MARSEILLE, France — The city’s record school-lunch tally has exposed a hidden shortcut in a €18.6 million (about $21.8 million) catering contract: hundreds of recipe cards presented as evidence of variety were generated in automated batches, and many do not appear in kitchen delivery records.
Marseille’s annual account, published on 18 September, put meals served during the school year ending in June at 8.42 million, the highest total in the city’s records. That figure prompted a review of the contract and its menu archive, which promised 1,240 distinct recipes and said 96% of ingredients would come from within 250 kilometres (155 miles).
A record with a paper menu
The tender documents describe the recipes as the work of a culinary team. But metadata in the city’s online menu archive shows 1,107 of the 1,240 recipe cards were created in a handful of automated batches, some within minutes of one another. The archive’s file properties identify a language-generation tool; the contract does not mention one.
A comparison of those cards with 12 kitchens’ delivery sheets found 312 dishes with no matching record of ingredients being supplied. Others carried near-identical preparation notes under different titles. The review cannot establish that every unrecorded dish was never served, but kitchen staff told The Plausible Post that several entries did not match what they were asked to prepare.
Kaido Põder, a member of the city council’s budget committee, said councillors had approved the contract on the promise of a broad, chef-designed repertoire. “They sold us a thousand recipes and delivered a thesaurus with aprons,” he said. He has asked the council to suspend its next payment until the menu claims are checked.
They sold us a thousand recipes and delivered a thesaurus with aprons.
Kaido Põder, city council budget committee member
Recipes that never reached kitchens
Harry Moore, a kitchen supervisor who reviewed a sample of the archive, said staff had found entries that did not correspond to the weekly supply lists. Some recipes called for combinations his kitchen did not receive, he said; other cards changed a dish’s name while leaving its cooking instructions almost untouched. “We need menus we can actually cook, not a catalogue that looks impressive in a tender,” Moore said.
The city’s communications director, Blanka A. Almáši, said the contractor used automation to prepare menu descriptions but that chefs reviewed the recipes. She said the city had received the contracted number of cards and was checking the gap between the archive and kitchen records. The contractor did not answer questions about the creation batches or the missing delivery entries.
Council faces a review
Arvida Hedlund, a food-policy researcher who examined 40 cards for this report, said recipe names alone could not prove meals were cooked or ingredients were locally sourced. “The city needs to match each claim to a purchasing record and a kitchen log,” she said. She cautioned that the findings do not show that pupils were served unsafe food.
The council’s audit committee is due to hear the catering director on 5 October. Põder wants the city to publish the underlying recipe and delivery data before then, including how it counted distinct dishes. The record meal total may stand; the question now is whether the city’s celebrated menu range was ever more than a figure in a bid.
