Stadium food
26:28 Share

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.

World of Secrets is where untold stories are exposed. And in this new series, we investigate the dark side of the wellness industry, following the story of a woman who joined a yoga school only to uncover a world she never expected. I feel that I have no other choice. The only thing I can do is to speak about this. Where the hope of spiritual breakthroughs leaves people vulnerable to exploitation. You just get sucked in spiritually.

so gradually and it's done so skillfully that you don't realise.

Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest. Life comes at you fast, which is why it's important to find some time to relax. A little you time. Enter Chumba Casino. With no download required, you can jump on anytime, anywhere for the chance to redeem some serious prizes. So treat yourself with Chumba Casino and play over 100 online casino-style games all...

For free, go to ChumbaCasino.com to collect your free welcome bonus. Sponsored by Chumba Casino. No purchase necessary. VGW Group. Void where prohibited by law. 18 plus terms and conditions apply. On a cold, wintry night in the northwest of England, Altrincham Football Club are hosting Stoke City Under-21s.

We're not here for the football, though. We're here for the food. I must say, that looks good. What is it? It's very, very good. It's...

Meat, potato pie, chips and I think it's a chicken makhani sauce. It's very, very nice. This is The Food Chain from the BBC World Service with me, Ruth Alexander. And this week we're looking at the business, culture and future of food at sports stadiums around the world. And you're washing it down with a pint of lager? Yeah. Lovely. So you're obviously here for the football big time, but how important is the food offer as well? Um...

To be honest, it's one of them where I'm probably going to eat it either way. I go to away games quite a lot with Alty. And to be honest, I'll probably have whatever's on offer. When I come here, I always come in the fan zone because you can get this. And it's really nice. And it puts money in the coffers of the club at the end of the day.

Football clubs are not generally known for their fine fare, though. In fact, one fan was so unimpressed after following his beloved Northern English team, Doncaster Rovers, around the country that he wrote a book about it. In The Great Pie Revolt, Jack Peat advises readers to steer clear of food at the grounds and gives tips about where else you can eat before a match.

You always have this scene, which is a sort of plastic counter. You've got a hot plate on top of it with the most beige food you can possibly imagine, pies, sausage rolls. And then you've got a hot drinks counter, Bovril, tea, coffee. Bovril is a form of gravy, which...

I don't know if anyone drinks anymore, but it's always there. And then you might get the odd beer out of a plastic cup that's got nothing to do with that place. It's sort of like brewed centrally somewhere. It's all generally served around this busy counter and it's quite a bland and beige affair, really. Was it always like this?

Where pies specifically became synonymous with football is through a brand called Pucker Pies, which you are likely now to find at most grounds. So they first served their pies in Rotherham in the 1970s. And since then, they've effectively been rolled out in most grounds. And so really, you could say, certainly dating back to the 70s, the food and drink offering at football stadiums

was standardised. And I think that the standardisation of food and drink at football matches is the problem. So your book then is a guide for the football fan to decent food offerings close to the stadium. Yeah. So they can get to the town or the city early, get some good food and then go to the game. So what are some of the food highlights? Oh,

One of the wonderful things is that there were so many, really. I can remember days out at Plymouth where you go to this guy who's serving Cornish pasties from the back of a van and he puts a pasty in your hand and it drops. You know, it's really weighty, sort of like pre-match meal. Equally, I can remember going up to Rochdale and going to a chippy fish and chip shop and you order this thing called a rag pudding, which is suet pastry full of meat and gravy and it sits on top of a pile of chips.

and then you open it up and it just spills all over the chips. And, you know, you've got to remember, these are football fans we have in mind. We've got people out there who are just looking for a bit of stod, something to warm them up on a cold Saturday afternoon. So you're not against beige food as such, pastry, pies. It's just, it's got to be good. The filling's got to be good, you're saying? Yeah.

