i fear i may be the exception to the rule that possibly makes me the wrong person to review the book's core philosophy. for starters, though i leave home every sunday morning with at least 250ml of water in my 500ml 'lion of flanders' water bottle, flying in the face of pages of well-intentioned advice, i return home with those same millilitres untouched. additionally, even on rides of near 70km, not one of my three rear pockets contain any form of sustenance.

yet, according to mr murchison, "...to professional, club and weekend riders alike, portable foods are as essential as a pump and a spare tube." a logic with which it is hard to deny if you're not me. granted, i am in the well-documented habit of punctuating the saturday ride with a double-egg roll, while sunday features a cheese and tomato toastie. and even though both items are consumed while sat in debbie's café, i'm taking that as at least tacit adherence to the master plan. in this sense, perhaps we could classify debbie's as a substitute team car?

in my defence, i harbour no illusions that my weekly cycling activities constitute anything close to the act of training, but if i'm brutally honest, mr murchison appears to suggest that the essential nature of on-the-bike feeding is applicable to all who turn a pedal in anger (or perhaps with simply an observable degree of earnestness).

the author's credentials are, however, impeccable: "These recipes are based around dishes I have created as a performance chef to leading teams and elite riders around the world." given the level of attention paid to the nutritional requirements of the contemporary professional, i doubt mr murchison would have gained success in his chosen vocation, were he not exemplary in his knowledge and close attention to detail.

where the majority of us are demonstrably remiss, is likely in our approach to preparation, bringing us neatly to the book's second chapter, entitled, 'Preparation is everything'. as he rightly states, "The chances are you won't have a support vehicle driving by to hand you fresh water or feeding stations distributing provisions..." he therefore advises that we ought to pack our musettes or pockets in advance, and to pay heed as to what it is with which the latter are filled. i can only plead guilty to having ignored this stage of proceedings for longer than i care to admit.

mr murchison goes on to educate us as to how the body assimilates the nutrients (or lack of) that we may or may not consume in the heat of what constitutes our own personal battle. he carefully outlines that, while sugar, is sugar, is sugar, there is a difference in the way variations such as glucose and fructose (for example) absorbed by our soon to be, powerful physiques. it is significant that the author's grasp of the latest nutritional ideologies is, as far as i can observe, right up to date, advising as he does of appropriate means of training one's digestive system to absorb increased amounts of carbohydrate and proteins. the latter has been cited as the reason why each subsequent season provides ever-increasing race speeds (witness the average velocities seen in the 2024 editions of milan-sanremo, de ronde van vlaanderen and most recently, paris-roubaix).

there is a wide range of recipes on offer here, from simple rice cakes for instant gratification, to meals you might consume prior to or following training or a specific event. for the majority, acquiring the listed ingredients will not be a problem, but i confess that several are not only challenging for a hebridean island-based velocipedinist, but in certain cases, utterly unobtainable. though the nice people at portnahaven's orsay sea salt would be happy to provide sea salt flakes, try as i might, i failed to source ground cassia cinnamon bark. then of course, there is one's dietary considerations to be observed: i will have no truck with coconut, i'm not much of a chocolate enthusiast (harbouring a healthy disdain for the white variety and verging on being allergic to chocolate chips), and then there's vegetarianism.

items such as murch mochi japanese-style corn and coconut cake, snickerish slices, and fruit 'n' nutella bites do not, as they say, float my boat (though i should admit that i'm the only one i know who would rather ride on flat tyres than eat nutella). however, adapting my day-to-day as per mr murchison's exemplary guidance, i fully intend to create (or die in the attempt) as many of the included recipes as time, availability and dietary preference allows.

this is perhaps a perfect example of "do as i say, and not as i do", whereby i implore you to acquire this book and raid as many recipes as you can. the narrative is impeccable; do not emulate my laissez faire attitude - eschew the double-egg rolls and toasties in favour of cherry, coconut and white choc energy bars, chocolate cherry pancake rolls, or ham, parmesan and feta rice cakes. that said, the minute our local averagemarket receives stock of sweet potatoes and i find out what the heck harissa paste is, i'm making vast quantities of sweet potato 'tattie' scones.

and though, from time immemorial, we have been advised not to judge a book by its cover, emil dacanay and sian rance are to be roundly congratulated for the cover design and page layout of a book that i'd have happily purchased for those aspects alone.

the cycling chef on the go by alan murchison, is published by bloomsbury sport on thursday 11 april.

wednesday 10 april 2024