It’s been two decades since KT Tunstall’s Suddenly I See lifted her to international fame. And as she marks the re-release of Eye to the Telescope, the Brit Award-winning singer-songwriter is as passionate about what she eats as she is about what she sings. On the Good Food podcast, Tunstall discussed life on the road, her commitment to the ketogenic diet, and why haggis, neeps and tatties is her ultimate comfort food.
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From pop stardom to the kitchenette
Touring the globe might sound glamorous, but for Tunstall, the reality is often far from room service and fine restaurants. “I always try and get somewhere that has a kitchenette so I can cook for myself,” she says, describing a late-night dinner in her West London studio flat: chicken breast wrapped in smoked bacon, baked with salt and pepper, served with a fresh spinach salad with tomatoes, pine nuts and balsamic. “It was delicious,” she adds with clear satisfaction.
Her approach is practical and shaped by the demands of a musician’s life. “You are travelling all the time, dealing with jetlag, and you have to be peaking with energy at nine o’clock at night,” she explains. Heavy carb-laden meals do not help. “If you ate a proper dinner full of carbs at six o’clock, you are just on the sofa at nine, digesting.”
Keto on the road
Tunstall has followed a ketogenic diet for nearly a decade, a choice driven by health rather than fashion. “I had a lot of kidney trouble when I was younger,” she says. “I kept getting kidney infections and ended up on antibiotics a lot. I tried different things but in the end I stopped drinking and changed my diet. It really sorted it out.”
Her diet is now high in fat and low in carbohydrates, with about 75% of her calories coming from fat. “It really suited my lifestyle and levelled me out, stopped me having sugar cravings,” she says. “I was a sugar addict. My nickname when I was a kid was Katie Custard because I was so into desserts.”
Now it’s all about mixed nuts for protein, and what she calls ‘poor man’s poke’: a can of tuna, an avocado and a pot of watermelon, all mixed for a quick, healthy lunch. “It is a very easy… amazing, healthy lunch for me,” she says. “My crew are always desperately disappointed, they just want a bag of crisps and a sandwich.”
Cooking on the tour bus
Tunstall’s resourcefulness reaches the tour bus too, where she hosted “Katie’s Kitchen” on Instagram with her all-female band. Armed with a travel stove that resembles a microwave but is actually an oven with two hobs on top, she would cook in between sound checks and showtimes, always aiming for dishes she could prepare and eat within an hour. “It was really cool coming up with these recipes that were really easy, really healthy,” she says. The Instagram Lives became a hit, with fans tuning in as she cooked dinner before the gig.
A love affair with food from Scotland to New Mexico
Born in Scotland, Tunstall’s food journey has taken her from British pubs to the sun-drenched kitchens of Los Angeles and the chilli-laden dishes of New Mexico, where she now lives. “LA is where I discovered bulletproof coffee, which led me to the keto diet,” she says. In LA, healthy eating is the norm, but in New Mexico, the options are more limited; however, the local green chillies are a revelation. “There is a company called Hatch Chilli, which is a green chilli, and it is delicious. I have really got into having green chilli on eggs, omelettes and scrambles.”
She does miss the variety of coastal cooking, especially sushi. Instead, she enjoys the local specialities, and on cheat days a sopapilla – a puffed-up pastry typically eaten with butter and honey. Though, she adds, “I cannot have the pastry and honey on keto, but there are great alternatives now”.
Bulletproof mornings and keto creativity
Her day always starts with bulletproof coffee, a blend of black coffee, unsalted grass-fed butter, MCT oil and collagen powder. “It might sound a bit disgusting, but it tastes like a really creamy cappuccino,” she says. “It gives you so much energy. What I learned is that 25% of your calories are used by your brain every day. If you are restricting calories, by the afternoon your brain is not really working properly and then you have a Snickers bar.”
For Tunstall, keto is about choices rather than restriction. “There is no calorie counting, you are not having to go, ‘Oh, I cannot eat that’. It is just choices about what you are eating. With my lifestyle and getting older, it is really good for maintaining muscle, not ballooning up and keeping inflammation low.”
From haggis to lasagne
Despite her dietary discipline, Tunstall’s heart still belongs to the foods of her childhood. Her favourite dish is haggis, neeps and tatties. “I love the fact that haggis uses the whole animal; it is not snobby. A lot of the parts people do not usually eat, like the organs, are incredibly good for you.” She loves encouraging others to try it. “Just close your eyes and have a bite. It is incredibly tasty.”
She also admits she makes a delicious lasagne, crediting homemade béchamel with a touch of nutmeg as the secret. Not every kitchen experiment has worked, though. She remembers a Thanksgiving turkey that tasted of washing-up liquid after an overenthusiastic brine.
Food as love and fuel for the stage
For Tunstall, food is more than just fuel. “Cooking for other people is a real love language for me,” she says. “It is a gift to make something with passion and with love and share it with people.” Whether it is a celebratory tiramisu on her birthday or a spoonful of peanut butter straight from the jar, good food is about nourishment, joy and connection.
As she continues to tour, record and inspire, KT Tunstall shows that you can be a global pop star and still find comfort in a bowl of custard, a slab of haggis or a homemade keto lunch on the go. For her, good food is simple. “Nutritious, made with love and just tasting great.”
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