Korean athletes get 'rice power' driven to their door away from home

MILAN — Preparations start months in advance to ensure Korean athletes at the Olympics have a plentiful supply of their favourite food from home. Under a project first introduced at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and expanded to the Winter Games in Sochi in 2014, the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee sets up dedicated cooking facilities close to their athletes' residences. For the Milano Cortina Games, the top three locations — Milan, Cortina and Livigno — each have their own facility, from which insulated bags depart twice a day to bring athletes the comfort of their accustomed food. "It only takes 15 or 20 minutes from the kitchens to each ... Olympic Village," said Lee Dahyun, a manager at Korea's national training centre, standing in the airy Milan cooking facility at a small guesthouse with glass walls facing a leafy courtyard. Before a van can drive the meals, the kitchen chefs meticulously distribute the contents of several large trays among the various compartments of neatly lined lunch boxes which then get stacked up in the bags alongside steel thermos holding soups. "Ko