"Of course, when we think of traditional cuisine, we think more veal blanquette or pepper steak than quinoa risotto," laughs Amandine Chaignot, one of the three chefs who will promote French gastronomy alongside the Sodexo Live group! responsible for ensuring food for the 15,000 athletes in the Olympic Village.

If she has imagined a guinea fowl dish with crayfish, Alexandre Mazzia will only use a little fish to accompany his vegetable and leguminous dishes, while Akrame Benallal has chosen the vegetable with quinoa muesli as his flagship dish.

"It's fantastic in terms of greening," says Laurent Pasteur, Sodexo Live!'s Olympic and Paralympic Village project director for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, whose stated goal is to reduce the carbon footprint of menus with local products and less animal protein.

Green lentil dahl from Ile-de-France with a skyr (a kind of yogurt) with coriander and corn oil: Sodexo Live's "signature" recipe! goes in the same direction.

"Not for everyone"

"33% of the supply is in vegetable proteins (...) There is a real turn," says Laurent Pasteur, while ensuring that each athlete will find "what he wants" among the more than 500 recipes that will be served during the Olympics.

Because a diet based on vegetable proteins and legumes, good for the planet, is not suitable for all athletes, concedes Hélène Defrance, Olympic medalist skipper, nutritionist and member of the Paris 2024 Athletes' Commission.

skipperer Hélène de France (c), bronze medallist at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, August 18, 2016 © WILLIAM WEST / AFP/Archives

If "greening is a big trend" and these antioxidant foods "protect the body", "it is not something that can be imposed on everyone. Some people will find amino acids in plant proteins, but not all organisms adapt," she said in an interview with AFP.

As for legumes, "they are quite complex foods to digest," adds Hélène Defrance.

The chefs' dishes will thus "enrich" the overall offer and will rather be intended for tasting after the tests.

Chef Alexandre Mazzia in Paris, January 23, 2021 © JOEL SAGET / AFP/Archives

"I've been interested in everything kilocalories and so on, but I'm not here for that. An athlete will not come to eat at my house on the eve of his competition. We are here to bring our French know-how and a festive side, "said Alexandre Mazzia, former high-level basketball player, 3 Michelin stars.

Pivotal moment?

The Olympics will serve as a "showcase" to show that French cuisine is modern and could become "a pivotal moment" to change habits, Loïc Bienassis, historian of the European Institute of History and Cultures of Food in Tours, told AFP.

"Historically, there is no great French meal without meat (...) To say +let's make great French cuisine and eliminate meat+ is a reversal of perspective," he says.

The France is far behind England and the Nordic countries in the place given to plants.

In a recent report encouraging people to eat less meat, the daily Libération cited data from the Institute of Climate Economics, according to which the French consume "more than twice as much meat and animal products as the world average" and offered non-meat barbecue recipes.

An idea implemented this summer at the Trianon Palace in Versailles, with meatless skewers and a burger made with beetroot and quinoa.

The green shift for the Olympics, "it does not surprise us," said the sous-chef of the palace, Abdourahamane Cissé, adding that American tourists, Asian, but also French are asking more and more vegetarian dishes.

In order not to frustrate meat lovers, the palace still offers a meat alternative, chosen by about 10% of customers.

© 2023 AFP