With "la Scène des Chefs", the gastronomic corner set up in the Athletes' Village in Seine-Saint-Denis, athletes will be able to sample the (savoury) cuisine of three great French chefs: Akrame Benallal (one Michelin star for his eponymous restaurant in Paris), Alexandre Mazzia (three stars for Mazzia in Marseille) and Amandine Chaignot, queen of Parisian gourmet bistros.
The official chef of the Olympic Games reveals her secrets for preparing an XXL service.
Amandine Chaignot, in between preparing foie gras in her restaurant Pouliche, welcomes us to Montmartre at her second address, le Café de Luce, sipping a peach syrup. On the programme: the origins of the dishes on offer, and the organisation of the event in the run-up to the Paris 2024 Games.
I've already worked with the Sodexo Live! teams on a number of occasions, including at the Petit Palais - she's been signing the menu for the Paris museum restaurant for Sodexo since 2019. When they asked me to help them win the tender, I didn't hesitate for a second.
First of all, I started from the premise that we were talking about young sportsmen and women, not Parisian foodies. I also wanted dishes that were easy to understand - not forgetting the language barrier - and reassuring, because these athletes are in a special context. We also had to think about recipes that required easy-to-understand preparation techniques for the teams who would be reproducing them.
Yes, at Pouliche and at Café de Luce, we don't use disposable plastic or disposable glass bottles - either for soft drinks or water. At the moment, we're even thinking about composting. Our cuisine is already seasonal, with as much local produce as possible, without stopping us from offering a chocolate, vanilla or coffee dessert from time to time. For sourcing, we suggested producers, but Sodexo has its own way of operating and on such a large scale, we can't work with micro-farmers or breeders.
© Anne-Claire Héraud
A croissant topped with a poached egg, artichokes and truffles**! What could be more French than a croissant? And it's an excellent playground. Here at the Café de Luce, we prepare it with escargot or ham and cheese.
I'll also be offering a salad of heirloom tomatoes - "Pineapple", "Crimean Black", "Cherry", "Red Zebra" - with a tomato sorbet and geranium oil; and a volaille with langoustines, with gnocchi. Originally, I wanted to make a chicken with crayfish, but it was too difficult to source.
Yes, a cuisine that's not saturated. No fat, no sugar. It's always easy to understand and doesn't demonstrate any technical skill. All the texturisers, gelling agents and spherifications are not my thing. We also put the emphasis on vegetarianism - half of the recipes proposed for the Games are vegetarian, as is the case at Pouliche where we are completely vegetarian on Wednesdays.
One day, one chef, one recipe! With one service for lunch and one for dinner. We're each there two days a week. The rest of the time, we're in our respective restaurants. As usual, I close Pouliche for 15 days in August, but Café de Luce remains open.
On the stage of the "Scène des Chefs ", there will be a fully equipped open kitchen and a pass. We'll be serving roughly 100g portions and it'll be just like a real service.
First of all, Sodexo will do the set-up on its own - for the poultry, for example, this will involve working the butcher, vacuum-packing, and preparing the gnocchi, langoustines and sauce bases. During the testing phases, we validated everything together, from tastes to gestures. On site, with two cooks from Pouliche, we can adjust the seasoning, snack, re-cut, dress...
I've been riding for a long time, so obviously I'd like to have met some riders, like France's Pénélope Leprévost, but the events take place in Versailles and she had a problem with her horse - the young woman had to withdraw from the competition because of her mount's state of health.
I'm an optimist and I want it to be a party! The Games are all about getting together and forgetting about each other's differences, just like any other sporting event... Afterwards, as with all festivities, sometimes you run out of peanuts, but you adapt, so there's nothing to grumble about.
The full menu
Editor's note: The Games ' specifications stipulate that 80% of products must be French, 25% from within 150 km of Paris, and that disposable plastic is prohibited.
