LONDON • Harry Kane has revealed that his remarkable scoring feats with Tottenham Hotspur and England over recent months can be traced back to his kitchen.

The 24-year-old striker has scored goals at a prolific rate since his breakthrough season with Tottenham in 2014-15.

His scoring has hit new heights this year - 11 goals in five games for club and country at the tail end of last season, and 13 in eight matches last month - and he partly credits his decision to hire a personal chef.

"Over the last year or so, I've changed a lot off the pitch with the nutrition side of it," Kane said on Wednesday.

"It kind of clicked in my head that a football career is so short. It goes so quickly. You've just got to make every day count.

"So I've got a chef at home to eat the right food, which is big for recovery.

"You can't train as hard as you'd like when you have so many games, so you have to make the little gains away from football as well.

"That's recovery, sleep, eating the right food. That will definitely help me going into a tournament year and hopefully keep me fresh all year round."

Kane was introduced to his chef, whom he did not name, by an acquaintance last December.

The chef visits the house Kane shares with his fiancee, Katie Goodland, and their nine-month-old baby, Ivy, six days a week and has been helping him understand how his body reacts to different foods.

"You could eat healthily all week and then have loads of carbs (carbohydrates) before a game, but you've not eaten those carbs all week and your body goes into a little bit of shock," Kane said.

"It's more just planning it; when we have double (training) sessions, maybe higher carbs; when the sessions are a bit lighter, it'd be lower.

"I still eat what I was eating, nothing really new.

"I'm not a big fish fan, but he's got me eating a bit more fish for my Omega-3 (fatty acids). A few spices on that to help."

Asked whether he has a guilty pleasure, Kane lowered his head bashfully and said: "Apple crumble."

While Kane's eating habits have changed, his style of shooting has not. The striker is renowned for finding the bottom corners of the net, and he says Tottenham youth coach Bradley Allen played a key role in helping him hone his finishing in the opposition's half.

"I've worked on that from a young age - it was always low and hard in the corner," Kane said. "Some people now try and score the perfect goal, in the top corner to look better, but it doesn't matter to me. Low and hard across the goalkeeper is the worst one for them to try and save.

"Bradley Allen, under-15s (coach) here, was a great coach for me. We always did extra finishing. Last year, he asked me why I kept cutting back on my right foot and not taking it on my left, and he was right.

"This season, that's worked out well for me - I've scored quite a few with the left foot."

Kane has always professed himself content at Tottenham, his local club, but for the first time, he has opened the door to a move abroad.

"I would never say no or yes. You'd not rule out anything," he said when asked about the possibility of one day playing overseas. "It's not something I definitely want to do, but you never rule anything out.

"I'm very happy here, but we'll see what happens."

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE