TAKE A BITE OUT OF BAHRAIN

Chef and author Noor Murad has spent years working with Yotam Ottolenghi on books and recipes - now she's written her first solo recipe collection. ELLA WALKER finds out more

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THERE'S just over a fortnight to go until the London Marathon on April 27, when around 50,000 runners will take to the streets of the capital, and chef Noor Murad will be among them.

"I have been training for a very long time," says the cookbook author. "I've done quite a few half marathons, 5Ks and 10Ks, but I've never really tackled that distance."

"It always seemed ridiculous to me," she says, sounding like she's still stunned that her name actually got picked in the ballot.

Noor is having a very exciting spring; the release of her first solo cookbook, Lugma, this month, then the marathon - and it’s rice that’s powered her through both.

"Rice is my favourite carb. It is the centre of the table," says Noor, who hails from Bahrain, where "there's always a grand rice dish, or a side rice dish or something with rice," involved, whatever the meal.

"It's not native to the land, but it became adopted through trade," she explains. And it turns out this most beloved grain is also the best training carb (move over, pasta).

"It gives you that energy, but it is also easy to digest," she says.