Not much gets past James Haskell on the rugby pitch. Now he’s serving up his secrets on a plate. Fiona Adams enjoys some healthy conversation...
Rugby union player James Haskell is a back row to be reckoned with. Currently, at Northampton Saints and with more than 75 caps for England, he works hard, plays hard and takes great pride in keeping himself – all 6ft 4in and 118kg – in tip-top physical condition.
There’s no getting around the fact that he is big and imposing – when I meet him, back in the autumn, he towers over me by 13 whole inches – but he is charm and affability personified. Just a few weeks before his December wedding to fellow fitness guru Chloe Madeley, he is launching his latest book, Cooking for Fitness – co-authored with Omar Meziane, chef of the England national football team – at the quirky French restaurant L’Escargot, in Soho’s Greek Street.
Work commitments have kept Chloe away, but the party is a very friendly family affair, with James’s dad handing out Tequila cocktails at the door and his mum mingling with the guests – James even apologises to her for dropping a mild swear word. Chatter swirls around the room, while the new book’s recipes provide a feast of tasty food.
Born in 1985 in Windsor, James Andrew Welbon Haskell made his first forays into rugby at nearby Maidenhead RFC, before playing at Wellington College and enjoying stints with a number of clubs, including Wasps and Stade Français. He has also represented England’s various squads since he was 17.
In recent years, however, Haskell has become so much more than a rugby player, creating his very own brand – James Haskell Health and Fitness – with a website offering advice and training, books, a clothing range, his own publishing arm and TV channels. Throw in two decades of playing and training and it’s no surprise that he feels able to advise would-be athletes on what they should consume.
“Since the age of 14, I’ve worked with the best in the world in nutrition, health and fitness. I’ve put my body through it, I’ve lived it and I feel qualified enough to point people in the right direction,” he explains.
So how did he come to write a cookbook with the man who nourished the England football squad to the World Cup semi-finals last year?
“When I was at Wasps, Omar was cooking for us. We had terrible training facilities, and coming off a terrible pitch to eat his food was the highlight of my day. He’s had experience of feeding professional rugby players, Great British rowers and now the England football team. He knows how to make fuel for training that is also healthy.”
James’s previous training book, Perfect Fit, had included some recipes and reader response was positive.
“People found it really interesting and I decided to create a standalone cookbook with some really healthy recipes,” he explains.
“A lot of people have lost their way in understanding how to eat healthily. There’s a lot of nonsense written about what we should and shouldn’t be eating. I wanted to clear that up and show that whether you’re an amateur training or professional training, whether you want to build muscle or lose weight, you can get value out of your diet and enjoy it.”
His avowed intention of demystifying healthy eating is a theme that permeates the book, which contains chapters on the importance of nutrition, understanding macros – protein, carbohydrates and fat – and eating as an athlete, as well as on muscle gain and fat loss. There are also plenty of full-colour images to avoid confusion. It is, in the nicest possible way, healthy eating for dummies, I observe. Fortunately, given that he could squish me like a fly, James laughs.
“I started out as a young rugby player going on the internet, reading Men’s Health, trying to figure out what was and wasn’t healthy, experimenting with strange diets and stupid fads. It all got very complicated. What I wanted to do with this book was to say: ‘This is tried and tested; this is done with professionals; this is what we do at the top of the tree in terms of performance athletes.’
“People are always looking for quick fixes, always looking for weird and wonderful superfoods which will make all the difference, when all the stuff we already eat – put together in certain ways – has enough benefit for anyone. We trialled everything and made sure that every recipe could be adapted. So, if you say ‘I want to do low carb,’ or ‘I want to lose some fat,’ actually you could trade out a few ingredients to suit.”
As a self-styled “big, hairy rugby player, with a body off Baywatch and a face-off Crimewatch”, does James anticipate that the book’s appeal will extend to a female audience?
“I hope so!” he chuckles. “Especially as female health and fitness are in more of a muddle than the male variety, in terms of what advice is out there.
“My audience is 80% male, but across all my platforms and social media, I try to be inclusive of women and give them the best possible, no-nonsense information. Women don’t need to be treated differently from men.”
Music, no doubt, to legions of fit female ears.
More broadly, James is also becoming something of a role model to an upcoming generation. A part that he accepts with characteristic brio.
“I try to be very honest… about my approach to training, to my diet, about the fact that I swear, that I have good days and bad days, that I’m opinionated and that when I let my hair down, I let my hair down! But I hope that people can understand that I’ve not achieved anything without dedication and sacrifice and that there have been hard times along the way. I’m not the most talented in the world, but anything worth achieving in life is down to hard work. That’s what I try to put in.”
Unsurprisingly, given this ethic, James has no plans to retire as a player. Nor does he have much time for relaxation.
“I’m a workaholic,” he states emphatically. “I struggle to switch off. My day job is to be a professional rugby player and then I do music production and DJ in my spare time. I’m also opening a gym in Bath as part of the F45 franchise. Plus I do public speaking, fitness and motivational stuff, write books and record a weekly podcast. So I pretty much fill up my spare time with working!”
And with that he is off, laughing and mingling with the party guests busily digging into his healthy food with such relish.
Quite honestly I feel fitter just talking to him.
Visit: jameshaskell.com