Yeah, so the book is written with a football fan in mind. So, you know, it won't surprise you that there's no Michelin star restaurants in there, you know. First of all, provenance was important. So a rag pudding is local to that part of the world. And so that's important, but it's going to be good as well. If you go to Wigan, the pies are there and not the same as anywhere else. They're absolutely fantastic. In Hull, you have in chip shop,

these patties that are effectively, it's a cheap way of making fish and chips. So rather than having the fish, you have this sort of potato combination with a bit of sage and they're really, really nice. The flavour comes through the herbs and the fact that, you know, everyone knows that things taste better fried in the north.

Every club to a tee, you could find something like that, where it really opened up this vast tapestry of gastronomic heritage that Britain has, which I think football fans are in a very unique position to explore because one week you're in Stockport, the next week you're in Hull. And who else does that?

It has to be said, though, at Altrincham Football Club, we did find a number of satisfied customers who'd purchased food within the grounds. May I ask what was in there? It was chicken curry and rice. And how was it? It was really nice, really tasty, yeah. How important is it for you that when you come to a game that you eat as well?

I think it's quite important because obviously it fills you up, it gives you that energy for the football game as well and it just puts you in a good mood. And how about you? I see you're nursing a pint of lager there. Have you eaten tonight? Yeah, I've just had one of the hot dogs there so it was good. But the

Food's important, it sets the day, and so you can think, oh, go there, have a few pints, a bit of food, and watch your football team hopefully win. All part of the entertainment. Yeah, exactly. If you don't want to watch a rubbish match but then also get a rubbish meal, I've seen some awful games here, but then I thought, oh, got a decent bit of food at least, so it's not a completely wasted day.

The people I was talking to were sitting in a relatively new area of the club's grounds, a space reserved just for home fans, where you can sit down with your food and drink and watch the game on a screen. I met one of the club's directors there, John Coyne, who told me it was all part of a concerted effort to improve the club's food offer and finances.

This is a fan zone, so this is a completely different option of foods for us. So rather than your traditional pies, pasties, chips, peas, gravy, burgers, hot dogs, we've kind of gone down a different route. You can still get some of that over here, but it's mainly things like street food vendors. So at the minute we've got a curry bar.

which I think is on tonight, looking like it, but different things like nachos. We know we compete for spend against local establishments, whether that's through restaurants, pubs, cafes. People have got a choice of where to spend their money, so when we can get them through the gate, that secondary spend is all important to us. But also recently we've been working with, and I don't think many clubs do this, I think we're quite unique, but...

but we've been working with local producers, so local farms, and running special campaigns, whether that's a gourmet burger, which we did last week against York City. Why do you think food is a key thing to concentrate on? I suppose for most clubs, certainly at our level, it's that secondary spend is so important. You have to think of ways of increasing that secondary spend, whether it's through kiosks that supply food or matchday programmes. Whatever it is, you need to tap into that secondary spend because...

It's what might give you the competitive edge. It sounds quite crude, but that's what we're here to do, generate more revenue, which ultimately then allows you to invest on the pitch. And if you've got better players, then you've got a bigger chance of promotion. So if your supporters are eating well and spending well, crucially, then that will help your players play well?

You would hope so, yeah. I mean, it sounds quite simple football, doesn't it? But I think the idea is, yeah, if we can generate more revenue and we can buy, you know, we can invest in the team, then absolutely we're looking to keep pushing forward and

the challenge will always remain even at Premier League level I'm sure clubs rely on that secondary spend as well but less so when they get the TV revenues that they get whereas we get obviously a lot less than that in terms of central distribution of money You could have a slogan like support your club eat a pie Absolutely yeah we could try something

John wouldn't be drawn on exactly how much money food and drink sales bring into the club's coffers, but he said it does represent a noteworthy contribution to overall turnover. A fact Jack Peat says more clubs should pay attention to. And this is a key point which I'm astonished football teams have missed up till now. Now, the non-league actually are trailblazers with this and they're doing it really well. But I would add one club that's recently opened a stadium, which is Tottenham Hotspur.

