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Amazon to produce Tour De France series focusing on work of Orica-Scott chef Hannah Grant

Grant is the author of The Grand Tour Cookbook

Amazon has announced that it is to produce a series about Orica-Scott chef Hannah Grant’s endeavours during this year’s Tour de France. The series, which will be available for streaming via Prime Video, will focus on the various riders and the food that keeps them going.

The author of The Grand Tour Cookbook, Grant has been a Tour de France chef for six years, originally with Tinkoff-Saxo before switching to Orica-Scott this year.

The still-unnamed documentary series – which will be available later this year or early next year – is based on her book and follows her as she feeds the team’s nine riders for three weeks from a food truck.

She recently told Esquire that her early days in the sport, trying to introduce whole-food, healthy cooking, were a major shock for some of the riders.

“They were used to white pasta, ketchup, and grilled chicken every single day. They were like, "Where's the ketchup? What the fuck is this brown rice? What is this quinoa thing?"

Video trailer: Orica-Scott documentary set to hit cinema screens

However, the Dane says that her food is not just fuel for the riders. “It can be anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory. You can speed up recovery or kick down beginning colds and small illness. There's a lot you can do with food without the riders feeling like they're eating something super healthy and hippy-style.”

Amazon has described the series as an “unprecedented intersection of sports, travel, and food.”

Although she says her job is at times “like having nine kids from different countries,” she clearly relishes the challenge.

“It shouldn't be a punishment to eat right and fuel correctly,” she says. “The riders are people, too, they have minds and they have emotions, so there's a lot to take into consideration when cooking for a bunch of guys who are pushed to the max at all times.

“The visual part is very important. The comfort food part, of course, towards the end of the race. When they go halfway through the tour they start to lose their appetites, and you've got to keep them eating. It's about making it interesting. The variation is super important.”

She also believes that the riders’ diets are based around principles that can be applied by everyone. “Endurance athletes are very similar to the normal person—it's just an extreme version.”

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

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7 comments

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Dr. Ko | 6 years ago
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I guess I could stick with such cook book like Duck&Waffels, at least should work for the Belgian classics.yes And you can always modify, a cook book is nothing more like a rule book, with one trying to get out:

http://innercitymobility.blogspot.de/2017/08/icm-grand-tour-episode-10-holidays-in_19.html

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Jamminatrix | 6 years ago
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Ketchup with pasta and chicken? WTF?? What's the ketchup for? Chicken? (gross) Put on the pasta? (gross)

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dottigirl replied to Jamminatrix | 6 years ago
1 like

Jamminatrix wrote:

Ketchup with pasta and chicken? WTF?? What's the ketchup for? Chicken? (gross) Put on the pasta? (gross)

I made a lovely rich macaroni cheese for someone once. Whole milk, brown flour, lots of mature cheese in the sauce, onions to flavour the (gluten-free) pasta, served with lovely buttery mash with carrot. 

Without even tasting it, she proceeded to empty half bottle of ketchup across it. surprise

Suffice to say, I didn't bother cooking for her again.

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Nick T | 6 years ago
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In 2011 when she first started, cyclists didn't understand nutrition properly, is that right? Because I thought the whole Allen Lim thing was going on way before that 

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turboprannet replied to Nick T | 6 years ago
4 likes

Nick T wrote:

In 2011 when she first started, cyclists didn't understand nutrition properly, is that right? Because I thought the whole Allen Lim thing was going on way before that 

every few years someone comes along and says everything before it was caveman-tier dimwittery and how awesome they are. It's PR. 

 

See: Team Sky

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dottigirl replied to Nick T | 6 years ago
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Nick T wrote:

In 2011 when she first started, cyclists didn't understand nutrition properly, is that right? Because I thought the whole Allen Lim thing was going on way before that 

She's got a cleaner, more publicity-friendly image than Allen 'Doper's Friend' Lim though.

Avatar
Nick T replied to dottigirl | 6 years ago
1 like

dottigirl wrote:

Nick T wrote:

In 2011 when she first started, cyclists didn't understand nutrition properly, is that right? Because I thought the whole Allen Lim thing was going on way before that 

She's got a cleaner, more publicity-friendly image than Allen 'Doper's Friend' Lim though.

 

I would suggest that 5 years at Tinkoff with Riis, Contador, Basso et al does not a clean image make

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