Official food supplier to the athletes' village, Lao World Company, is seeking some of 60 to 80 chefs to cook up a storm at the SEA Games in December.
Managing Director of Lao World Company Mr Soulignong Nhouyvanisvong said the company may have to search for chefs both in Vientiane and the provinces to meet the need.
“Lunch and dinner will be the big meals so we need more chefs to cook food as fast as possible so we can serve hot food on time,” he said.
The company is to spend 7 billion kip as the official supplier of food for the SEA Games.
The money will be used to buy cooking equipment, cutlery, crockery and food to serve between 3,000 and 4,000 athletes a day.
He promised Laos would be the primary source of ingredients, under the government's policy to encourage local productivity.
Lao World Company will sub-contract certain aspects of the job to CP Company, Vientiane State Foodstuff Enterprise and the Organic Vegetable Group, which fall under the auspices of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
“For fish, beef, pork, rice and vegetables, we will buy everything in Laos ,” he said.
“I have talked with those who will be our sub-contractors and they have said they were capable of supplying us with these products.”
“But for fruits, we might have to import some from neighbouring countries to meet the demand,” Mr Soulignong said. An average of 4,000 kg of beef, fish and pork are expected to be used in daily meal preparation.
While the food will be served at the athletes' village in Dongdok, athletes could also pack food to eat in other places.
For vegetarians, food will be served separately in another room.
A western breakfast will be served during the event. There will be a choice of 6 or 7 offerings per day.
Four meals will be served daily during the games, but the restaurant will stay open all day.
Peak demand is expected to come immediately before and after the opening ceremonies.
Demand is expected to taper off as some athletes return home after concluding their events.
Lao World Company said it had experience in organising catering for events of more than 2,000 people.
Mr Soulignong said with this experience, the company did not foresee any problem in supplying Lao-grown and produced food during the games.
“The headquarters of our parent company is in Thailand , and exports food products to many countries,” Mr Soulignong said.
“If we want our parent company to supply us with the food it will be easy. But we don't want to do that as we want to use home-grown produce.”
By Somsack Pongkhao
Vientianetimes