And I spoke to the catering manager there and he said the thing that we were really thinking about when we built that stadium, and this is obviously influenced by the NFL where they host NFL games. NFL? This is American football. So NFL is all about the things that you do around the game. So the things that you drink and the things that you eat as well as the sport. And Tottenham Hotspur's ground now is...

completely designed around that. It's got a brewery in the ground. It's got a bakery in the ground. You've got Thai food. If you go to a pie store, there's 10, 15 local pies. And the whole reason for doing that is that if a fan is going to pay X amount for a match ticket, why don't we try and make them spend at least as much on food and drink? We want to get them in two hours before a game and two hours after. Now, if you're going to do that, you have to make it good. Otherwise, why would you bother? You would go and search out for all these other places.

And I think Spurs, from a Premier League perspective, are complete trailblazers in this. But they're sort of following in the lead of teams like Ultraman, who have sort of said, this is actually something that we need to do to generate cash and get people through the door. Are you optimistic that stadium food could improve in the UK?

Yeah, because I think it always will come down to brass tacks, the bottom line. I think when people realise that there's a financial incentive to put on really good food, that will drive the change. I've been trying to work out, are you a football fan who likes food or a food fan who likes football? Oh, no.

I think it might be 50-50, but if I was not to do the politicians thing and give you an answer one way or another, I think it actually might tip in favour of the food. Do the two have to go hand in hand, football and food? Is it just inconceivable that you could watch a football game without food and drink? Yes. Yes, absolutely. Jack Peat, you're listening to The Food Chain from the BBC World Service.

World of Secrets is where untold stories are exposed. And in this new series, we investigate the dark side of the wellness industry, following the story of a woman who joined a yoga school only to uncover a world she never expected. I feel that I have no other choice. The only thing I can do is to speak about this. Where the hope of spiritual breakthroughs leaves people vulnerable to exploitation. You just get sucked into

so gradually and it's done so skillfully that you don't realise.

No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited by law. See terms and conditions 18+.

I'm Ruth Alexander, and this week we're focusing on food at sports stadiums. In South Africa, the football fan can look forward to a meat feast straight off the grill. Here's sports journalist Mo Ali in Cape Town. Soccer is supported mainly by the African majority, particularly in the northern provinces like Gauteng, Limpopo and Mpumalanga. And at games, one can be sure to catch the signature aroma of the Sishan Yama outside the stadiums.

Now, Sishinyama is the Zulu term for large pieces of marinated meat that are cooked over hot coals. On the side, there's some spicy vegetable relish coupled with some cooked solid white maize meal. And these are placed together in a polystyrene container.

Shisanyamas are normally sold by older females known as gogos, an African language for grandmothers, for whom a big match day provides a valuable source of income.

For rugby fans around the country, the drill is different. They normally arrive a few hours before kickoff to enjoy a barbecue or a braai as it's known locally, accompanied by copious amounts of their favorite liquid refreshments.

These fans would normally gather on an open field close to the venue where one can not only experience the characteristic smell of the scorched meat, but also the white smoke wafting in the air can also be seen from a distance.

The open-air grill party is an absolute mainstay of American football culture too. All you need is a car or truck with the boot open or the tailgate down, some beer, some food, and you're good to go, as Ben Derrico reports from California. If you're hearing this sound, you've made it to the right place, the tailgate.

In a parking lot a couple hundred meters away from the stadium, a crowd has gathered around the backs of their cars. Most have coolers and grills set up in their parking spots as well. There's not a clear consensus on exactly when this tradition started in America, but some historians have pointed to an American football match between two universities, Rutgers and Princeton, in 1869.

Others have put it even earlier, saying Americans from the North and South laid out picnics on hillsides during the Civil War, watching and eating as the battles raged on below. Either way, most people seem to be in agreement that this pastime really took off in post-war America with the increasing popularity of private vehicles. Over the next 40 to 50 years, as sports gained bigger audiences on TV, the parties surrounding the games got larger as well.

