London: McDonald's is building an Olympic-sized restaurant in London. The supersize fast food restaurant will have 1,500 seats and is expected to get three million visitors during the Games.
A belly-busting 50,000 Big Macs and 180,000 portions of fries will be served over six weeks.
The outlet will employ 2,000 staff – who have been selected through X Factor-style auditions across the country.
Bosses put more than 12,000 hopefuls through their paces, judging them on how well they flipped burgers, served ice cream and the perfect fries.
The temporary restaurant – built of recyclable materials and the size of half a football pitch – is expected to be three times busier than any other in the world.
It will be ready in time for the opening ceremony on July 27 and will be taken down after the end of the Paralympics on September 9.
At the end of the first round of the “X Factor” trials, the job applicants – who were also tested for politeness – were lined up and told who would go through to the next stage.
They were then whisked off to another audition, jokingly called “boot camp”, where senior staff gave them advice on how to improve their skills. It culminated in a big final in London where bosses at McDonald's - one of the Olympics’ main sponsors – whittled the contestants down to 4,000.
Half of those will work in the main restaurant, while the others will serve at three smaller outlets around the Olympics site in Stratford, East London, including one in the athletes’ village and another in the media centre.
The winners, known as the “champion crew”, were also given a pep talk by former England rugby coach Sir Clive Woodward.
McDonald’s UK chief executive Jill McDonald said: “Our crew members have been put through their paces to compete for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to serve visitors and athletes.
“Their performance will need to be world-class in order to meet the challenge of the Games.”
