In 2007, Premier League manager Harry Redknapp was asked about the importance he places on the diet of his footballers. He said: “If you can’t pass the ball properly, a bowl of f***ing pasta’s not going to make that much difference.”

Well, it’s fair to say attitudes have changed a little in professional football, and as the Premier League makes its return for the new season, in this episode we speak to a performance chef who, for over a decade, has been feeding and fuelling the country’s top footballers in the surroundings they’re most comfortable in - their home.

Rachel Muse began her career as a chef at some of the UK’s best-known hotels, before she traded in the mania of hospitality for the altogether more personal setting of private dining. With her company Discreet and Delicious, she now trains performance chefs to ready them for the unique challenge of one-to-one catering for sport’s most famous faces.

Rachel provides insight into the close bonds private chefs forge with their clients, and how trust features at the very heart of that relationship.

We discuss the intriguing dynamic between chef, footballer, and the vital third ingredient, the club nutritionist. Rachel reveals her joy of cooking for a wide variety of nationalities, explains why it's important to stay out of the family domestics, and describes why she regularly finds herself on the phone to footballers’ mothers. She also ensures that we’ll never get our hands on a Nando’s black card…