Olympic Games 2024: pride and honour for the three chefs in charge of feeding the athletes

Pauline Masotta | 9/29/23

Three chefs have been chosen to feed the athletes who will be at the Olympic Village during the Paris 2024 Games, an exceptional showcase for French gastronomy. They tell us about it.

It's the most eagerly awaited event of 2024. From July 26 to August 11, the Olympic Games will be held in Paris. The French capital is preparing to experience a moment suspended in time and become the heart of the world. During these 16 days, three chefs will be responsible for feeding the athletes. Here are their first thoughts.

Who are the chefs who will be cooking for the Olympic athletes?

The chefs will have the onerous task of honoring French gastronomy, while respecting the nutritional needs of 15,000 athletes. The watchword? Adapt and please. All in all, it's a way of showcasing French know-how and gastronomic riches. But who are the three chosen ones?

Amandine Chaignot
Akrame Benallal
Alexandre Mazzia

They were selected by Sodexo Live, which oversees all catering logistics for the Olympic Village. Tony Estanguet, head of the Organizing Committee (COJO), aims to offer a unique experience to all delegations. "The Games experience is also what's on their plates," he told Le Parisien.

Three chefs, three different worlds

During the 16 intense days of the Games, the chefs will be offering the athletes recipes from their own worlds, in order to provide a unique savoir-faire.

Amandine Chaignot, head of Café de Luce, will be offering athletes a regressive cuisine. Her aim? To please athletes while taking into account their nutritional needs. "Obviously, there's the meal times before the races, when we're looking for performance with a very strict dietary plan, but there are also moments of leisure" , she assures France 3 Paris.she assures France 3 Paris, well aware that some athletes coming from "theother side of the world" expect to taste the highly reputed French gastronomy.

Akrame Benallal, on the other hand, is determined to satisfy everyone, while taking into account the different cultures and beliefs of the various participants. For this reason, he has devised an entirely plant-based menu."It's been a very thoughtful process," says the chef on France 24. His signature dish for the Olympic Games? Mueslinoa", a blend of muesli and quinoa. The idea was to "play on tastes and textures". A keen boxer and breakdancer, Akrame Benallal is measuring his chance to be part of the 2024 Olympic adventure.

For Alexandre Mazzia, head of the AM restaurant in Marseille, "it's a pride and an honor to be present in the village", he confides. If the Olympic Games evoke for him "craftsmanship, French know-how, enthusiasm, precision, performance, commitment, records, but also laughter, applause and smiles "There will also be "a nutritional and organoleptic relationship" to take into account "for performance but also for recovery", says the chef, a former basketball player.

"This inspires me to create a cuisine that is healthy but also gourmet, that will showcase our territory, our crafts and our French know-how". Alexandre Mazzia

Preparing food for top-level athletes? It's not a first for the Phocaean chef. "During the confinement, I helped players by giving recipes and a few tricks of the trade so that they could eat properly at home". What matters to Alexandre Mazzia is that the athletes are able to "eat with complete peace of mind before, during and after". And to achieve this, he has decided to work "with physical trainers, sports doctors and nutritionists".

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