The Olympic Dining Hall

by Emma Gardner, EIS Performance Nutritionist Intern

After seven years of preparing, the London Olympic Games have finally arrived. 10,000 athletes will be competing over the course of the games and it is estimated over 14 million meals will be consumed across all venues.

The Olympic dining hall is the largest on the planet holding 5000 seats and serving over 1,300 meal options and up to 60,000 meals a day.

Within the village there are casual dining options, as well as ‘grab and go areas’ for athletes who wish to eat outside the main dining hall.

The Olympic dining hall will be open 24 hours a day across the entire Olympic and Paralympic games, allowing athletes to access foods even through the night. 

Cuisine from around the world is divided into ‘Best of British’, European, Indian & Asian and African & Caribbean. With such a vast range to choose from, all the cuisines are colour coded to help the athletes find their choice.  The specific area of the dining hall, seating areas and even the chef’s aprons follow a colour scheme; blue for ‘Best of British’, green for European, purple for Indian and Asian and orange for African & Caribbean.

Every meal option has the nutritional breakdown so each athlete can see details for calorific content, protein content, carbohydrate content, right down to the sodium level.
Each dish has several stations and is designed for an efficient flow to allow athletes to be served quickly.

Every meal item is labelled with a clear key relating to allergies and intolerances and just in case anyone can’t find what they are looking for, there is a nutrition kiosk open to help.

At the nutrition kiosk, athletes can access an online system where they can select allergens which will delete options not suitable for them.

EIS nutritionists who have been in attendance at the village include Mark Ellison with British Boxing and Alex Popple with British Swimming. The feedback from the athletes on their experiences in the dining hall has been positive which is no surprise with such a wide range of choice and variety.