Guangzhou:
The over 13,000 athletes and coaches at the Asian Games are eating well with former White House chef Doug Bradley in charge of serving up a variety of meals daily.
Bradley has served four American Presidents, six Catholic Cardinals and numerous world leaders over his 23-year culinary career, according to his employer ARAMARK Sports and Entertainment, caterer for the Asian Games.
He was also a head chef at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and currently is living in China where he has developed a taste for spicy Sichuan fare, the smoky aromas of Yunnan food and the delicate flavours of Cantonese cuisine.
At the Asian Games, Bradley and his team are serving over 26,000 food items a day and will prepare 30 tonnes of rice and 60 tonnes of meat during the November 12-27 Asiad, the Huashang Daily reported.
One million bananas will be eaten during the Games.
"Of course (athletes) like to eat all kinds of fruits, they also like pizza and Italian pasta. Young people all over the world like to eat this," Bradley told the paper.
"We have a five-day cycle, divided into 22 hot dishes and 12 vegetable dishes. Every day one or two new dishes are introduced to give the athletes a different flavour."
Bradley said fresh fruits were also the favorites of US presidents Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George Bush and his son George W. Bush.
The Bushes also liked to eat Texas barbeque, while Clinton ate so fast he always had stomach problems, Bradley said, adding that he once saw Clinton eat an apple in two bites.
At the Asian Games, Bradley oversees 51 chefs, including 20 Cantonese cooks and numerous others from Asian countries like Japan and South Korea.
About 80 percent of the food at the Asian Games Town is procured in China, where food safety inspectors were carefully monitoring and testing for banned substances that may have entered the food chain, the paper added.