London 2012 Olympics: How to feed the 80,000

Staving off the hunger pangs of a stadium full of spectators is an Olympian task in itself - and that’s on top of all the athletes, officials and dignitaries. Ben Bryant looks at what will be on offer for the hungry multitudes

Ben Bryant

21 May 2012

If the 2012 Olympic organising committee is to be believed, the breakfast of champions is a Big Mac, a bar of Dairy Milk and a gallon of Coca-Cola. McDonald’s, Cadbury and Coca-Cola have exclusive rights to sell branded food and drink at the Olympic venues, and the privilege of peddling their fodder to athletes and spectators alike.

If the idea of Olympic heroes refuelling on chocolate buttons and quarter-pounders is a little hard to swallow — cyclist Bradley Wiggins is sponsored by McDonald’s — it may come as a relief to know that there will be food and drink on offer.

Locog has promised that there will be no compromise on the choice of food and drink at the Olympics, and expects as much as 80 per cent of the food on site to be served from unbranded food stalls, courts and restaurants. But judging by those who went to a recent test event on site, expect to be relieved of £5.80 for a hot dog, £1.50 for a bag of crisps, more than a fiver for a sloppy curry in a cardboard box and £2.40 for a coffee (the bitter filtered kind).

London’s street food community has just over two months to raise its game and provide hungry locals and tourists with nosh that’s fast and fabulous, if not cheap.

Eat.st, the original street food juggernaut and a favourite of the food critics (“exhilarating cooking”, according to Marina O’Loughlin in Metro), numbers 35 traders among its members and will be out in force at events outside the Olympic Park.

Its founder Petra Barra says: “We’re working on some exciting plans to bring the eat.st flavour to various events across the city. Our mobility gives us huge flexibility — so expect to see us all over the place.”

However, those planning on bringing a picnic into the Olympic Park to avoid paying a premium will be disappointed. Security considerations mean only a restricted amount of food can be brought on site, and water containers above 100ml will not be permitted. Inside the gates a small bottle of water will cost £1.60.

Fine dining

A corporate invitation to the Olympic Park will doubtlessly offer you the best chance of a decent meal. Prestige Ticketing, the premium ticket retailer at the Games, aims to provide a luxurious menu for its wealthy clientele in its flagship £7 million venue. The three-storey temporary structure will seat 3,000 guests across eight restaurants, reserved for special ticket holders who have purchased its premium packages. As marketing director Tony Barnard puts it: “You’re not talking a tent or a marquee.”

The company promises to provide a variety of dining experiences for its six venues at the Olympic Park, Greenwich Park, Horse Guards Parade, Eton Dorney, Wimbledon and the O2 Arena.

In the Olympic Park, chefs will prepare “a very modern, contemporary take on the best of British cuisine” that will be assembled by “getting the very best quality ingredients and cooking them in a very simple, unfussy way”. The menus will feature as much local, sustainably sourced food as possible, as well as “the very best” wines and champagnes.

The company plans to offer the purchasers of the most expensive packages bonuses some rare and unusual wines: “We’ll put on some wines that won’t appear again — such as some small batches of the best English wine.” Tickets are all-inclusive, so guests are free to eat and drink as though it were an Olympic event in itself.

Not shy of embracing foodie trends, the team has even spent time foraging for local plants, although whether anybody would actually want to eat the dog-eared fronds and withered creepers that lurk on the fringes of the Olympic Park remains to be seen.

The à la carte restaurants themselves will be categorised by sport rather than food, serving according to the timing of the events. The packages come at a cost, however. Tickets to the opening ceremony, which cost Prestige £2,012 each, will be resold in packages costing £4,500 — which includes fine dining and an “amazing Olympic interactive experience”.

For the beach volleyball at Horse Guards Parade, Prestige plans to build a two-storey building to give its clients what it describes as an “urban sports club” experience. Meanwhile, at Eton Dorney, a 600-cover restaurant will offer brunch for the rowing events. Prestige has 88,000 tickets, a little more than one per cent of the 6.6 million tickets on sale.

Fast food

The Olympic Park has the dubious honour of hosting the largest McDonald’s in the world: a supersize two-storey diner that will seat more than 1,500 people and is expected to serve 1.75 million customers during its life. That equates to one in four people visiting the park during the Olympics.

The only branded non-alcoholic drinks available will be provided by Coca-Cola. It expects to sell 25 million drinks from its range — including Schweppes Abbey Well.

Outside the Park

The gateway to the park for most visitors will be the £1.8 billion Westfield Stratford City mall, which is home to more than 70 bars and restaurants and an extensive food market. Those seeking some shelter from the manic atmosphere of the Olympic Park might struggle to find a quiet corner in this retail behemoth, but may be able to enjoy a lazy afternoon, drink in hand, on its roof.

The mall includes a mix of independent and chain restaurants. The Balcony area features kiosks including Vincent Labeyrie’s Chip + Fish, Comptoir Libanais and Byron.

The mezzanine Loft area below the cinema includes familiar chains Wagamama, Giraffe and Gourmet Burger Kitchen, while fast food can be found in the lower ground floor food court where McDonald’s, Subway and KFC sit side by side with Sticky Rice, Crêpeaffair, Caribbean Scene and Olive Oil and Oregano.

Olympic food by numbers

1.75 million: McDonald’s customers over the month-long Olympic period
25,000: loaves of bread consumed by athletes in the Olympic Village
£2.40: cost of a filter coffee on site
£4,500: cost of a premium ticket to the opening ceremony, including access to the best fine dining
£5.90: cost of a hot dog on site
330: tonnes of fruit and vegetable will be consumed by the athletes
25 million: drinks expected to be sold by Coca-Cola including juices, bottled water and soft drinks
£1.50: cost of a packet of crisps
10: restaurants in the Olympic park, including the UK’s largest McDonald’s
1,800: food and drink kiosks in the Olympic Park

London 2012 Olympics: How to feed the 80,000

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Fine dining

Fast food

Outside the Park

Olympic food by numbers