Cycling Champion Christine D'Ercole Wants You to Drop Your Baggage Around Negative Food Talk

On this episode

Christine D'Ercole is a legendary competitive cyclist, compelling public speaker, and fan-favorite Peloton instructor. That's in part because of her intense and often New Wave and Goth-playlist-themed classes but also because she loves to cook, savor incredible meals, and speak frankly about complicated emotions around bodies, aging, and exercise. She joined Tinfoil Swans for an intimate and uplifting conversation about body image, life-changing restaurant meals, her wild career as a bike messenger, learning to cook, and what meal she'd make for her favorite musician.

Meet our guest

Christine D'Ercole is a decorated Masters World Champion track cyclist, original Peloton instructor, motivational speaker, and founder of Wordshop — a storytelling workshop geared toward flipping the script on negative self-talk. You can learn more about Christine at christinedercole.com and follow her on Instagram at @iamicaniwillido.

Meet our host

Kat Kinsman is the executive features editor at Food & Wine, author of Hi, Anxiety: Life With a Bad Case of Nerves, host of Food & Wine's podcast, and founder of Chefs With Issues. Previously, she was the senior food & drinks editor at Extra Crispy, editor-in-chief and editor at large at Tasting Table, and the founding editor of CNN Eatocracy. She won a 2020 IACP Award for Personal Essay/Memoir and has had work included in the 2020 and 2016 editions of The Best American Food Writing. She was nominated for a James Beard Broadcast Award in 2013, won a 2011 EPPY Award for Best Food Website with 1 million unique monthly visitors, and was a finalist in 2012 and 2013. She is a sought-after international keynote speaker and moderator on food culture and mental health in the hospitality industry, and is the former vice chair of the James Beard Journalism Committee.

Highlights from the episode

On finding music that moves people

"When I came into the fitness industry 22 years ago, there was always this thing about how you have to play popular music because that's what most people want to hear. One of my mentors said to me, 'Play what moves you and you will find your people.' It still took me a while to play things like Love & Rockets and Bauhaus. When I finally did, I was like, 'Oh, here they are. Here's my people. This is the way.'"

On the power of performance

"We are on stage telling stories in order to affect impact, to help people escape from the challenges of their realities at the moment — but also to create an opportunity for self-recognition, and through self-recognition, we can change. You go to the theater because you want to not think about anything, but you also go to the theater or see a movie or watch a show in order to recognize yourself and actually say, 'Oh, that's me.' When we have that moment, we know we're not alone. We can breathe a little easier, and we could potentially start to do something about something that's not right in our lives."

On the meal that changed everything

"When I turned 18, my father started taking us to a really nice dinner for my birthday. I remember going into the restaurant both excited to be at a fancy place and having a lot of anxiety about what I was going to order. My dad ordered duck with Bing cherries. We didn't eat fancy food. We had like, frozen veal patties with some cheese on them on a baking sheet in the oven. He took a bite of this, and he put his fork down, and he sat back, and he took a breath, and he says, 'It don't get no better than this.' I remember being completely like, 'What? Food can do that?' He gave me a bite, and I was completely blown away — the nuances of the flavors. I could almost taste it right now. It was so powerful to realize that food could be like that, and it made me start to think about food differently."

On learning to fuel for a race

"I started racing competitively in '96. The big thing then was to load up on pasta — this was before we were Googling things — then I started to understand more about what portions my body needed to be fueled for the type of racing I was doing. I wasn't doing a marathon, so I didn't need to eat a pound of pasta; it was actually going to slow me down. When I'm in race mode, we go to a restaurant, and I'm the pain in the a-- customer who is like, 'Can you broil that and put the sauce on the side, and bring me a kid's pasta with nothing on it and some steamed broccoli?' because I'm trying to keep it fuel oriented for the purpose of my racing."

On celebrating every day

"We believe in celebrating days that end in 'y.' I have a tremendous doom mentality. For someone who is so positive — and I'm all about productive self-talk — part of my reality is that the other shoe's going to drop. So let's make the reservation. Let's go to Per Se or another favorite restaurant. Let's have Champagne just cause, and let's have wine on the porch. I feel like I'm celebrating in the morning when I have a really good cup of coffee."

On flipping her narrative

"I would say to my 10-year-old self that the things you're afraid of and the things that you're ashamed of — afraid of food and ashamed of your body — are going to turn out to be the things you're most proud of and the keys to the best things about you. That 10-year-old self might be like, huh? How? But I would say it every hour on the hour, every day, until that 10-year-old synapse is connected."

About the podcast

Food & Wine has led the conversation around food, drinks, and hospitality in America and around the world since 1978. Tinfoil Swans continues that legacy with a new series of intimate, informative, surprising, and uplifting interviews with the biggest names in the culinary industry, sharing never-before-heard stories about the successes, struggles, and fork-in-the-road moments that made these personalities who they are today.

This season, you'll hear from icons and innovators like Daniel Boulud, Rodney Scott, Asma Khan, Emeril and E.J. Lagasse, Claudia Fleming, Dave Beran and Will Poulter, Dan Giusti, Priya Krishna, Lee Anne Wong, Cody Rigsby, Kevin Gillespie, Pete Wells, David Chang, Raphael Brion, Christine D'Ercole, Channing Frye, Nick Cho, Ti Martin, Bobby Flay, and other special guests going deep with host Kat Kinsman on their formative experiences; the dishes and meals that made them; their joys, doubts and dreams; and what's on the menu in the future. Tune in for a feast that'll feed your brain and soul — and plenty of wisdom and quotable morsels to savor.

New episodes drop every Tuesday. Listen and follow on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

These interview excerpts have been edited for clarity.

Editor’s Note: The transcript for download does not go through our standard editorial process and may contain inaccuracies and grammatical errors.