Team Favourites

Mary is off to Birmingham, home of the world-famous cricket ground at Edgbaston, where she immerses herself in the world of cricket. Mary spent many weekends and evenings watching her husband and boys play the sport at their local village club. While she enjoyed watching the game, the real fun came with the cricket teas. Helping prepare them and sharing with others was her highlight, and now Mary can't wait to meet some of the England team and prepare lunch for them ahead of their test match against India.

Mary heads to the beating heart of the stadium - its kitchens - to meet head chef Scott, who oversees all the food cooked there for both the teams and the spectators and staff, which can mean over 2000 covers on a match day. Scott's team make everything fresh and from scratch, earning high praise from those that visit from all over the world. He also works closely with the various teams' nutritionists to ensure the players get food fit for professional athletes.

Ahead of the test match, the England team are already at the stadium to practise, and Mary has the pleasure of meeting two of their top players, Jonny Bairstow and Ollie Pope. The boys convince her to join them for a bat on the pitch before lunch. No doubt Mary will bowl them over with her delicious hot smoked salmon, rice and asparagus salad lunch, but how will she do on the crease under the watchful eyes of Jonny and Ollie?

Whilst in Birmingham, Mary is keen to meet the future of the sport and heads to a local primary school where cricket is top of the sporting agenda. Many of the children have been inspired to take up cricket after practising during PE lessons, with two of them already making it to county level. After seeing the children practise, Mary asks a few of the players to help her make a delicious cricket snack of fruit kebabs with lemon curd and mint yoghurt before inviting the rest of the class to taste-test them. Will they get the children's seal of approval?

Back in her own kitchen, Mary makes her delicious jumbo lentil rolls, perfect to enjoy after a slow Sunday watching the cricket, her simple chip chip cassoulet, which always goes down well with both young and old, and her rich ultimate brownies, a mouthwatering treat that's hard to resist.