Refresh your leadership through...food! - with Adam Kingl

This is the transcript of The Refreshing Leadership Podcast episode: Refresh your leadership through...food! - with Adam Kingl, published on 15th June 2026.

Welcome to the Refreshing Leadership Podcast, where we are always looking for two things. One, a refreshing take on leadership development - not just the conventional wisdom. And the second is ways to refresh our leadership itself on a daily basis. And that's why this topic feels absolutely perfect.

I have Adam Kingl joining me today to talk about his new book, Executive Eats, which does feel like its own category of cookbook. It speaks to something that Adam and I both come across regularly in our work with leaders - leaders saying that they don't have enough energy, or that their focus isn't where they would like it to be, and of course the bit about being exhausted or teetering on burnout.

In this conversation, Adam is going to talk to us about how we can use food not just for pure health or perfect macros, but to support sustained energy, focus, concentration, emotional regulation, creativity, and even mindfulness. We talk about the building blocks of different positive states that we want to be in at work, but also the practical side: flavor profiles, batching, building block recipes that can be added to each week and each day to create slightly different twists on the same basic recipe. And we focus on how we can use cooking to reduce stress rather than create more stress - because this is a genuine tension. I also bring in the lens of the busy working parent trying to function at a high level, but also wanting to feed the family and manage real life.

Fun fact: Adam was my boss at London Business School, and it's always fun to have your old boss on the podcast. I think it just goes to show what an excellent working relationship we have. I'm going to allow Adam to introduce himself, and then we're going to talk about his new book - the first of its kind, a cookbook for executives.

Adam, great to have you on. Would you like to introduce yourself?

Adam: Thanks for having me. I'm pleased to hear I wasn't a traumatic boss - that's always a first objective in life, isn't it.

I'm an author, educator, keynote speaker, and consultant. I have a portfolio career and I'm affiliated with a number of business schools here in the UK, including Imperial College, London Business School, and UCL School of Management. This is my third book. My first, Next Generation Leadership, was about multi-generational collaboration. My second, Sparking Success, was about creativity in business.

And I'm really excited about this book - Executive Eats: The Cookbook for a Better Working Life - which is the first book I've co-authored, with Jaka Brezicevski of Imperial College. And as you say, we believe this is the first cookbook ever written for a professional, corporate audience.

Maya: That is what's so exciting about it. People often see those two areas as quite separate - their working life and how they fuel themselves, their health and nutrition. That's what you've really brought together. Here at Refreshing Leadership we want to look at the unexpected lenses - not just the standard business strategy or productivity advice, but the deeper foundations underneath all of that. What made food feel like such an important lens to tackle next in your series of books?

Adam: Each book is really the product of what I've been hearing in the preceding years from lots of executives and business professionals - what's really on their mind, either as a concern or as an exciting opportunity.

About six years ago when I wrote Next Generation Leadership, that came about because executives were saying, "I don't know how to manage these obstreperous youngsters - help us figure out how to retain and engage young people." So I wrote that book.

There's actually a point here about why research happens at all. An academic I respect once said: if you see something happening in the world and you have a question about it and you can't find a satisfying answer, if you're curious enough, you'll do the research yourself. I think that's not a bad definition.

Then as digitalisation and the AI revolution were occurring, about three years ago, executives were saying, "I need to be more adaptable. I don't feel I have enough inspiration. I can't change my habits sufficiently to meet the moment. How do I be more creative?" So I researched highly successful leaders in the creative arts, figuring they're very good at adaptation and creativity - and asked whether you could extrapolate those habits and apply them in a corporate context. That's what led to Sparking Success.

More recently, when I've asked executives what's on their mind, the answers have been more physical. Things like: "I just don't have enough energy throughout the day," or "I can't focus throughout the day - it's a 14-hour day but I'm only concentrating for about six of those hours," or "My mood is all over the place. I just snapped at my direct report. Why did I do that? Can I stabilise and improve my emotional tenor throughout the day?"

Now, lots of things affect those states - hydration, exercise, sleep, mindfulness, your quality of life, how you socialise, your home life, all of that. But there is also a really important element, which is what you are ingesting. The fuel. Not just for satiety - but what is it doing? How is it affecting our states? And we know that nutrition affects those states, and many others. Because I'm a foodie myself, and because my co-author has an extensive career as a chef before going into academia, this intrigued us enough to write a book.

