Wine, Good Food and Cycling: A Napa Valley Chef’s Trifecta

Wine, Good Food and Cycling: A Napa Valley Chef’s Trifecta

Cycling Has Become a Passion for Michael Chiarello, the Chef of Bottega restaurant in Yountville, Calif.

By Jen Murphy in the Wall Street Journal

The terrain of Napa Valley isn’t just conducive for growing grapes. The steep hills also provide challenging workouts for cyclists.

“Napa is known for good food and wine,” says Michael Chiarello, the chef of Bottega restaurant in Yountville, Calif. “But locals know that it’s also one of the best places to bike in the country.”

Mr. Chiarello started cycling seriously in 2001. “It’s important as a chef to have a sport to keep you in line,” says Mr. Chiarello, who also owns Coqueta restaurant in San Francisco and hosts the cooking show “Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiarello” on the Food Network.

The 52-year-old wrestled in high school and college and was used to hitting the weights in the gym. “When I reached my 40s, I needed more cardio,” he says. Cycling was something he and his then-girlfriend, now wife, Eileen, could do together.

Mr. Chiarello began entering mass-participation cycling events, called gran fondos, of varying distances and ability levels. “You can get up to 5,000 people participating in an event,” he says. “If you have binoculars you can catch sight of the [cycling] pros.”

He got his chance to meet some of the pros in 2012, not at the front of the peloton, the cycling term for the pack, but at a party where he was cooking. “I think the pros liked the smell of me because I smell like everything they can’t eat,” he jokes.

He soon became friendly with foodie cycling stars, including the 2011 Tour de France winner Cadel Evans and George Hincapie, and now swaps cooking tips for cycling tips.

Mr. Chiarello says cycling has become an obsession. “Cycling was like a healing regime from the brutality of the restaurant business where I’m constantly multitasking,” he says. “To be able to concentrate and be alone with my thoughts for an hour on a ride is a treat.”

While he mainly bikes alone, Mr. Chiarello says he enjoys group rides with other chefs, winemakers and pro cyclists. He tries to enter four to five century rides, which are 100 miles, a year.

This April, he launched the Bottega Gran Fondo, an annual charity ride through Napa Valley that lets cycling enthusiasts ride alongside team leaders who are either in the food or wine business or a pro rider. Among the participants: Daniel Humm, the chef of New York City’s Eleven Madison Park; Doug Shafer, the winemaker of Napa’s Shafer Vineyards, and pro-cyclist Lucas Euser. Riders choose between a 40-mile or 75-mile course and stop at vineyards to eat chef-prepared snacks along the way.

“I love linking people’s passions,” says Mr. Chiarello. “Plus, the event gives me motivation to train.”

The Workout

Two years ago, Mr. Chiarello wanted to step up his cycling and signed up for a coaching package with Carmichael Training Systems, which is owned by former pro cyclist Chris Carmichael. Mr. Chiarello was assigned a coach who worked with him to create a program using TrainingPeaks, free online training software that allows users to plan, track and analyze workouts.

During the winter, he takes indoor cycling classes at the Health Spa Napa Valley in St. Helena, Calif. His Carmichael coach will tell him the optimal number of classes to do each week. The classes use a CompuTrainer, a device that clamps onto the rear axle of a person’s road bike and allows the person to ride in place. The CompuTrainer has an ergometer that measures power wattage, heart rate and cadence.

Mr. Chiarello logs the data into his TrainingPeaks account so his coach can review his heart rate, power and other data twice a week and provide feedback and adjustments via email. “You can’t hide anything,” he says. “The stats don’t lie. We hop on the phone once or twice a month and he’s brutally honest about my performance.”

He follows his coach’s workouts four to five days a week and does longer rides on weekends.

Leading up to a race, Mr. Chiarello might do a four- or five-hour ride on Saturday followed by a 2½-hour ride on Sunday. He has various routes around Napa Valley that offer different terrain. “When I want to torture myself I ride the Oakville Grade,” he says, referring to one of Napa’s toughest climbs, which ascends 650 feet in 1 mile.

Other days he’ll ride Howell Mountain, a 2.2-mile route with a climb of 1,110 feet, or Soda Canyon Road in Napa, a ride that takes about 6 miles to reach the peak with an elevation gain of 1,340 feet. Some days he combines all three routes.

He also loves cycling around West Marin County. Sometimes he’ll ride with fellow chefs, including Richard Reddington of Redd in Yountville.

