Olympic Games: Meet the chefs behind the world's biggest restaurant

By Emily Monaco

As the Olympic and Paralympic Games kick off in Paris, more than 200 chefs will be tasked with preparing more than 13 million meals. Here's what athletes can expect.

When the Olympic Games kick off in Paris on 26 July, it will usher in a host of firsts. Breaking will debut as an Olympic event. Gender parity will reign for the first time, with as many women competing as men. And given that the Games are being held in France, it's perhaps no surprise that the Olympic Village will also become home to the world's biggest restaurant.

Feeding 15,000 international athletes from 208 territories and nations is a gargantuan task, with 200 cooks ready to prepare more than 40,000 meals each day, both in the Olympic Village restaurant and at 14 competition sites throughout the city. During the two 15-day periods of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, more than 13 million meals will be served - the equivalent of the amount of food provided at 10 football World Cups.

The Cité du Cinéma film studio complex in Saint-Denis, on the outskirts of Paris, will be the nexus of this culinary feat. Here, athletes will have access to six main areas devoted to French, Asian, Afro-Caribbean and world cuisine, with 500 different recipes catering to a wide variety of tastes. Menus were prepared in collaboration with former French sailor and bronze medalist Hélène Defrance (now a nutritionist), who focused her expertise on helping deliver "an overall pleasurable, nourishing offering that would satisfy any type of diner," she said. She paid close attention to the quality and transparency of the ingredients, but also the flavours and aesthetic appeal of the recipes.

A strict quality charter also governed the food at the Paris Olympics. It was developed over the course of four years of work with the goal of halving the carbon footprint of meals produced during the Games, as compared to London 2012. As a result, a quarter of all ingredients will be sourced in a 250km radius from Paris, and 20 percent will be certified organic. All meat, milk and eggs will be from France, and a third of the food will be plant-based. Two hundred water, juice and soda fountains have been installed in the Olympic Village, and only reusable cups and crockery will be offered.

"Our commitments to social and environmental progress will ensure that we help Paris 2024 to achieve the important challenge of delivering the most sustainable Games," said Nathalie Bellon-Szabo, Global CEO of Sodexo Live!, which is the official partner of the Olympic Village.

With all eyes on Paris, the stage is set for the French terroir to shine. In addition to offering a diversity of international menu options, Sodexo Live! tapped superstar chefs Amandine Chaignot, Alexandre Mazzia and Akrame Benallal, each of whom have developed a signature dish marrying the best in French tradition and local ingredients with an eye towards the nutritional needs of the world's top athletes.

"I believe that there's an important health aspect to French gastronomy," Defrance said, noting that in France, a love of good food can be found anywhere from "the village bakery [to] the fine dining restaurant" and even at "high-quality grab-and-go" options. "The entirety of the culinary approach of French chefs will be infused, in little touches, into the offerings on the whole. And the athletes will be able to take advantage of it all."

To deliver on the promise, the chefs will also have help from Charles Guilloy, Executive Chef of the Olympic and Paralympic Village - the "chef des chefs" - for the duration of the Games.

"We're going to be a bit like athletes," Guilloy said of his job. "It's kind of my way of participating in the Olympics."

Here are the chefs behind the world's largest restaurant.

Chef Charles Guilloy

For months, Chef Charles Guilloy and his team have been hard at work developing meals that will satisfy and fuel the athletes. "A more-than-100kg judoka is not going to eat at all in the same way as a 45kg gymnast," he said, noting he and his team also considered other factors, like cultural norms, in crafting the recipes.

For Guilloy, the Games' sustainability initiatives weren't constraining, but inspiring. "To work with fresh, French, seasonal, local, labelled, certified products… for a cook, that's just the best," he said.

His signature dish takes full advantage of local green lentils from the Yvelines, just outside of Paris. Lentils have gained much attention in nutritional circles of late, given their sustainability and richness in high-quality protein. "What I love about lentils is that they've never gone out of style," he said.

