Catering for the Olympic Participants
The teams which were already present and which had hitherto been served at the visitors' restaurant were now provided with their own private kitchen in the household building, the meals being prepared according to the following basic plan drawn up by the household department:
Breakfast: Fruit
Oatmeal or rice with milk American cereals Coffee, tea, milk, cocoa Butter, honey, marmalade Eggs prepared as desired Bread, rolls, toast.
Lunch: Soup or bouillon
Meat, fresh vegetables, potatoes Green salad
Fruit, cheese or dessert.
Dinner: Cold or warm bouillon Fish, steak, cold cuts Vegetables, potatoes, green salad Fowl twice weekly Fruit
Tea, cold or warm milk.
This general menu was submitted to each of the national teams before the beginning of the Games in order that they might examine it and express any special wishes, which were later given serious consideration.
The following meal periods were arranged:
Breakfast ............. 7 to 9 a.m.
Lunch ............... 12 to 2 p.m.
Dinner ............... 6 to 8 p.m.
These periods proved to be inadequate, however, and service was carried on in some of the kitchens and dining-rooms from 5 a. m. until after midnight.
The various kitchens drew up lists each day of the provisions required during the next 24 hours, and after being signed by the kitchen inspector, these were sent to the provision room. Here the desired articles were assembled according to kitchens and delivered by means of small hand wagons in time for their preparation. Menus were provided in English, French, Spanish and German for the different dining-rooms, a new menu being printed each day in the printing shop of the household building to cover the meals from breakfast until dinner. On August 1st, 1936, for example, the menu read as follows:
Breakfast: Apples, bananas
Porridge with milk Cornflakes, puffed wheat Grapenuts
Orange marmalade, raspberry jelly Eggs prepared as desired Scrambled eggs with ham Coffee, tea, "Sanka" coffee Malt coffee, cocoa, milk Breakfast biscuits, toast
Lunch: Soup "Lison" Bouillon
Veal cutlet, spinage au jus Bechamel potatoes Rice with fruit Coffee, tea
Dinner: Grapefruit
Ox tail, Bourguignonne sauce
Green peas, potatoes
Salad with mayonnaise sauce
Cheese
Tea with lemon.
As experience revealed, so many deviations from the fundamental plan were necessary that the menus as well became more and more specialized, and it was practically impossible to establish standard dishes. Festive banquets were even prepared at the request of various teams on certain days, as, for example, for the Argentine athletes on July 9th, for Uruguay on July 20th and Peru on July 28th. Special menus were printed and circulated for these events at which invited guests as well as the athletes and accompanying personnel were present.
Activity began in the storage rooms as early as 5 a.m. The wagons of the Spandau Dairy Company arrived first with the milk, following which the breakfast biscuits, rolls and bread were delivered. As the morning progressed numerous other deliveries were made in response to telephoned orders. Larger consignments of goods also arrived from time to time by railway or motor lorry and had to be unpacked and conveyed to the various refrigerating and storage rooms. During the period the Village was inhabited by Olympic athletes, 10 railway wagons with provisions arrived from Bremerhaven, 9 from Bremen, 24 from Hamburg, 1 from Trieste and 1 from Bentheim, Holland, as well as 15 lorry trains from Bremerhaven and Bremen. The railway wagons were shunted to a side line in the neighbourhood of the Village where they were unloaded and the provisions transported to the Olympic Village by the Olympic forwarding agents, Schenker & Company. The lorry trains proceeded directly to the Olympic Village, but in some cases were unable to enter the court of the household building because the passageway was not high enough. Provisions were issued to the kitchens throughout the day because the number of athletes to be accommodated varied constantly. A butchering department was installed adjoining the storage room where the meat was prepared for the kitchens.