England fast bowler Tom Curran on what he’d eat for his last meal
England international Tom Curran, currently playing in the Hundred, picks out the dishes he’d eat for his last supper on earth, from an entire breakfast to a gooey chocolate fondant.
I grew up from the age of six in Zimbabwe so we ate a lot of meat and spent a lot of time cooking on the barbecue. It was all quite simple but delicious food: chicken, veggies, nice salads, that sort of thing. My mum and dad would both do a bit of cooking – they can make a mean soup too, like a minestrone with all those beautiful goodies at the bottom.
That carried through a bit into adulthood. I’m not exactly Michelin leven but I’m a pretty decent cook and I can turn my hand to quite a few of dishes. I still cook a lot of meat and I think my roast is pretty unbeatable. I did an event for the charity Chance to Shine, called Chance to Dine, where different people cooked each course of a meal – mine was the roast. I have a few other dishes in the locker, too – I make some decent pasta, some nice salads. The staples, you know, but done well. Nothing too fancy.
What I like most is eating out, though. I’m playing the Hundred at the moment and we tend to eat out quite a lot as a team. I’m lucky that I don’t have to watch my calorie intake too much so I can just enjoy the food. I still like to eat healthily but I don’t have to stress about it too much. Even when I’m at home I like to eat out a lot. Going out for breakfast is my big thing and I do it whenever I can. I’m also massively into coffee – so much so I have my own coffee brand Naked Ground. I really got into that world when I was touring in Australia, where they take coffee really seriously. It’s not just the difference in quality, I fell in love with the whole culture around it. So I opened my own cafe and we started developing our own products and just grew it from there.
My last supper, then, is going to start with one of my own Naked Ground espressos – I’ll have to really savour it if it’s going to be my last one because it’s brilliant.
For my starter I’m going to have an entire breakfast: some nice seeded sourdough bread with smashed avo, made with a bit of lemon vinegar, and with a bit of pomegranate and feta in it. You’re going to have to very generously load it up. On the side you can stick on some halloumi, sausage, bacon, all those goodies. It’s the kind of breakfast they do really well in Sydney, although I’ll bring in some Burford Brown eggs to get that lovely dark orange yolk.
After that – and some more coffee – I’d have a selection of Japanese dishes, tapas style: sea bass ceviche, tuna tartare, the whole shebang. I’d get this made by Chotto Matte, this Japanese-Peruvian restaurant that I first went to for a birthday meal about six years ago and just loved.
I’ll probably take another break here as this is a lot of food, but I’d finish things off with a chocolate fondant, all gooey and warm inside, served with vanilla ice cream. I like to keep things simple with desserts and this is as good as they come as far as I’m concerned.
To drink I’ll get a bottle of white wine to go with the fish then a selection of cocktails to have with the dessert. By this point I’d be half asleep anyway I reckon so hopefully whatever comes next would happen when I was already out for the count. You’ve made me really hungry – I’m off to find something to eat!
• Tom Curran is currently playing in the Hundred. For more information on his coffee brand Naked Ground go to nakedground.coffee