In Guilloy's capable hands, the legume is transformed into a lentil dal and paired with creamy skyr, an Icelandic cultured yoghurt-like cheese rich not just in protein but in gut-healthy probiotics. The dal is seasoned with bright lime and fresh coriander and topped with a crispy corn tuile (a French baked wafer), for a dish that promises to be as delicious as it is nutritious.

Chef Amandine Chaignot

A household name since her appearance as a juror on the 2013/2014 season of MasterChef France, Chef Amandine Chaignot worked with some of France's top culinary pros, from Alain Ducasse to Éric Frechon, before opening her own Parisian restaurant Pouliche in 2019.

The mindset she champions at Pouliche, dominated by her values of "warmth, happiness, [and] cooking with butter," will be tailored to the needs of the athletes thanks to her keen technical acuity. For her signature dish, she has chosen to spotlight roasted French poultry, not just because it is, as she says, "an athlete's meat par excellence," but for its "reassuring" familiarity that makes it likely to please a great swath of athletes from around the world.

"I wanted to make something that would speak to these athletes, who are young, who aren't necessarily foodies," she said. "I wanted to create recipes that are fairly approachable."

She'll pair the poultry with a rich langoustine bisque, a sauce that takes full advantage of French terroir and technique. Reducing the stock down significantly will make it ultra-rich without an over-reliance on butter or cream.

"That langoustine bisque is what's going to bring it back to France," she said. "That generous quality, that power of flavour."

Alexandre Mazzia

Alexandre Mazzia is already familiar with the challenges of feeding athletes: after all, before earning three Michelin stars at his restaurant AM in Marseille, Mazzia was a professional basketball player. And while he'd love to watch the matches, between carrying the Olympic torch through Marseille, keeping his restaurant open Tuesday through Saturday as usual and spending Sundays and Mondays in the Olympic Village feeding the athletes from around the world, he'll probably have his hands full.

"If I get the chance [to see the basketball finals], it'd be with pleasure," he said. "But I'm here above all for the athletes."

His signature dish is built around the same plant- and seafood-forward mindset he champions at AM. Chickpeas, a staple of southern French cuisine, will be whipped into a smooth pomade with verbena. Served with beets, peas and a smoky seafood broth made with haddock and pollock, the dish marries ingredients he loves and the elegance he's become known for with a heaping helping of creativity.

"There are some preconceived notions about French cuisine," he said. "You think you're going to eat a pâté en croute (pâté encased in dough) or a rich sauce or fried potatoes." But while one cannot deny these elements of culinary heritage, for Mazzia, it's essential to cater to the challenge at hand.

"French culinary know-how is also about hospitality," he said. "When we're welcoming athletes, it's being in service to the athletes."

Akrame Benallal

From his steakhouse in Manila to his Silk Road-inspired Shirvan steps from the Eiffel Tower, Chef Akrame Benallal, who was born in France but grew up in Algeria, has long been fascinated with international flavours and approaches. And when it comes to the Olympics, this Michelin-starred chef is pairing his international palate with the palette of ingredients and techniques at his disposal.

"What I always say about French cuisine is that it's got the most variety in the world, in terms of techniques," he said. "You might find Italian techniques in a French dish. You might find Japanese techniques in a French dish. And that's really interesting, because at the end of the day, it makes it so easy."

One of Benallal's past pet projects was the meat-focused Atelier Vivanda, which allowed him to focus on exquisitely sourced beef, pairing it with the best in French potato recipes. But this summer, he'll be eschewing both steak and frites. Not only is deep-frying forbidden in the Olympic Village, but Benallal has opted to take advantage of a more sustainable plant-based protein in crafting his signature recipe. Quinoa sourced from near Orléans, less than 150km from Paris, will be transformed into a risotto-style dish enriched with Parmesan and smoked, fermented yoghurt to add even more protein and richness.

"For many, this is the first time they're coming to France," he said. "We want to show them what we can do."