Bernice, a 51-year-old private chef who used to work for Arsenal’s nearby rivals Tottenham Hotspurs, claimed to be one of 90 cooks who are frequently recruited for a variety of tasks. Top football teams, according to Bernice, employ over 600 people (players and staff), so they require a sizable crew of cooks to meet their needs.

With 27 chefs, the first team has the most cooks and focuses on cooking nutritious meals.

When asked how she got the job at Arsenal, she claimed she met former Arsenal striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang at a holiday party.

“I met Auba and asked him whether there were any vacancies at Arsenal. To my surprise, he said I could be his personal chef and I was like, “What?” and that’s where I got my job. He liked the pilau I did.

She further added that she learnt cooking the pilau in a different version and that secured her a job.

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“An Indian taught me to make pilau…his (Auba’s) version of pilau is different from the Kenyan one. You cook rice 70 per cent and you do your sauce on the side, then you put rice, nyama layer, rice, nyama layer etc then you cover it and all the flavour infuses,” she said in an interview on Daring Abroad.

“When he ate it he was like, “Who cooked this?”