Today, the modern tailgate has evolved quite a bit. Outside both professional and college American football matches, small cities pop up each week as thousands of fans set up their own elaborate outdoor kitchens, sometimes complete with seating and even TVs to watch the game. Today, I'm visiting the tailgate at a match just outside San Francisco between the University of California, known simply as Cal, and the University of Miami. People are having beers, chatting, and seem to be having a good time.

The biggest group here on campus has gathered around Mike and Dave, who have been throwing hot dogs on buns straight from the grill since I got here. Him and I were roommates at Cal. Yeah, we were. Long-suffering Bear fans. We're so excited for the game tonight. And we are all eating Top Dogs, which is kind of a local delicacy here. I put it in my mouth.

For someone who's never been to the United States and never attended a tailgate, can you just describe what a tailgate is? More alcohol than not. Always something on the grill. In this case, it's Top Dogs. It's getting together, visiting, playing music, and seeing people you haven't seen for maybe 20 years. It's great fun. And how long have you been doing this tailgate here?

40 years. More than 40 years. A bit further down the road, there's another group huddled on a small grass field. They've got music blasting and there's kids playing nearby. I see a man in a bright yellow shirt with Cal written in block letters across the front of it. He and his wife are in front of a massive spread. I ask him what they've been cooking up. We initially started with like Calbee beef.

Calbee beef ribs. You know, people brought samosas. So, like, it's definitely like a mix. It's a fusion of foods from, like, not just American food, but, like, Indian food, Asian food. We don't have any Mexican food today per se, but sometimes we'll bring some carne asada, you know, some queso fresco. This particular tailgate that we had come to for years is Brandon's Burgers.

I see Brandon on the other side of the field tending to his grill, so I decide to head over and ask him about these burgers. So these burgers I've been making for 20 years.

The meat has a bunch of different spices. There's onions, garlic, peppers. There's a bottle of beer in it. There's soy sauce, sriracha, all kinds of stuff in the meat. The aioli that goes with them is the kicker. Wow, you got like a gourmet tailgate here. Yeah, yeah.

Sometimes we do ribs. Often there's a nice big fry tip. We mix it up, but it's always food that we all prepare. This is a pretty big point of contention in the tailgating community. Should the tailgate be about the eating or the cooking? Some fans like Brandon only bring food they've prepared ahead of time or will make there. Others, though, grab food and enjoy pizzas or store-bought snacks.

What most people here seem to agree on, though, is the most important thing about the tailgate is the people you spend it with. It's every football season, it's a chance to see a lot of friends that I haven't seen for the previous eight months after the season ends. So it gets us all together. We come around and eat good food. Is that what it is? Do you think it's more about community, camaraderie? Absolutely, absolutely, yeah. I mean, I'm really big on just like...

getting my friends together and just like having a good time with them. We every every year we always say we're going to make it into before kickoff of some game and it never happens. We're always here late. That's another odd quirk of the tailgate. Oftentimes people will stay grilling even after the game has started. Maybe they have tickets. Maybe they don't. Either way, you're always welcome in the tailgate.

And I can almost smell it from here. Sounds wonderful. That was Ben Derrico reporting in California. I was also struck by the sense of community and good vibes around the food at the Altrincham game I went to. Inside the hall where home and away fans can mingle, there's traditional football food for sale. Hot dogs, pies, chips, served up by three cheerful volunteers, Clodagh, Rachel and Madison.

It is volunteering, however at half time it does get quite hectic. Yeah, it does. Most people come from outside into us and the queue is right outside the door and we've got to get through it quick before the end of the half time. How long does half time last? 15 minutes. Gosh, that's not long. No, and you have to get through everyone in that time and it's very fast-paced. So what's the number one thing people order?

I think burgers today. Burgers today are my favourite. And pies. I'd actually go controversial. On a cold day, a hot chocolate or a coffee or two. People like the warmth of it, especially when it's cold out. A lot of people have said to us that, of course they come here for the football, but actually they're here for the food as well and it's all part of the experience. Do you ever have that feeling that you are helping complete someone's evening or afternoon?