What the book covers

Maya: That's reminding me of when we were at LBS together and you sent round some amazing Christmas recipes - quite involved ones. I want to get into the actual process of cooking, because everyone has a different relationship with it. Some people find cooking therapeutic, others find it very stressful. And if you want to enjoy cooking on a weekly basis and you have a family, it requires quite a lot of planning and executive function. But first - can you tell us in a nutshell what the book is, and give us a flavour of what some of the recipes look like and why they are catered to sustained focus and performance throughout the working day?

Adam: The book is composed of 10 chapters, and each chapter includes the business case - what I've heard from executives and what my research, teaching, and consulting have told me about why a particular theme matters. Each chapter is built around one of those positive states or conditions of executive life.

Maya: What might be a couple of examples of those 10 states?

Adam: I mentioned three: sustained energy, mood boost, and focus and concentration. But there's also a chapter on a quick energy boost to get you started in the morning. There's one on something that actually causes a lot of stress in the workplace - bringing treats into the office. You know, the dreaded charity bakery day. How do you do that without giving everyone a sugar crash? There's a chapter on celebration, because the more achievement-oriented and competitive we become, the less we stop to celebrate our successes. And one way to mark a moment and take stock is through food.

Detox is another chapter. Half the people I encounter are on or have just come off some kind of detox. A lot of detox regimens are actually quite unhealthy - things like consuming only cider vinegar and cayenne pepper all day for days on end. How can you function, much less perform, on that kind of diet? So we propose recipes that would be detoxing but also actually enjoyable. An artichoke and pea soup, a hot kale salad with lemon and nuts, a lemon sole with tomato juices and white wine. All of these are detoxing for various reasons, but they're enjoyable and not stressful to prepare.

We also have a chapter on creativity, because cooking can be creative, and my previous book on creativity showed that culinary arts is a great way to start rewiring our brain and practising habits of being open to inspiration. We have things like popcorn ice cream in there. That's not a huge stretch of the imagination, but even in doing those kinds of activities, we're wiring our brain for the parallel experience of being open to new possibilities at work.

Maya: I have to stop there because I'm already desperate to open that cookbook. Especially soup-based things - they always go down well with the family. And the ice cream - I'm curious about the level of effort involved. Unless you're telling me it's ice cream from scratch, something like popcorn ice cream sounds like a fun and quite doable twist.

Adam: It is. About half of our recipes are quick and easy to prepare - generally fewer than 30 minutes, no incredible skills required. Some take a little more time but don't require extensive skills either.

That doesn't mean we want people to be intimidated. What it recognises is that it gets people into the habit of using cookery as another tool for mindfulness, for taking a moment, for the simple pleasure of repetitive tasks that give you a sense of achievement or calm.

Now, if some listeners are saying, "All I can do is buy pre-prepared microwave dinners and that's the extent of it" - okay, I can't help there. But if you're willing to invest a little fun into starting to practise a skill - and I should say that carefully, because already that sounds like penance - there's recent research out of UCL indicating that cooking, not extensive cooking, not Michelin star cooking, just cooking, the daily act of cooking, can help with blood pressure and reducing stress and anxiety. If you bring other people in to help, that communal nature can prolong life - it's one of the common traits in blue zones around the world. It also helps with motor skills and concentration, and many people, me included, report that it actually relaxes them rather than stresses them.

The point is not to give yourself a challenge in the kitchen that creates stress rather than reduces it. There are just a few little techniques around cooking that help to de-stress it, and once you have those, you can relax into the pleasurable act of cooking itself.

Batching, building blocks, and flavour profiles

Maya: I love that. It is definitely one of those multidimensional activities - and one connected to that more everyday creativity. Before we started this call I was telling you about gardening, and to me that's another example: something so accessible on a daily basis that you can start to integrate and that brings so many different benefits.

So - what about the busy mum? Working, rushing home, thinking about dinner for the family. She might be having a very different experience of cooking right now. What do you say to her?

Adam: We certainly recognise that many readers will be time-poor. And you're right that there is an element of planning involved - but a little bit of planning has a huge return on investment.

Let me give you an example. One of my favourite recipes in the book is a really simple mango and cucumber salad. What's lovely about it is that it plays with contrasts - crunchy and soft, vegetal and sweet, sour and rich from the olive oil in the vinaigrette. Let's say you make a batch of that on Sunday night and bring individual portions to work Monday through Wednesday. You might think, "That sounds wonderful on Monday, but by Tuesday and Wednesday I'm already bored of it." But it's easily adaptable. Think of that salad not just as a standalone dish, but as a building block from which you can create hugely different flavour profiles without creating more work.

