Athlete Meals the Day Before a Match 2025.3.22

3.22 (Sat) Preparing meals for the day before a match

I started making athlete meals in 2019.
Although I've finally reached a point where I can approach match-day meal preparation with a bit more calm, the hustle and bustle of the day before never really goes away.

On this day, I was cooking for two people in Tosu.
Since their serving times and available ingredients are different, there are quite a lot of steps involved... I'm always on the verge of tears right before the deadline.
As a result, I always end up handing over one player's meal without being able to take a photo...

【Menu】

・350g of salmon rice cooked in bone broth, topped with dried seaweed flakes
・Sakura shrimp, whitebait, and natto, 45g
・Marinated new onions
・Lightly pickled celery, 15g
・Bok choy soup with rice cakes and rice paper
・Strawberries and kiwi
・Warm vegetable salad
・Soy milk kinako banana smoothie
・100% buckwheat noodles with lemon dipping sauce (one player had a galette)
・Soft-steamed Mitsuse chicken
・Salt-grilled mackerel

Starting two days before a match, I switch to white rice.
Usually, I use sprouted brown rice.

This is Saga-grown 'Sagabiyori' rice cooked in a bone broth made from simmering bone-in chicken for four hours—a collagen-rich meal that seems really effective for tendons and muscles.
The ingredients for this day were yam, shiitake mushrooms, salmon, clams, and white leeks.

When I first started making athlete meals, I was taught that there were many ingredients you shouldn't use the day before, including leeks and mushrooms.
But there were just so many of them that I remember crying while cooking, thinking, 'Well, what am I supposed to use then?!'

For a few years, the act of cooking itself was becoming a source of stress, but recently I feel like I've been able to adjust my mindset and find a good balance between the menu and myself.

It is a prerequisite that everything must be served cooked, so I change my usual raw vegetable salad to warm vegetables the day before.

I make it a point to post the athlete meal of the day on my social media stories every day, but I have a personal rule not to post the meals for the day before a match.
I wait until I confirm the team announcement for the following day (match day).

Because the content of the meal changes for the day before a match,
if people knew which player I was cooking for,
there is a possibility that they could figure out who is playing and who isn't.
In years when there are many players, I might serve meals for those playing and regular meals for those who aren't.
I get messages like, 'Please make it the day-before version!' or 'I'll stick with the regular one!'

By the way, this year I am adjusting it according to the match schedule.

And this ↓
This dish, which looks highly suspicious...

Mixing 100% buckwheat noodles with dried seaweed...
Putting cheese in a frying pan and placing the noodles on top...
And then more cheese...
Once it's browned, it looks like an okonomiyaki or a galette.

I cut it up and tasted it with the staff.

Yeah. It has no flavor.

Of course it doesn't!

Because I didn't season it, I didn't put anything in it that would add flavor...
The other player is dairy-free, so this mysterious dish didn't make an appearance for him, and I just served him regular buckwheat noodles with a homemade dipping sauce.
So, I served it as if I had intended for him to dip it in the sauce from the start.

The next day, both of them were in the starting lineup.
Moreover, I received news that Mr. Nishikawa, who ate the mysterious buckwheat dish, scored a goal,
and I savored the joy while bustling about during lunch service.