Yeah, when you see the smells on people's faces when they get the food, it's rewarding. Is that true? Yeah. Yeah, people do get quite excited about... Especially, like, the sweets. Some people just get dragged, like, the little kids get dragged and they just want the sweets and then when they finally get them at the end of the match, they're buzzing. Yeah, yeah, we get happy customers. I can't wait to watch you all in action, actually. 220 as well. And it wasn't long before the early bird customers started queuing up.

Oh, it's hotting up in here. Almost half time. Sorry. Thank you. Excuse me. So I see you are, it's not yet half time, but here you are near the front of the food queue. Yeah. Good tactics, I say. Yeah. What are you going to be ordering? Some chips. I honestly think it's probably like the main reason that I come here like,

The chips here are something different and like, so you're here not for the football, you're here for the chips? 100% I like the fact you're honest about that Yeah How about you? Are you here for the football or the food? I am here for the football, live or die for the footy

100%. And the food's just a good bonus? The food's just a bonus, you know what I mean? Like, who doesn't love a good chips with a foyer? Right. Now it's halftime and everyone's streaming through the door and the queue is snaking around us. Oh, hello. Is it a key part of the experience, the food? It is a good part of it, yeah. Especially when you go to away matches, you want to try their pies or see what's on offer.

And what food do you like here? Sausage roll. Sausage roll. Good choice. Chips and gravy, please, and three hot chocolates. Well, the girls are working fast behind the hatch here, but they've got their work cut out for them. The queue is all snakes around the room. How long have they got? They've probably only got five minutes to go. Pressure. Two hot chocolate, please.

Being a sports fan can be very hungry work. As Kunwai Khuldun Shahid in Pakistan can attest, he's a political journalist and a big cricket fan.

Of course, I've lived all my life in Pakistan. There's no other choice but to be a big cricket fan. When you're born in Pakistan, sometimes you feel that you actually have memories of cricket games that took place before you were born because they were being played on TV everywhere. But yeah, I mean, I think my first time I was in a cricket stadium was around maybe I was five, six years old.

Now, thankfully, cricket is back in Pakistan. You know, there was a gap going to security concerns. There wasn't a lot of cricket, at least international cricket, going on. Right now, definitely multiple times a year. And when you're at a match, what are you eating? I usually have a lot of biryani. It's not the typical,

sports food, so to speak, but you wouldn't find a game in Pakistan anywhere from the northwest to the southmost city in Karachi that will not have biryani or a variation of biryani. So biryani is something I usually have. Then there are variations of naan kebab. It doesn't have to be a meat kebab. It could be a shami kebab as well. There's that. And there's a lot of snacks. There's

Dal, dry dal is there. It's just, and you add some lemon on top of it. That's a nice snack at cricket games as well. It sounds like an absolute feast at a cricket game. Yeah. Tell me a bit more about

Like for those who haven't tried it before, what is it and why will you find it every single Pakistani cricket game going? The origin of biryani goes back to the Mughal Empire that ruled over the Indian subcontinent. We can talk about biryani for the next few hours, but briefly, it's a mixture of curry and rice. In Pakistan, it always has meat. But in India, you'll find a lot of varieties that don't have meat. And in India, it's a mixture of curry and rice.

And the meat could be chicken, could be, in Pakistan you would have beef as well, you would have lamb and mutton as well. And why do we have biryani at the cricket games? Our idea of any entertainment is that there has to be a proper meal with that entertainment as well. So every single enclosure would have a biryani stall. And that's where you'd be and everyone would be enjoying the biryani and enjoying the cricket games.