On Monday, have the salad as it is. Tuesday morning, take a portion and add some diced avocado, chopped coriander - unless you're one of those people where genetically it tastes like soap, in which case leave it out - a little fresh chili, and some lime juice, and all of a sudden you're in the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. Wednesday, add some thinly sliced lemongrass, a little dash of fish sauce, some crushed roasted peanuts, and some diced tofu, and you're in Southeast Asia. Completely different profiles, requiring very little additional effort, and each one will keep you fuller for longer - I've given you protein from the peanuts, fibre from the cucumber, protein from the chicken if you add it.

But there's also the nutrition and performance element. The magnesium in the mango is great for concentration and focus - something executives ask for all the time. The cucumber contains folic acid, otherwise known as folate or vitamin B9, which is great for mood. So it's helping to keep you emotionally sustained throughout the day, not just energised.

Maya: There are a few things there that are really important, and putting the busy parent hat on, they speak to me. One is batching - using a sense of scale, doing something planful that then feeds into your whole week. That is gold dust for the busy working parent or leader.

The other thing you mentioned was flavour profiles. When we're planning our nutrition and meals for the week, most of us are probably not thinking in flavour profiles - we go with a default that's relatively easy and switch it up every now and then. That's a great concept to introduce. And you've clearly given a lot of thought to the nutritional benefits of these different foods as well. Is there anything you want to add about how you think about flavour profiles when planning a week?

Adam: One area I always urge people to explore when they say food just doesn't feel very exciting is playing with contrasts. That means including a blend of all the elements our taste buds are capable of - sweet, salty, bitter, sour, umami. Umami really is a thing, by the way - that meatiness, that mouth feel you get not just from meat. If you're vegetarian, you get it from seaweed, tomatoes, Parmesan, mushrooms.

Playing with temperatures is another one - hot and cold. Put a hot seared tuna steak on top of a cold salsa and all of a sudden it wakes up the mouth. And texture - smooth and crunchy. That's why we love things like crumbles: a crunchy topping with a warm, creamy fruit, and then you add cold custard and now you're also playing with hot and cold. All these little things are ways to make your cooking more exciting for yourself and your family. Just keep that in mind as you're preparing food.

Maya: I already feel inspired to shake things up. It's a bit like going to a food court and trying something different and thinking, why am I not doing that at home all the time? Sometimes it's little touches that don't require huge effort. One thing I've noticed is that in Indian cooking we love coriander as a garnish, but dried coriander isn't bad - especially in an air fryer. It can be a really useful backup when fresh coriander goes black before you've had a chance to use it. So finding easy wins and having some perennials in the pantry that can just elevate a dish - I think that's really helpful. Is there anything you want to add on that?

Adam: I love that you're combining the habits of cooking and gardening - having perennials in your kitchen. I just call them building blocks: your favourite herbs and spices. I'm a big advocate of dried herbs and spices. You don't have to worry about not having a fresh ingredient. Go with dried - that's fine. And use your freezer. If people say both their fridge, their freezer, and their pantry are empty, we just haven't gotten into the habit at all of thinking about cooking and preparing food. Replenishing the cupboards, the freezer, the fridge can actually be once a week, from which you can then create completely different things - or create a couple of building block ingredients and then add varieties to those.

Planning for your busiest weeks

Maya: Some of this we sort of know, but it can be helpful to be reminded. For those of us who have to be fairly regimented, a weekly online order makes it easy to refresh things. But what I've started doing more recently is thinking about some of the nicer, healthier things I want to make in the week and just making sure I have those to hand, because time is going to be tight in the evenings. Do you have any specific tips - things that are the difference between having a great food week and not?

Adam: Fresh food is one. We know our body rewards us for eating fresh produce. The good news is there's nothing wrong with frozen - you can buy fresh, chop it up and freeze it, or buy bags of frozen diced fruit and veg. Use those, add them to your ingredients.

One of the recipes in the book is called Cowboy Cassoulet - it's a creative take on the cassoulet idea, which is built on beans and legumes. Those are really a superfood. In France they add lots of fatty meats, but I suggest just adding a little sausage and then stuffing it with veg - lots of carrots, celery, onion, fresh or dried herbs. It wakes up the whole dish, you feel better for it, you're getting more dietary fibre, and I'm lowering the GI so you feel fuller for longer. You could even bring it to work and reheat it in the microwave. The key is making sure you're not just reaching for cheese and bread, as easy as that is.

