Paris, athletes and their menu

This text is part of the special Pleasures notebook

Around forty main dishes served daily, a third of which will be vegetarian. Some 500 different recipes validated by the International Olympic Committee. Open day and night and a total estimated at 45,000 meals per day, according to the New York Times. Welcome to the largest restaurant in the world: the cafeteria for the athletes who will stay in the Olympic Village and, at its head, French and starred chefs.

Upstream, the artisans of fine French cuisine Amandine Chaignot, Akrame Benallal and Alexandre Mazzia were selected to develop the gourmet dishes which will be offered to the 15,000 athletes of the 2024 Olympic Games and offered in limited series.

“You don’t eat a steak and fries before running a 100 meter!” » imaged the one who interviewed Akrame Benallal on the airwaves of France24. In fact, we instead asked the three stars to create local, sustainable, seasonal and diversified meals to satisfy the appetites of competing athletes. The Franco-Algerian chef at the head of the establishment that bears his first name imagined Muslinoa. It is a vegetarian dish made from a crispy quinoa muesli, served with fat-free smoked yogurt, mascarpone, parmesan and fresh herbs. Interested? The dish will also be offered to customers of the Akrame restaurant throughout the Olympics.

Croissants, of course

“When I was asked to be part of the team of chefs responsible for creating the athletes’ menus, the brief was to offer signature cuisine, well anchored in French territory. An offer that is both gourmet and balanced,” explains Amandine Chaignot. These recipes do not have a “nutritional” purpose strictly speaking, but rather they are there to support athletes in the Olympic village and to provide them with joyful, generous and… delicious moments! So, what elements of French cuisine will inevitably be integrated into its menu? “The croissant, of which we French are so proud! But also some more seasonal foods such as beautiful tomatoes, peaches, fennel or blackberries. The idea is to highlight typically French recipes and products such as trout, poultry quenelle or even pretty pissaladière,” she lists.

If you are passing through the City of Lights for the Olympic or Paralympic events, it is at the Café de Luce that you can taste one of Amandine Chaignot’s creations. She designed them especially for the Olympics. “In the purest Parisian tradition, I wanted to introduce the athletes to the garnished croissant. And so, at Café de Luce, we will find it garnished, sometimes with ham and cheese, sometimes with snail or even with artichoke, as a nod to the proposed recipe. »

From Marseille to Paris

A few months before the Games, people queue in front of Michel, Alexandre Mazzia’s restaurant truck, named in homage to his fisherman grandfather. In front of the window counter, it is difficult to measure the eccentricity of the menu which made the popularity of the three-star chef and offered at AM, his second address a stone’s throw away. But the black-painted vehicle is undoubtedly popular with its meals that can be eaten on the go. They are prepared with unparalleled elegance for street food served next to a simple residential building on rue François Rocca in Marseille.

From there, all you have to do is follow the long electrical cable that connects the truck to the restaurant. Here, the giant with quiet strength, former professional basketball player and bearer of the Paris 2024 Olympic flame, offers what he calls “guided journeys” which combine flavors, textures and sensations. Creations so exquisite, sophisticated and precise that only poetry remains to describe them in the mouth.

Among more than 30 compositions offered during the culinary adventure, we find “spider flesh with animal juice, veil of marinated denti sake-beetroot and garum”, or even “crystalline saffron, caviar bottarga, ginger condiment and heads of burnt mackerel. How can you combine such unique creations served at one of the eight tables of your Marseille address with a menu of Olympic athletes, without losing your DNA? “As I do at the restaurant and at Michel, I want to highlight our artisans, our fishermen and our gatherers, all the richness of our territory,” he explains. Among the dishes he will offer athletes, herbaceous chickpea ointment, smoked beetroot and haddock milk topped with rings of bread. Complex ? Typically Mazzia.

The journalist was invited by Atout France, ExploreFrance, Paris je t’aime, Choose Paris Région, the Marseille Tourist Office and the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Regional Tourism Committee.

This content was produced by the Special Publications team at Duty, relating to marketing. The writing of the Duty did not take part.

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