Google Translate can sometimes get scrambled, as the chefs for the Norwegian Winter Olympics team learned the hard way this week.
Needing some eggs to feed their athletes while in Pyeongchang, South Korea, the chefs told Norway’s Aftenposten newspaper that they’d turned to the online translation tool to help them draft an order for a local grocery store.
They’d intended to order 1,500 eggs, the chefs said, to make omelets, fried eggs and other dishes for their team of over 100 athletes. But when a whopping 15,000 eggs were delivered to their kitchen, they realized their translation had been in error.
“There was literally no end to the delivery. Absolutely unbelievable,” chef Ståle Johansen told Afterposten, according to an NBC News translation.
Johansen said they fortunately were able to return the extra 13,500 eggs to the store but said the chefs will still be whipping up plenty of egg dishes for the Norwegian competitors. He added that his culinary team will be preparing food “almost 24 hours a day” to keep their athletes well-nourished.
Norway has the highest all-time Winter Olympics medal count, with 329 medals amassed since the first Winter Games in 1924. The Scandinavian nation is expected to yet again be one of the top countries to beat at this year’s games.
Cooking for Olympic athletes is no small feat, as Megan Chacosky, a chef for the U.S. Winter Olympics team, explained to Mic.com in an interview last month. “I often joke that it’s like making Thanksgiving dinner twice a day,” said Chacosky, who will reportedly help prepare about 3,000 meals for the American team while it’s in Pyeonchang.
Chacosky told ABC News that most athletes at the Games, which kick off this Friday, will be consuming 3,000 to 4,000 calories per day.
“The amount of travel these athletes do, in addition to their training, they’re putting their bodies to the max,” she said. “We try to get lots of fresh produce to get vitamins and minerals to help keep them healthy.”