Is it always up to scratch? Is it always as good as a biryani you might make at home? That's to each individual's taste. I'm based in Lahore. People from Karachi might argue that people in Lahore actually don't know how to make biryani. So it doesn't matter where you have it. It's not going to be good enough. I think people from Karachi are very possessive about it. Karachi is supposed to be the biryani capital, not just of Pakistan, but some would argue of the region as well. I

I mean, I would concede they have the best biryani. You can't help it. But Karachi has the best biryani. And it's spicier. It has more masala. It's...

what you would call the authentic biryani. I wonder if there's like a technique to eating it and keeping your eye on the game without making too much of a mess. I think the ideal technique is, and you would know, I'm sure you follow a lot of cricket as well, when a fast bowler is bowling and has a wrong run up and Pakistani fast bowlers have long run ups, so you wait till the delivery is done and you have quite a few times till the next delivery is bowled, you can perhaps put two, three spoonfuls of biryani during that time. So that's the ideal technique.

And as you say, biryani is popular across the Indian subcontinent. Is it a point of rivalry with other nations or a point of connection? Definitely. There's a huge rivalry, India-Pakistan rivalry. I mean, of course, once you have the nuclear rivalry, so the biryani rivalry actually pales in front of the fact that there's mutually assured destruction at stake. But it's still quite, the rivalry is quite passionate. For instance,

the Hyderabadi biryani. Indians argue that the Hyderabadi biryani is the best biryani in the world. And to be honest, I've had the Hyderabadi biryani and I mean, they have a case. I probably won't concede it on record. It's like that would be treasonous for a Pakistani to admit that Indian biryani is better. But if I were, you know, of some other nationality, I might have admitted that. Kunwar Khuldun Shahid in Lahore.

Back in Altrincham, half time's over. All that remains is for Clodagh, Rachel and Madison to sell off the few leftover items of food. Powder pie! Rachel's got powder pie! Two? Oh, wait, is it two or one? One pound for a hot dog or cheese and onion pasty! And for producer Hannah Bewley and I to grab something before it all goes. What do you have last? We have chips and a hot dog. Lovely. Chips and a hot dog for you, Hannah? I'll just

Hardly gourmet, but it did hit the spot. Thanks to everyone we spoke to for today's programme and well done to Altrincham, who won 4-1. What's the food like at your team's stadium? Do let us know and send us a photo if you have it. Our email is thefoodchain at bbc.co.uk. From me and the rest of the team, Hannah Bewley and Beatrice Pickup, thanks for listening and join us again next week. When you're young, it feels like anything is possible.

Rebellion.

Risk and the radical power of youth. Being young, maybe she didn't think too much. She thought, right, I'll just do it. She thought about others rather than herself. 12 stories of extraordinary young people from across history. There's a real sense of urgency in them. That resistance has to be mounted, it has to be mounted now. Including a young man called Nelson Mandela.

A firebrand who led the defiance campaign against apartheid. Break segregation laws, ignore curfews, enter the door for white people at the post office, stand on the white side of the platform at the train station, and it's decided that black people are going to do this en masse. And Lakshmi Bhai, the Rani of Jhansi.

India's warrior queen. She was a small woman, leading her troops astride a horse, sword in each hand, taking on the might of the entire British Empire. History is lit up by young people who act on instinct and stick to their principles.

Like Julian of Norwich, one of the first women to write in the English language. A trailblazer, but at a cost. Why would somebody choose to have themselves blocked up into a tiny little cell with limited contact with the outside world, out of choice? And Lady Jane Grey, queen for nine days, who refused to give up her faith and chose to face the executioner's axe. You have someone who is...

knowingly risking death and then ultimately knowingly taking death because there is something that matters more to them than their life itself. And that's a fundamentally heroic position. These are tales of saints, athletes, Hollywood superstars and pioneers. Some heroes are household names. Some have been all but forgotten.

like Vasily Arkhipov, a Soviet naval officer whose extraordinary courage helped save the world from nuclear catastrophe. Well, sticking to your guns on that submarine in that heat, that take guts. That really takes guts. History made by young people. Follow History's Youngest Heroes wherever you get your podcasts.

Ryan Seacrest here.

So hop on to ChumbaCasino.com now and live the Chumba life. Sponsored by Chumba Casino. No purchase necessary. VGW Group. Void where prohibited by law. 18 plus terms and conditions apply.