on Welcome to the largest restaurant earth (and it's all about veg)

It will boast the world's biggest salad bar, offer fans vegetarian hotdogs and bring in up to half a million bananas by boat to meet athletes' insatiable demand for the fruit while avoiding the carbon footprint of air travel.

- Angelique Chrisafis

As part of its efforts to cut carbon emissions, the Paris Olympics will make history by offering more vegetarian cuisine than in any Games.

France, the nation of steak tartare and creamy blanquette de veau, is the European country with the highest beef and veal consumption per inhabitant, but chefs say the Olympics will rebrand French gastronomy as a showcase for plant-based food.

The restaurant in the athletes' Olympic Village, serving 40,000 meals a day and open 24 hours, will become the biggest restaurant on Earth. One-third of its 500 recipes will be vegetarian, including locally grown lentils and quinoa.

For the first time, a plant-based meat substitute firm, Garden Gourmet, a subsidiary of Nestlé, is an Olympic sponsor, providing plant-based burgers and chickpea and beetroot falafels in an attempt to make France more "flexitarian".

"We're in France, so food is important," said Georgina Grenon, environmental excellence director for Paris 2024. "But it is about presenting another way to eat deliciously, even in a fast-paced way, like vegetarian hamburgers and hotdogs at a stadium."