Epicurean excellence

Top: Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, president of Olympic Council of Asia enjoys lunch in the dining hall at the Athletes' Village. Above: Steamed shrimp dumplings are among the most popular snacks available to competitors at the Asian Games. Sun Xiaochen / China Daily

GUANGZHOU - Cooking three meals a day for a three-member family can be a burden.

So, just imagine having to feed more than 10,000 people, 24 hours a day, for one month!

Catherine Toolan, executive director of the Asian Games catering service, along with her crew, accomplishes that mission every day in the main dining hall of the Athletes' Village.

"It's a huge challenge to serve complex sports events such as the Asiad. But with the experience we gained at the 2008 Beijing Olympics as a caterer we are confident we can handle it well here," said Toolan, a native of Ireland.

A staff of more than 1,000, including 156 chefs, provides more than 150 kinds of dishes each mealtime. The meals are divided into about a half dozen different styles and the menu rotates every five days.

"We are trying to make sure the athletes feel like they are at home," Toolan said.

"That's why we have a mixed international team of chefs, including Chinese, Indian, Japanese and Arabians, who are all specialists in their fields."

Among all the mouth-watering Asian foods, Cantonese snacks, such as steamed shrimp dumplings and Shaomai, are the most popular, said Toolan.

The amount of food that has been ordered for the dining hall is staggering: about 20,000kg of seafood, 10,000kg of meat, 8,000kg of pasta, 32,000kg of rice and 200,000 eggs will be consumed over the course of the event, according to Liang Xun, the catering service department's director of the Athlete's Village.

If all of the bananas were connected end to end, the length would equal the distance of two marathons, while the water consumed each day could fill the swimming pool at the Water Cube in Beijing, Toolan said with a laugh.

While taste is important, Toolan insists that food safety is the No 1 priority, especially after several famous athletes, including Chinese Olympic judo champion Tong Wen, Hong Kong's top shuttler Zhou Mi, and German paddler Dimitrij Ovtcharov failed drug tests at major events and blamed tainted food.

"We test and monitor each link of our food service chain, including purchase, delivery, storage, cooking and serving, and cooperate with the local government, the food safety authority and the anti-doping agency," said Toolan.

"We make sure we provide clean, we transport clean and we cook clean."

Another highly-praised service in the dining hall is nutrition consultation. Sports nutritionists are available to provide tips on weight control and calorie intake, while bilingual nutrition sheets of the dishes, including the amount of calories, carbohydrates and fat, are on each table.

Athletes can make their own calculations to fit their needs, especially for those in weight classification events such as weightlifting and wrestling.

"That's important and useful. It informs me about what to eat and what not to eat before my event so I can maintain my weight," said Susila Adhixari, a Nepalese women judoka.

China Daily