Mr. Chiarello says he bulks up easily so he cut back on weights since he started cycling seriously. He says his coach came into his restaurant one day and said, “Michael, really, you can’t pedal with your arms, stop with the muscles.”

In the fall and summer, he focuses on cardio and core strength, while in the winter, he tries to build his leg strength. He strength trains at home using kettlebells and does squats, lunges and V-up crunches, which are performed lying on your back and holding a kettlebell above your chest. Slowly bring your legs up off the ground into the air and your arms toward your toes until your body forms a V-shape and then slowly lower the arms and legs down to the ground.

He also does explosive movements such as a kettlebell throw. The move involves holding a kettlebell between your legs with two hands, bending your hips back until the kettlebell is behind your legs, then swinging the weight up to about hip-level and letting it swing back between the legs as you bend your hips and knees.

The Diet

In 2013, Mr. Chiarello started a regimen with GeneSolve, a nutrition program that prescribes a diet and provides personalized supplements based on a person’s body chemistry. The initial consultation costs between $199 and $299, and some insurance policies cover the cost of the blood work, according to a company representative. GeneSolve charges a monthly $100 membership fee to cover things such as doctor consultations and nutritional supplements.

The program looked at Mr. Chiarello’s DNA, blood and family and medical history and devised a nutrition plan based on the information. “I love personal customization,” he says, “and this program lays it out meal by meal and tells you what time of day your body wants protein or carbs. I learned when I eat is just as important as what I eat.”

Mr. Chiarello has a pint of water and fresh fruit before his morning workout. He then eats lean protein such as eggs or nut butter on whole-grain toast. He avoids fruit and complex carbohydrates after midday.

Throughout the day, he might snack on vegetables and lean protein, such as sardines or mackerel. “As a chef, I rarely eat a full meal,” he says. “When I’m at work, I’m tasting all day and I only taste a half teaspoon.”

Mr. Chiarello makes his own energy bars to take on long rides and will also carry bananas, oranges, and almond butter. “The worst thing that can happen is to be 60 miles into a ride and bonk because you aren’t fueling yourself properly,” he says.

The Gear

Mr. Chiarello rides a Pinarello Dogma 2 road bike, which he says cost around $10,000. He also has a Scott Genius mountain bike, which retails for around $2,900.

He says most century race fees run between $80 and $250. The premium Carmichael Training program costs $345 a month. He pays $250 per six-pack of CompuTrainer indoor cycling classes.

Mr. Chiarello says he’s a “water-bottle junkie” and buys Elite Bidon water bottles from the boutique bike touring company inGamba, which cost about $12 each.

The Playlist

“I listen to Lady Gaga when I’m riding fast, LP [an American pop/rock singer] on hills, and I put on country music for long rides” he says. “Since I have an 8-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl, I also listen to a lot of kids’ music like Katy Perry and Christina Aguilera.”

Michael Chiarello’s Energy Bars

Mr. Chiarello says he’s long been a fan of Clif Bar for fueling long bike rides. Being a chef, he was inspired to make his own version of an energy bar with a bit more texture from dried apricots, almonds and raisins. The result is slightly sweet and provides 28 grams of carbohydrates, 6 grams of fat and 179 calories. He served them this year at the Bottega Gran Fondo.

Yield: 18 bars, 1 bar per serving

Ingredients:

1 cup quick-cooking oats

½ cup sliced almonds

½ cup dark raisins

½ cup golden raisins

½ cup dried apricots

1/3 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

½ cup brown sugar

¼ cup golden molasses

1 egg

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

¼ cup whole-wheat flour

½ cup nonfat dry milk

¼ cup toasted wheat germ

1½ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon vanilla

pinch of salt

½ cup milk (2% is preferable)

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Place oats and sliced almonds on a baking sheet. Toast in oven for 10 minutes. Set aside. Turn the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

3. Place raisins, apricots, oats, and almonds in a food processor. Pulse about 10 times until coarsely chopped. Set aside.

4. In the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer fitted with a paddle, beat the butter, brown sugar, molasses and egg until light and fluffy.

5. In a separate bowl, combine both flours, dry milk, wheat germ, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla, and salt. Add to the creamed mixture. Add the milk and mix thoroughly. Add dried fruit mixture.

6. Butter a 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Pour in the batter and spread evenly. Bake for about 30 minutes, until set. Cool in the pan. Cut into 18 bars.

7. To store, wrap bars individually in plastic wrap. They will keep for about one week.

For longer storage, freeze for up to three months.