Athletes at the Paris Olympics will be eating 'reimagined French cuisine' with plant-based ingredients
Next month, 15,000 professional athletes will be descending on Paris ahead of the much-anticipated Olympic and Paralympic Games 2024 — and the catering team feeding them all will be spotlighting a reimagined, healthier and more sustainable version of French cuisine.
Though France may be known as the land of frogs’ legs and foix gras, the catering team at the Paris Olympics is providing athletes with nutritious, whole food options.
In a bid to cut carbon emissions by half, one third of all food options in the restaurant in the Athletes’ Village will be plant-based, and 30 per cent of all ingredients will be certified organic.
‘I have to eat clean and I have to eat whole foods to compete in the best shape I can,’ says Olympic pole vaulter, Ernest John Obiena. ‘They will know what I have to eat as a professional athlete.’
The responsibility of producing over two million meals for a global clientele, flocking from 206 different countries, falls in the hands of Chef Charles Guilloy and the Sodexo Live! catering team. 80 per cent of the menu was sourced in France and 25 per cent within a 250km radius of Paris.
The countdown to the Games is officially on, but for the Olympics catering team, preparing for the event is a task that has been years in the making — they collaborated closely with local farmers and suppliers to prepare crops up to two years in advance of the Games.
Estelle Lamotte, Nutrition & Logistics Expert, explains that while sustainability is a key consideration for the menu at the Games, athletes also need to be fuelled by nutritious food that accounts for a vast array of cultural differences.
‘We are making a menu for 206 nations,’ Lamotte says. ‘That also means different cultures, different habits and making sure there are items that they feel comfortable and familiar with.’
The Olympics are taking place from July 26-August 11, to be followed by the Paralympics from August 28-September 8.
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