It is a succession of happy coincidences which propels her, next summer, within the very select Olympic village. During the two most anticipated months of 2024, Amandine Chaignot will be one of the three chefs who will develop the menus for the athletes. An opportunity “that[elle] will certainly not know twice, ”says the latter. “I didn’t hesitate for a second,” she says, overflowing with enthusiasm. Nothing, however, predestined her to live this adventure. The one who will be immersed in the heart of the event would “not even have watched the Olympics on TV”, in normal times. Surely she would have just watched clips online.
A bit like with the kitchen, it “came there by chance”. Daughter of a research director at the CNRS, accustomed to evolving “in her bubble” and engaged in pharmacy studies, Amandine Chaignot turned late on to the culinary arts. One day, she ditched everything with the idea of opening a tea room. As the internships and meetings progressed, she revealed a real talent and began a fruitful career. Today, the chef has opened several restaurants in Paris and works closely with the Sodexo Live! for catering for major events.
When these teams won the tender for the restoration of the Olympic Village, she was naturally offered a position alongside starred chefs Akrame Benallal and Alexandre Mazzia. Highlighting short circuits, cuisine marked by travel or even gastronomic art inspired by a childhood in the Congo, “the idea was to have a representative panel of current French catering”, she summarizes. Each chef will propose fourteen recipes, which will be adapted and then served by the catering teams.
In the kitchen as in sport, transmitting values
If the intrepid chef is not the type to watch sport on television, she is far from resistant to it. “I need to exercise myself on a daily basis, I do running, dancing and boxing,” she says. The parallel is not the most common but Amandine Chaignot sees a great coherence between the practice of cooking and that of sport. “This great fervor behind the victories, the collective that carries the exploit of an individual, it is something that speaks to us, she assures. In the kitchen, we are all in search of collective overcoming. There are many common values. »
The chef, who is particularly committed, seeks to convey her values through her cuisine. The restoration of the Olympic Village will not necessarily help it to extend its customer base internationally since it is aimed “only at athletes, therefore at a very niche population”. But it could well allow him to introduce a positive idea of vegetarian cuisine to people from all over the world.
As she already does, especially in her restaurant Pouliche, she seeks to speak to as many people as possible with an approach “not too segmented, nor closed”. The dishes offered are largely vegetarian, but not exclusively, so as not to rush. A message that is also addressed to the catering teams. “We try to push big companies to work in the right direction, if possible with local, quality from organic or sustainable agriculture,” she continues.
Menus reserved for major events
But the chefs are not the only masters of the menus they create. If they are free for the moment to compose the menus of their choice, they will have to receive the approval of Sodexo Live! then the Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (OCOG). “It’s a big machine,” recalls the chef. For two months, up to 40,000 performances will be served daily at the Athletes’ Village, which will host 15,000 Olympic and Paralympic athletes. Nearly 1,000 employees will be mobilized in a restaurant and six “chill areas”. Informal spaces that will offer take-out food, and where chefs and athletes will meet.
Gourmet food will remain reserved for pleasure catering, during the opening or closing ceremonies and at the time of medal awards. “We do not claim to be able to deal, like dieticians, with the nutritional constraints that accompany the sports preparation of athletes”, explains the chef. It is above all a question of showing the French gastronomic know-how. An essential experience of any visit to Paris.
Everything is still in the planning stage, but 20 minutes can already reveal to you the star dishes of the chefs. Herbaceous chickpea ointment, peas, smoked fish milk for Alexandre Mazzia and crispy quinoa muesli for Akrame Benallal. As for Amandine Chaignot, she emphasizes the local side with her poultry with crayfish accompanied by potato gnocchi, chicken sauce. Tempting, isn’t it?