Milli Taylor: Wimbledon chef extraordinaire
What’s our most common Wimbledon feedback?
We get a lot of feedback from our Wimbledon tours: “we loved the Welcome Dinner!” “Our seats on Centre Court are amazing.” “The room at the Hari is perfect.” “The Grand Slam Tennis Tours staff is so funny and good looking.” (Fine, maybe one of those isn’t true.)
The most common feedback, and the one for which we take the least credit, is that the food prepared by Milli Taylor is incredible. First, it should be noted that most guests actually refer to Milli by name. They know her. They talk with her at the Hospitality House. She shares recipes and sends guests home with a signed copy of her cookbook. She watches tennis with us on Centre Court—or just the telly.
Milli’s secret arrival
Most of all, of course, she makes creative, delicious food every day, featuring fresh ingredients and strikingly beautiful flavors (or flavours, as it were). In the morning, she kicks us off with a hearty brunch to keep us going strong for a full day of watching the world’s best tennis. Later in the afternoon, her first round of sandwiches and canapés hit the table. In the evening, somehow yet again, she leaves us with one final treat before she heads home for the night. Usually it’s sweet, and holds us over until the next day. Milli typically arrives at the house at an unknown morning hour, and honestly, not a single one of us has ever been awake to see her arrival. We—the Grand Slam Tennis Tours staff, who stay at the Hospitality House—smell Milli before we see her. Rather, we smell her food as it wafts up to the bedrooms. Then we know it’s time to descend, computers in hand, as we sniff around for a morning treat.
Guests arrive when our doors open at 10 AM, and they often leave reluctantly, as gates open at 10:30 and outside matches kick off at 11:30. Guests have to stop by the house to pick up their daily tickets, but, as much as we love to entertain and as fun as we are, they stay for the food.
Passion for the game
One of the strongest and most crucial qualities that we recognize in the tennis players we watch on court is the passion they have for the game. It explains their life and their skill, and makes clear that they enjoy what they do. It’s a beautiful thing to see: such intense dedication combined with a smile. We see the same thing when we look at Milli; the way she combines a devotion to her craft and with such a clear enjoyment of the process, and the way she shares her experience with others. Watch her cook paella for a whole town in Andalusia, Spain, where her parents own a bed and breakfast:
Meet her in Wimbledon
Taste some of Milli’s work in Wimbledon this summer at our Hospitality House, and if you want to see some stunning food pics, join the near 10k others who scroll her Instagram feed.
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