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Menu covers everything but players love pasta and pizza
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AS the official partner of the ATP Shanghai Rolex Masters tennis tournament, the Hilton Shanghai hotel is once again working to improve the service provided to athletes and event affiliates.
The hotel’s 120 chefs will provide private catering for major sponsors and a VIP area with live cooking stations. There will also be food for the general public and most importantly a range of dining options for athletes. Leading this project is Hilton Shanghai’s General Manager Gerd Knaust.
The Hilton Shanghai is taking all necessary precautions to maintain the quality of the food. The hotel has “tight control of all vendors,” says Knaust, to ensure athletes’ drug test results don’t come back positive due to unknown substances in their food.
“We have been working for years with traceable food,” says Knaust. “We visit our vendors and do control checks. The chicken is from China and beef comes mainly from Australia and New Zealand. Vegetables are organic.”
Food options this year will include an a la carte menu, buffet, salad bar, pasta and noodle bar and sandwich bar. There is also a pizza competition every year with up to 200 entries a day.
“After the event we will decide what worked, what didn’t work and what can be done next year,” Knaust says.
Hilton Shanghai chefs, including Italian Michelin star chef Igor Macchia and executive chef Glenn Saussey, will serve food for athletes both at the hotel and Shanghai Qizhong Tennis Center. Menus and buffets will feature plenty of carbohydrates.
“We also have Asian food including teppanyaki,” says Knaust, “but the most popular foods are always pasta and pizza.”
Also on the a la carte menu in the players lounge are dishes such as tomato risotto with baked sausage, tuna and salmon sashimi with organic salad and a daily special that reads, “Ask your waiter for our daily main course offer. If you don’t see it, ask. We can do it.”
There is an even greater selection from the buffet, which will boast a range of soups, breads, Italian cold cuts, fresh salads, Asian and Western mains, cheeses and desserts to cater to all tastes.
There are players from around the world, but according to Knaust, the athletes are regular young men.
“Their calorie intake is higher than a normal person who works at a desk,” he says. “Some of these guys can eat two or three pizzas. You can hardly see it. They burn it straight away.”
In terms of special dietary requirements, “We have one player who eats gluten-free. It’s more complicated but it’s a percentage of the population,” says Knaust.
The athletes all have different schedules and routines, so it is essential that the food options are flexible.
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