Maya: Everybody has their own version of convenience foods - what ends up going out the window when things aren't going smoothly and what they reach for instead. I always say to the leaders I coach: is this going to work in your busiest week? What can we do to set you up for success in your busiest week? Because most people have more of those weeks on average than the ones where all the best habits are possible. For me, a simple discipline like soaking oats the night before - having that all ready - is just a little way of doing that, and it's actually quite a relaxing thing to do before bed.

For people who are less confident in the kitchen, what would you encourage them to do to start to bridge that gap? For me, to truly integrate a new recipe into my life, I need to do it repeatedly over several weeks, probably tweak it along the way. Building variety into your repertoire - especially recipes that are going to be beneficial from a performance perspective - takes time. As the final part of this conversation, is there anything you would recommend in terms of how to approach this gradually, so that in three to six months' time you find yourself in a much better place without having tried to do it all at once?

Adam: I would say first think about a state you want to improve - lower calorie intake, or higher focus and concentration throughout the day. The book gives you a table of nutrients to think about alongside the recipes. And you don't have to follow them exactly - we all adapt recipes and make them our own.

Then make one thing. Whether it's from the book, from a different book, or from your own imagination, make it something simple. And I would say just make that one new thing once every two to three weeks. Let's say you make your own chicken soup - chicken broth, bones, mirepoix, bay leaf, water, maybe a little white wine. Reduce it, take out the bones, shred the chicken, add it back in, skim off the fat, done. It will be delicious.

If you only do that once every two to three weeks, it is not onerous. But you now have a building block from which you can make a dozen other recipes. Add a little coconut milk and some shredded greens and it's almost like a laksa. Reduce it down so it's thicker, add some noodles, and that chicken soup becomes a sauce with the shredded chicken in it. The only limit is your imagination.

Make one new thing every couple of weeks, but select or invent something from which you know you can then create other things. By the end of six months, you don't just have six new recipes you feel confident preparing - you potentially have dozens.

Maya: I love that. And I think this is what you're really bringing to this conversation through the work of this book - some of that structure that can sometimes be missing from a typical cookbook. You've talked very clearly about how to integrate a new recipe, but it's not just a new recipe - it's a building block that can be used in lots of different ways and different flavour profiles. So you've added a whole other lane to your culinary repertoire over the course of a couple of weeks or months. That's really powerful.

The other thing I think is going to be really interesting for people is this idea of starting with a particular state you want to achieve, then looking at the science and nutrition that underpins that, and only then going to the recipe. That's a very different way of thinking about cooking. And it's very much in line with how we think in coaching and positive psychology - starting with the positive state or goal, then understanding the foundations underneath it, then getting practical. I'm really looking forward to diving into that myself.

Adam: You're absolutely right. It is a different way of thinking about cooking, and it's intentionally trying to address how we can feel and perform better - at work and at home - rather than just thinking about what tastes good, or what's easy, or what addresses a specific health issue like eating gluten-free. Here we're specifically asking: how can I improve one thing I wish I could feel and do better? And from there, you let your skills and creativity build on something that hopefully becomes a lifelong habit, which makes that state more sustainable long-term.

Maya: Love it. I do have more questions for you, so I'm going to bring Adam back for another conversation. But for this part, thank you so much, Adam. Do you want to tell people where they can find the book and when it's being released?

Adam: Of course. It's called Executive Eats: The Cookbook for a Better Working Life. It launches on 16th June 2026 and should be available at all book retailers online, and hopefully on shelves after the 16th as well.

Maya: Fantastic. Thank you for joining us today, Adam. And for all of you listening - if you have somebody in your life who either wants to do more cooking or is struggling to build some of those habits, send them a link to this episode. It costs nothing, and you might help them access one of these really positive states in a systematic way. Thank you all for listening, and I look forward to connecting with you next time.

Executive Eats: The Cookbook is now available at all major book retailers.

You can connect with Adam at https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-kingl/. Find out more at https://adamkingl.com/

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About Maya

Maya Gudka is an executive coach specialising in C-suite career progression and leadership development. She works with senior leaders in major organisations on strategic career planning, executive presence, and building sustainable influence. Maya hosts The Refreshing Leadership Podcast, which ranks in the top 2% of podcasts globally and has nearly 300 episodes exploring the challenges faced by ambitious professionals.