Field to Fork
He’s cooked for England, now Sam Graham wants to play for England. There’s a long road back from injury first. But there will be barbecues to nourish both body and soul along the way. RUPERT BATES reports.
No sooner had BBQ magazine signed up to sponsor Sam Graham, the Northampton Saints rugby player, for the season than he was named man of the match in the club’s Premiership victory over Harlequins at Franklin’s Gardens.
A week later the Number 8’s season was over, suffering an awful knee injury against Leicester Tigers – so nasty that TNT Sports, covering the game live, did not show a replay.
“The good news is that it wasn’t career-ending,” said Graham. It’s an incredibly strong and positive mental attitude, which will serve him well in the months ahead, despite the immense heartache for a fabulous player who, despite England riches in the back row, was knocking on the international door. Actually, make that smashing it down; Graham is good at smashing things down as a relentless ball-carrier.
You’re asking why BBQ magazine is sponsoring Sam Graham. Well, last season, the magazine sponsored Northampton prop Ethan Waller, pizza king and co-owner of Butchers Yard Live Fire Cooking School in Wolverhampton, who retired from rugby at the end of last season. Graham used to be a professional chef. You get the picture, even if I am actually a Harlequins fan.
Graham, 27, was a chef for the Exclusive Collection of hotels, working at the likes of Pennyhill Park in Surrey, Lainston House near Winchester and The Manor House in Wiltshire, close to his parents’ home.
Pennyhill Park is where the England team trains and stays ahead of internationals and Graham tells a lovely story of when his two worlds collided in 2015 as a teenage chef, still dreaming of a professional rugby career.
“I was working in the kitchen at Pennyhill Park and would sneak off in my break to watch the England boys train, usually for about five minutes before I was spotted and booted off. No, I wasn’t standing on the touchline in my chef whites trying to get selfies!” said Graham.
“It was my two passions coming together and it was awesome cooking food for the England players – a lot of food.”
His love of food started young, as did his competitive instincts, having cooking competitions with his brother Alex, “which I usually won!”
He was playing plenty of rugby too. Born in Bath and growing up in Chippenham, Wiltshire, by the age of 13 Graham knew he wanted to be either a professional rugby player or a chef.
He went to Bath College to study catering and started pot washing at Woods brasserie in the city, working his way up under head chef Stuart Ash.
“I loved it at Woods. At that point, becoming a chef was my absolute goal and once I get an idea in my head, I am pretty bloody-minded about it and all-in.”
Next up was the Exclusive Chefs Academy, run out of Lainston House by the hotel group as a career development programme for commis chefs to develop their talent.
“That was an unbelievable experience, cooking with wonderful ingredients, under chef Andy Mackenzie and also working with great guest chefs.”
Working at The Manor House, Graham would try to get down to Chippenham rugby club to play and train when he could, but taking match Saturdays off – even as holiday – doesn’t usually go down too well in a professional kitchen.
He loved to cook, but rugby was still pulling at the other half of his heart. No half measures, time for one last throw of the dice. “So, I moved to New Zealand.”
If Graham thought he was passionate about the game, it is different level obsession in New Zealand, home to the All Blacks and where rugby is a religion.
He wasn’t there to cook lamb on the BBQ. “I couldn’t afford the lamb anyway! This was all about rugby and eating to bulk up, not refining my chef skills.”
Graham put a very basic highlights reel together and the only response was from Auckland club Massey, where brothers George and Ken Pisi, both Samoan internationals, had played.
“George and Ken also played for Northampton, where they were legends. That link drove me on, and it is amazing what a tiny bit of belief can do for you. I worked so hard at Massey that season, while also looking to put on as much weight as possible, going from about 90kg to 102kg in nine months.”
“I worked as a building labourer for one of the boys at the rugby club. He gave me a nail gun, nails and some wood and told me to ‘go build a wall’. I had no idea what I was doing!”
He clearly impressed – on the rugby field if not the building site – and was set to step up to provincial rugby the following season and a possible professional contract, but headed back to England, joining Bristol, then in the Championship and after that Doncaster, where he became club captain, before Northampton and the Premiership came calling in 2022.
“I loved the set up at Saints straight away and was made so welcome. I had an intuition I would end up here and so glad I did.”
He has been ripping up trees in the Saints back row, helping them to the Premiership title last year and on the England radar, until October’s devastating knee injury. Graham is clearly one of those people who is happy wherever he is playing, be it for Chippenham or Northampton. But while the blow is clearly devastating, you sense he has so much fuel, will and ambition stored up, he will emerge stronger and determined to fulfil his dream of international rugby.
Cooking will obviously not fill a huge void, but he will be doing plenty of it, including lots of BBQ food, and just before his injury whipped up chipotle and maple hotdogs.
“It is quick and simple and one of my go-to snacks (he cooked eight hotdogs) on a day off. I didn’t realise how small my Weber was!”
Graham loves the social aspect of a barbecue, gathering round the fire with family and friends.
“Cooking outside, you just can’t beat it.”
He is keen to stress he still has much to learn over the coals. “Trust me I’ve ruined a few family meals on the BBQ over the years! But I loved helping out Beef (Ethan Waller) and Phil Roberts at their Live Fire School last summer. They had to keep an eye on me constantly, but we had a great laugh. It is so therapeutic.”
Northampton puts on barbecues for players after training, creating a fun but competitive cooking environment, especially across the different nationalities, who naturally all claim to barbecue bigger and better than the others.
You suspect if Graham had brought a barbecue and a ton of meat pitch side at Pennyhill Park for an England training session back in his chef days, he could have had any number of selfies with the players.
Physiotherapy and BBQ therapy, and, when his rehab is complete, the dream of swapping chef whites for the white of England will surely be rekindled. Best of luck Sammy G. Keep that fire burning.