"My biggest lesson was how, on a huge event like this, you can produce so much high-quality food in a safe way."
Chef Marcel van der Schot - Sodexo Netherlands
Catering for Paris 2024: epic, sustainable and delicious
The Olympic and Paralympic games are much anticipated events which captivate billions of people around the world.
This summer, Paris welcomed athletes from around the globe for the third time in its history, hosting the world’s most prestigious sporting event. Now, two months later, the post-Olympic blues linger. The Paris Olympics were filled with record-breaking achievements and captivating performances.
Join us as we reflect on the highlights and lessons from this unforgettable experience.
An epic event to cater
With 15,000 athletes of 206 nationalities and more than 30 sporting disciplines in fierce competition, food was the secret ingredient for providing them the nutrition they needed to perform at their very best.
This summer our Sodexo Live! teams provided catering services for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic games within the Athletes' Village, as well as for spectators, organizational staff, and athletes across 14 competition venues in Paris, Lyon and Marseille.
A monumental 6,000 people were involved in providing delicious food for each athlete, spectator and staff member. Some of our Sodexo chefs from all over the world had a once in a lifetime experience to join the teams at Paris 2024.
Our chefs performed a variety of roles, from quality assurance or training to cooking in one of the many restaurants or advising athletes on nutrition.
We asked them how it went, two things stood out, the food and the people!
The food: sustainable and nutritious
The food for Paris 2024 needed to be not only healthy and nutritious but also sustainable. The menus were filled with a huge variety of locally sourced ingredients. The culinary experts at Sodexo Live! poured their expertise and passion in to crafting 500 healthy and tasty recipes which met all these criteria as well as celebrating the richness of French gastronomy and meeting the diverse dietary expectations and habits.
There was a huge variety of ingredients available. You could find vegetables and fruits from local hydroponic farms, vegetarian sausages and an immense variety of cheese.
The Dhal and Salad Bar stood out to the chefs as concepts that, whilst simple, were incredibly delicious, nutritious and healthy and widely loved by consumers and the Sodexo teams alike.
"For me the Dahl was the best sustainable dish I discovered."
Chef Simon Parras - Sodexo Germany
"I rediscovered the best sustainable dish that reminded me of the flavors of my childhood."
Chef Michał Fabiszewski - Sodexo Poland
The people: Immense team spirit
It was a huge challenge to be part of such a large team with so many different languages spoken but the teams quickly came together to serve amazing food!
"After three days, the team of international chefs felt like family to me"
Chef Robert Janse - Sodexo Netherlands
"Overcoming the language barrier was challenging but also fun. Although not all of us spoke French, the kitchen has a universal language."
Chef Daniel Konja - Sodexo Peru
"There was a great atmosphere of togetherness among the Sodexo chefs, which created a wonderful team spirit."
Chef Patriek Elebaut - Sodexo Belgium
We are honored to have been part of this monumental event, running the biggest restaurant in the world, serving up to 40,000 meals a day, 24/7.
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