Visit to Switzerland

So I am still training overseas in Europe, it feels like a month has passed but actually only a week!

In the past week we have travelled to Singapore and taken a swimming workshop for the Australian School there, travelled to Milan and set up our base camp for a few days and recently just travelled to Lugano in Switzerland to spend a few days with a coaching legend of swimming.

Genardi Touretski is the god father of sprint swimming, his philosophies are still used to this day. He coached the Russian machine Alexander Popov and Australian hero Michael Klim for many years leading up to the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

Alex and Klimmy broke numerous world records with times that are still in the top 5 in the world.

We trained 4 times in the pool over 2 days and spent a few brain storming sessions with Genardi at his pool in Lugano. We watched some videos from almost 15 years ago of his training techniques and machines that he build to help train the sprinter and I must say they are absolutely amazing.

It was definitely the highlight of my trip so far spending time with Genardi and his squad, it was great to get some ideas outside the box and to listen to his stories (he has about 1000 and is not afraid to tell one!).

Whilst we were there we also got to go and see the Dam with 007 Golden Eye where he jumps off the edge! Photos below

The photos below are: (Top Left) My training group with Genardi Touretski who is the one standing in the middle with navy top and white pants, (Top Middle) The view of the pool with me swimming towards the camera, (Top Right) The Dam made famous is James Bond 007 Golden Eye where he jumps off the edge, (Bottom Left) Brain storming session with Genardi and my coach with some underwater videos and (Bottom Right) our humble sleeping arrangements...some people think we travel in style! But its quite the opposite!

RESTAURANT NEWS, article is from the June 2010 issue of Australian Gourmet Traveller.

Cooking gold: Celebrity MasterChef winner Eamon Sullivan

Out of the pool, food is my love, writes Olympic champ and Celebrity MasterChef winner Eamon Sullivan.

I’ve never sweated so much in my life as I did in the Celebrity MasterChef kitchen. When I signed up, I was just hoping to get through the first round, but then when I actually made it, I wanted to go all the way and win. There were times when I was close to throwing in the towel, but if there’s one thing I know as a sportsman, it’s that it’s never over until the very end. It’s stressful cooking under pressure like that, but if people respond well to your food, it makes you feel good. That’s the sort of thing you get addicted to: pleasing people through food.

It’s funny because I was quite a fussy eater growing up. If my mum cooked something new, I’d chew on it really slowly and then if I didn’t like it, I’d spit it out into my napkin. I remember one night we had red cabbage sauerkraut for dinner. I thought it was the worst thing I’d ever put in my mouth, but my parents refused to let me leave the table until I’d finished everything on my plate. I think I ended up sitting there for over an hour. Sometimes I’d even pretend I’d finished eating and then leave the table with my mouth full of food. All these years, I thought I’d gotten away with it, but it turns out my mum knew all along what I was up to.

My mum was the foodie in my family and was the biggest influence on me. Dad always hates it when I say this, but he was pretty much limited to charcoal sausages on the barbecue. Actually, that’s not fair. He does a mean Moroccan fish curry and the best eggs Benedict. He used to make them for us using leftover ham on the bone from Christmas lunch. They always tasted amazing. At Christmas time, our house was always filled with the smell of baking. Mum would make her shortbread, pavlova, the Christmas pudding, everything. I remember stirring the Christmas pudding mixture for good luck. I always used to help her in the kitchen and I think that’s when I first started to fall in love with cooking.

Cooking has always been therapeutic for me. I’ve had five hip operations in my swimming career, so there’ve been times when I’ve been forced to take time out from training to recuperate. Whenever I’ve been injured and I’m feeling down in the dumps, I’ll start making comfort food – my favourite is spinach pie, which was the first recipe my mum ever taught me. Before I moved to Sydney, I used to live with three other guys; we all trained together, and they used to joke that it was great whenever I got injured because they knew as soon as I got out of the pool, there’d be an awesome meal waiting for them at home.

Now that I’m busy preparing for the Commonwealth Games, my diet is pretty boring. It’s all about low-GI carbohydrates – no bread, rice, potato. Generally I eat a lot of lean meats and vegies, either steamed or baked. I allow myself one breakfast, lunch and dinner a week when I can eat whatever I want. It’s usually on Friday or Saturday afternoons, when I have a break from training, that I can indulge myself. I go grocery shopping and spend the rest of the day cooking in the kitchen. I don’t really like takeaway food. I’d rather cook something to get what I want than settle for something I don’t.

I’ve started doing cooking classes for the NSW Institute of Sport, helping young kids living out of home for the first time and showing them how to cook healthy and tasty food, but my ultimate dream is to open my own café, probably back home in Perth. I’d want it to be the kind of place where people know each other by name and stay to have a chat: a place where you can get good, clean, simple, healthy food. And I know just what to put on the breakfast menu. My dad’s eggs Benedict. You can’t get much better than that.

INTERVIEW TRACEY LAITY PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF NETWORK TEN

Singapore Food!

Here are a few pics of the food and places we ate in Singapore. I love hawker food. Every stall has its on speciality and it doesn;t try to do 100 dishes. Simple delicous and all something I hadnt tried before!

At the Raffles hotel. This is where the Singapore Sling was created in around 1940 I think... Still a fmous hotel and serve the same recipe! Singapore icon. Cool place, they have bowls of penuts you eat and throw the shells on the floor!

Glutinous Rice ball filled with sesame seeds and in a walnut cream... This was from the revolving restaurant that did a 360 degree view of singapore. A famous restaurant. I found it quite boring.. But was fun that I had never tried it before!

Strawberry Ice dessert... Like a hawaiin ice that you get at the beach, but covered in strawberry sauce and fresh strawberries with strawberry ice cream. Delicious on a hot night, the only bad thing was the corn and soursop that they put down the bottom! Its in most desserts but for me corn in a dessert is strange!

This was the street market near our hotel. They close down the street at night time and all the satay stalls open up, you get to sit at a table and thy bring cheap satay sticks to your table. Awesome experience

Enough said....!

At another hawker centre for lunch. Had this amazing chilli beef dish. Such a tiny place but they turn out awesome food. The beef was boiled until it fell apart and was comined with carrot, cucumber and hot chilli sauce like a stir-fry!

Cooking Class With NSWIS

This happened a few weeks back, but because I did not get photos until recently and have been busy I have not been able to blog about this!

These are a few pics from my day at the NSWIS (NSW Institute of Sport) Cooking day I did.

I put together a few simple recipes for a group of up and coming athletes from various sports including water polo and swimming.
It was aimed at those who have recently moved out of home or had no idea about who to cook healthy dishes that tasted good!

The day went well, I didnt burn anything and Davenport was kind enough to supply some undies for the day as gifts!

I am trying to get a recipe section up on my website so I can share some recipes with you!

Overseas Training Camp Begins

Sorry its been a while since I have written. Have had a crazy few weeks getting things ready for my overseas camp and blogging has slipped my mind!

So I have been overseas for a few days already. We spent 2 days in Singapore on the way through to split the travel up a little bit. While we were there we took a swimming camp for the local Australian School which was a bit of fun.

Now we have just arrived in Italy for a weeks training before we head to Monaco, Barcelona and Canet for some racing.

This is a photo of the view from the balcony at the Hotel we are staying at! Beautilful.

Im going to catch up my blogs over the next few days so you all can see what I have been up to!