Olympic food venues face problems

The 2024 Olympics are underway in Paris, and there is already controversy over the food being served to the athletes, or rather, the lack of food. Teams are saying that the four restaurants serving the athletes’ village are running out of food, especially high protein items like eggs and chicken. There are also reports that some of the meat being served to athletes is raw. This comes as a blow to Paris’s reputation as one of the best food cities in the world.

Expectations were high for the food service heading into the Olympics. The Washington Post interviewed one of the chefs (gift link) preparing to feed the athletes, former professional basketball player Alexandre Mazzia. In the runup to the Olympics, Mazzia, along with two other French chefs (Amandine Chaignot and Akrame Benallal), were planning the menus for the 15,000 athletes. They expected to serve about 40,000 meals per day in the Olympic kitchen, which operates 24/7 during the Games. 

The blame for the food issues isn’t being placed on the chefs who designed the menus, bur rather on Sodexo Live, the company in charge of catering. One would think that the quantity and quality of food required for Olympic Games would not be a mystery; after all, the games have been going on for over 100 years. However, I recall hearing about food problems in previous Olympics, so it seems to be an ongoing issue. It takes a lot of calories to fuel athletes at this level. Let’s hope the food shortages and quality problems are fixed in short order.