What Do The Players Eat On The Traitors?

The Traitors has become known for a number of things – from Claudia Winkleman’s countrycore outfits to the grand Scottish castle in which the programme is filmed. But one element everyone’s talking about this year? The daily breakfast. It’s a key part of the show, marking the moment the contestants find out who has been murdered overnight. Yet the impressive buffet spread itself has also caught the attention of fans, and prompted a whole host of questions surrounding food on the show. For instance: are the players too nervous to eat croissants while waiting to find out the night’s devious activities? Is the food actually good? And what happens if they get hungry mid-challenge? We’ve done some digging to find out what they eat on The Traitors.

The Traitors: What Do The Contestants Eat On The Show?

What Do They Have For Breakfast On The Traitors?

All fans of The Traitors will know the daily breakfast buffet is a grand affair featuring pastries, fruit, bread, coffee and juice. However, some contestants have broken the fourth wall by revealing some of the breakfast is part of the set, arranged aesthetically for dramatic effect – and often disappointing. Ivan Brett, who appeared on the first series of the show, wrote on X: ‘I’m sorry guys, it’s time to come clean and leak something shocking about #TheTraitors. It pains me to tell you, but that breakfast is REALLY DRY AND NOT VERY NICE.’ He went on to describe the breakfast as ‘set dressing’ and ‘stale’.

Ivan isn’t the only one: Sonja Clarke and Aubrey Emerson from series two also gave negative reviews on The Traitors: Uncloaked. Host Ed Gamble asked how the breakfasts were, to which Sonja replied: ‘cold’. Aubrey added: ‘It was disappointing – one of the things I was expecting was this lovely buffet in the morning. You were lucky if you got a cup of coffee. When you got it, it was cold. There was lots of melons.’

BBC / Studio Lambert

However, another former contestant, Alex Gray from season one, gave more positive feedback. In an interview, she said: ‘I have allergies, so couldn’t eat the breakfast food, and there was always someone to sort it out.’

Some players have said they actually eat breakfast in their rooms before filming – which are not at Ardross Castle, but a Marriott hotel near Inverness Airport (sorry to burst the bubble). John McManus, who starred in season one, told The Sun: ‘We get breakfast served to our rooms in the hotel, before the on-screen breakfast! There’s security, your food’s brought to your room, and the welfare team are brilliant, knocking on your door regularly to check you’re okay, but there’s none of this mixing or hanging about.’

Do The Traitors‘ Contestants Eat In The Castle?

Aside from the breakfast, we see the players enjoying other meals in the castle. After taking part in the challenges, the contestants head back to the HQ where they can help themselves to food from a buffet, which they tend to go off and enjoy in groups in separate parts of the castle. So what are these meals like? Much better than breakfast, according to Ivan. In the same post on X he described the rest of the food served as ‘delicious and varied, everyone’s diets and tastes accounted for.’

BBC / Studio Lambert

So what about hunger cravings outside of mealtimes? Alex revealed there is ‘about one welfare person to every two cast members, just to make sure you all had snacks or if you needed a little moment to yourself.’

Season two player Zack Davies, meanwhile, gave mixed reviews of the catering on the show. Speaking to comedy duo Luke and Elliott, he described the food as ‘good sometimes’, but noted a ‘vegan haggis that didn’t sit well with me’. However, he also said the nerves often got the better of him: ‘I mean you hardly wanted to [like] eat at times.’ 

BBC / Studio Lambert

Do They Drink Alcohol On The Traitors?

We all remember the fateful scene when season two fan favourite Diane Carson was killed off the show with a poisoned chalice filled with fizzy rosé. But how much can the players drink? During a Q&A on TikTok, series one winner Meryl Williams revealed the players aren’t allowed alcohol every night. ‘We only got it every couple of nights, and it was rationed, not rationed but we got like one glass or two glasses each,’ she said. ‘We couldn’t literally have a whole bottle to ourselves.’ Wilfred Webster, also from series one, gave similar insight. ‘They said two but they [staff] always disappeared after one,’ he admitted. ‘They don’t want us to mess up and get drunk and accidentally do something.’ This makes sense: who knows what could happen after a few too many glasses of vino? Would Linda give up and reveal her true traitor identity? Or might Charlotte’s fake Welsh accent go out the window?