Meet Daniel Davey: The sports nutritionist making food for fuel taste good

The first thing Daniel Davey admits to is not being a chef. The performance nutritionist, who has worked with some of Ireland’s most successful athletes, won’t be opening a fancy restaurant anytime soon, nor look to win any critics awards — which is fine because that’s never been part of his pitch. It certainly wasn’t on the blurb for his first cookbook Eat Up: Raise Your Game, a publishing hit in 2020 that spent 28 weeks in the top 10 non-fiction best-seller list, and eight weeks at number one.

When Davey later tells me he worked on the new follow-up book, Eat Up: The Next Level during the most difficult time of his life, there’s clearly another motivation, or inspiration. The Next Level is dedicated his father Peter Davey, who died following a terminal illness in October last year, aged 68.

“It [was] a very reflective and emotional period, when Dad got sick,” he says. “I’d already committed to the book. In that reflective mode, you think back on all big things that shaped you and your thinking, and he had a huge impact on me. You only truly realise that when one of your parents has a terminal illness. I did a lot of the work while I was caring for him, when at home on the farm in Sligo, and feel quite proud that something like this has come out of all that. I’m not particularly religious, so also feel this is way of keeping alive his name and influence on his family and me.”

The other part of the book is getting people to cook, to take that responsibility for their nutrition ... I’m trying to make this as understandable and accessible to as many people as possible

The subtitle to The Next Level is “perform at your best physically and mentally every day”. The relatively sudden loss of his father had me wondering was this at odds with that aim, but no, Davey says, it only strengthens it.

“I’ve focused a lot in recent years on mindset and presence and mindfulness, that idea of living in the moment. Athletes and players talk a lot about that. My dad really lived that too, [he] would say things about just thinking about today, even when he was staring down the barrel of a terminal illness. That takes incredible mental fortitude and resilience ... No matter how well you live, you don’t know what’s coming around the corner. You just have to do the best you can possibly do with the life you’re living.”

In The Next Level, Davey again calls on his considerable experience in sports nutrition. After playing senior football with his own native Sligo, later winning an All-Ireland club football medal in 2016 with Ballyboden St Enda’s, he served as Performance Nutritionist with Leinster Rugby and the Dublin Senior Football team for a decade, during some of their most successful seasons, before stepping away this year to concentrate on his own nutrition business.

“I feel really privileged to have spent the last 10, 12 years in sport, and to have learned from some of the best coaches and players,” he says. By branching out into writing recipe books, he wants to highlight how eating for performance “is all accessible to you too, within your world.”

Daniel Davey: 'You need to have movement each day, you need to have predominantly nourishing foods in your diet.'

The first section of the book is “all about giving people that information to live healthy and perform better, and the extra levels in nutrition for performance, for recovery, injury, and immune support,” he says. “The other part is getting people to cook, to take that responsibility for their nutrition ... I’m trying to make this as understandable and accessible to as many people as possible.”

The book is nearly a third of the way through its 312 pages before the first recipes appear. They vary in complexity, from supercharged caramelised banana porridge, espresso smoothies and black pudding avocado toast for breakfast, to kimchi toasties for lunch, or a healthy chicken korma or chorizo beef burgers for dinner. They are divided not only into meals for different parts of the day, but higher carbohydrate recipes for exercise days, and lower carb for recovery days, in the sporting context or otherwise.

There are recipes to suit vegans and vegetarians, and those with intolerances. Most are simple to make, and will appeal to all the family, with plenty of healthy treats included too, like chocolate mousse made with almond milk and maple syrup, and peanut butter and banana cookies.

“I’m very up front about the fact I am not a chef. I’ve got that sporting background, but also a two-year-old who could eat any of these recipes,” Davey says.

As with all things in life, balance is key, he believes. “You need to have movement each day, you need to have predominantly nourishing foods in your diet, but of course there should always be room for dessert.”

Recipe: Bulgur wheat salmon

Recipe: Raspberry-roons

Eat Up: The Next Level is published by Gill