Olympic Village athletes will be able to get hands-on baking their own baguettes!
As the clock ticks down to the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games Paris 2024, caterers in the country are busy planning as they prepare to serve up to 40,000 meals a day in the Olympic Village.
Among the various foodstuffs available, one in particular offers athletes the opportunity to experience one of France’s flagship products: the baguette.
The humble baton is a must-have product on dining tables up and down the country, and Olympians will soon get to experience not only how baguettes taste but also how they’re made.
In addition to five takeaway kiosks, the main restaurant and a cafe plaza, the Olympic Village will contain an outdoor Grab&Go—complete with an authentic bakery where Olympians can shape their own baguettes in the presence of professional chefs.
Stéphane Chicheri is the executive chef for Sodexo Live!, the company that won a bid to provide food inside the Olympic Village.
“The outdoor Grab&Go is a 500-meter square space with seating around high tables; you can sit or stand while having a coffee and enjoy making a baguette, or simply taste its flavours as it comes out of the oven,” Chicheri told Olympics.com.
The former head of Lenôtre Culinary Arts School had dreamt about having a bakery inside the Olympic Village before he was even part of the company that won the bid to offer its services for the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
"I was not yet working in this position [when Sodexo Live! won the bid],” he said. “At that time, there were bakery lessons in the school and since I was already making bread, I wanted to include this proposal in the bid for the Olympic Games."
The baguette is an iconic product of France
Stéphane Chicheri says, "The bakery makes me quite happy because it is a bit like my baby. It was a matter close to my heart. I find it important to have a real baguette for an event like this—an iconic product of France."
The baguette is recognised worldwide as an emblematic product of French life—so much so that UNESCO inscribed it on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Chicheri, as the most "pastry-oriented" among the cooks, will be hands-on at the Grab&Go. He plans to pay tribute to the "bakers who make a big effort to make a product which requires preparation time, shaping, cooking and attention," noting that this effort deserves attention.
But, in concrete terms, how will the athletes be able to prepare their own baguettes?
"The bakery was built to have a space where we will knead and shape … It is possible to work face to face there. And the athletes who want to participate will have the opportunity to put on a lovely apron to come and shape, monitor the rising of the bread dough, and remove the baguettes from the oven."
This discovery of the host country's culture is a large part of the athletes’ Olympic journey, which is too often summarized by their sporting performance.
The bakery will produce 600 to 800 fresh baguettes per day. Be ready as French culture is set to spread across the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024.
Some figures about the food at the Olympic and Paralympic Village
- 15,000 athletes to feed
- Nearly 40,000 meals a day
- 3,500 seats in the Olympic Village restaurants
- The Olympic Village restaurants will be open 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, beginning 12 July
- 80% of products are of French origin
- 30% of organic products are bio or in organic conversion
- 100% of the French regions are represented
- 100% of second lease of life for the facilities and infrastructure