Getting to the Olympics is no easy feat—and when you’re pushing your body to its limits daily, breakfast takes on a whole new meaning. And so it was that Taste Talks found Team U.S.A. Paralympian hopeful Natalie Bieule —who is headed to her first Olympics in Rio this fall to throw discus for the U.S. track and field team—sitting at a kitchen counter in Brooklyn with celebrity Chef Ron Duprat, talking about her morning cravings.
“I love anything with brown sugar and cinnamon, and I need that cafe con leche,” says Bieule, who was born to a Cuban-Argentinian father and Cuban mother and raised in Miami.
She went on to list bananas and Kellogg’s cherry and almond bars as some of her on-the-go favorites. As the mother of two daughters, the athlete’s day starts at 6 a.m.; only after getting seven-year-old Ava ready for school and playing with her one-year-old Valentina until she naps can she get outside for her morning training session. Safe to say, Bieule’s breakfast is probably more on-the-go than your average Olympian hopeful.
After breaking down her dietary needs and flavor preferences, Chef Duprat —who has cooked at the Pelican Bay Foundation and the Montauk Yacht Club and competed on Bravo’s Top Chef Season 6—headed into the kitchen. He emerged with a concoction he called The Nutty Island, something he says will “pack a power punch of protein to help keep Natalie going.”
Chef Ron Duprat cooked up a breakfast made specifically for success. Photo by Heinz Kluetmeier
The concoction featured a mix of flaxseed, canola oil, cinnamon and honey to form a wet base, which Chef Duprat then mixed with cornflakes and oven-baked. The final product was then crumbled up and topped with cream and almond butter.
Bieule is a Kellogg’s diehard—she has memories of growing up eating cornflakes for breakfast—but she’s also a cook and a restaurant connoisseur. “There’s so much diversity in Miami, and you find every type of culture’s food there. There were always spices, always herbs in my parents’ food,” she says.
When she’s not cooking at home (shrimp and cauliflower mash is one of her signature dishes) her and her husband Matthew hit up Yardbird for Southern fare and Versailles and La Vega for Cuban food. Joe’s Stone Crab is also one of her favorite Miami classics.
Chef Duprat’s dish passed muster. In fact, she called Matthew over from the sidelines to try a bite. His face said it all.
“Can I give it to my girls?” Bieule asked, to which Duprat could only offer a laugh and a high five. We presume that meant his answer was yes.
Natalie Bieule will be competing in Rio on September 11. In the meantime, stay tuned for more great chef-athlete pairings at the breakfast table from Kellogg’s, coming soon to Taste Talks and beyond.
