Here's how Sodexo Live! fed thousands at Eurovision 2023

Chicken Kyiv and ‘Ukrainian loaded fries' topped with beef Goulash, more chicken Kyiv and Deryny – fried and shredded potato pancakes – featured over the course of the event at Liverpool's M&S Bank Arena, with some 30% of the mains on offer showcasing Ukrainian cuisine.

As catering partner of the ACC Liverpool Group, Sodexo Live! had 700 staff throughout the contest to cater to the tens of thousands of attendees watching the live shows. The team also fed and watered up to 1,200 members of the press each day and looked after 19 hospitality boxes, serving 36,000 bowl food items and 19,000 desserts.

The dessert menu starred a traditional Ukrainian cheesecake, Lviv Syrnyk, which was topped with blueberry and cinnamon compote and chocolate granola. It was made in-house by a Sodexo Live! team member, who had been trained with the support of Ukrainian refugees.

"We had Ukrainian refugees working with us throughout this event, because it was so important to us that we brought that authenticity of Ukraine to everything we did, from the drinks to the food to the hospitality service," Kane Burton said.

"One of our team at Sodexo Live! is actually hosting a Ukrainian family and, brilliantly, he brought them in as they were keen to help out."

Sodexo Live! also tried to bring a flavour of all the other European countries that descended on Liverpool for the event, with items such as German bratwursts and Belgian waffles. Kane Burton said that while it was a "marvellous moment" for Britain, hosting the contest for the first time since 1998, the team was very conscious of respectfully doing so on behalf of Ukraine.

"We realised that it wasn't actually ours to do and we were very grateful of being asked to do it on Ukraine's behalf. What I think was really lovely was how we grasped that opportunity while paying homage and our respects to our comrades in Ukraine.

"At the same time, it made us very proud to be British and be able to make sure that Liverpool took centre stage, because she really was the queen."

Feeding the Eurovision masses

With 25 years as Ascot Racecourse's official caterer under Sodexo Live!'s belt (a partnership that has been recently extended for another 11 years) large-scale events are nothing new for its people. When London hosted the Olympics in 2012, Sodexo Live! provided public catering and catering for athletes and officials, as well as the staff meals at Olympic Park South. This included the Olympic Stadium, the Aquatics Centre, the Water Polo Centre and two catering villages called Orbit Circus and World Square.

"I think if I were to draw any comparisons… what the team did to deliver 2012 is very akin in terms of some of the challenges and the scale to what Eurovision required," Kane Burton said. While the decision that Liverpool would host Eurovision was made back in October, it wasn't until January that Sodexo Live! had confirmation it would be doing the full extent of the catering across the site. When devising the food and beverage offering for the show, Kane Burton said the team considered who was attending and what they were expecting, as well as how to get attendees into the "Eurovision spirit".

It's probably the most colourful, creative, and brilliantly mad event that we, as a world, put on

"It's probably the most colourful, creative and brilliantly mad event that we, as a world, put on. All these people are coming from around the world, they're up for a party, they're up for a good time, and it's our job to help facilitate that."

Kane Burton's team worked with beverage company Diageo to create a cocktail and spirits menu, which included espresso martinis, strawberry daiquiris and pink martinis. Each tipple was served with an edible Eurovision rainbow topper.

Beers were sourced from "well-known and loved" Liverpool brewery Love Lane – a nod to a Sodexo Live!'s commitment to buying locally where possible.

"More importantly, it was making sure that Liverpool was represented and right at the heart of this event and that we could celebrate the city of Liverpool," said Kane Burton. "I mean, where else is so well-known for music and puts music at the heart of what it is and what it stands for? I think music and football are the essence of Liverpool."

Kane Burton, who worked as AEG's vice-president for the O2 and as chief executive for Lloyd Webber Theatres prior to her move to Sodexo Live! last year, said she is in the live music industry "by nature" as well as by profession: "Live music, performance, theatre – anything like that floats my boat."

Along with a focus on supporting local businesses, the catering effort for Eurovision proved Sodexo Live!'s commitment to sustainability. Three pallets of food were collected over the course of the event by Liverpool Zero Waste Community CIC, a local charity that saves surplus food from landfill and redistributes it to local families, schools, children's groups, care homes and children's centres across Liverpool, the Wirral, St Helen's and Warrington.

At the other end of the food chain, Sodexo Live! purchased 1.5 acres of farmland at Full Circle Farms, a regenerative farm owned by chief executive Tom Morphew in West Sussex. Organic vegetables are grown specifically for Sodexo Live! chefs to use in menus and appropriate food waste from the sites is then sent back to the farm to be composted and, when ready, used to feed the soil.

"There's an important message in there around how we're managing food, from the provenance and how we farm it through to how we deal with waste and the sustainability side of things." Challenges arose from the number of people attending and the speed of turnaround, catering for nine shows in six days in a venue where facilities were "stretched to the limit".

"There were moments where we had huge catering trucks with people tiptoeing behind them so that they didn't disturb The One Show at Eurovision, because that show was live filming.

"But the team handled these moments absolutely brilliantly, and we did it without a hitch. A lot of effort went into that and I'm sure there were a few blisters and sore feet afterwards."