Here is some food for thought. When Gareth Southgate checks on the lavish spread in Munich on Tuesday night, will he know how painstakingly and meticulously a Calcuttan has worked to ensure that the England coach doesn’t have anything to complain about?

Uefa Nations League’s Group C marquee match between traditional rivals Germany and England at the Allianz Arena in Munich will have a Calcutta connection. And when it is Calcutta, it has to be culinary.

Meet 54-year-old Suman Neogi, a resident of Salt Lake, who has made Munich his home since September 2019. Neogi, who works for Vienna-headquartered catering conglomerate DO&CO, is one of the chefs preparing the food for Tuesday’s match.

“It’s a massive operation. People in India have no idea how big football is in Europe and hospitality plays the most important role. So, making sure everything is perfect and meets the quality control criteria not an easy task,” Neogi told The Telegraph from Munich on Monday.

Neogi offered an insight into the preparation for a match. “For Tuesday’s game we started working from June 2 (Thursday). The finalisation of the menu after taking note of the visiting team’s preferences to the execution… Everything was completed by Monday 3pm (6.30pm IST). We will report at 2pm (5.30pm) on matchday and it will be madness way past midnight. There will be a special spread for the England team and I hope they enjoy. There will be German, English and Irish dishes served to the footballers and the dignitaries,” he said.

Neogi is a regular feature at the VIP hospitality zone every time Bayern Munich host a match — Allianz Arena is their home — and says the kitchen is three times bigger than any luxury property in Calcutta. “Humongous I would say. Three floors are dedicated for the hospitality purpose where guests of corporate sponsors, club legends and VVIPs watch the game, mingle and enjoy the spread.”

Neogi said the food for last month’s Champions League final between Real Madrid and Liverpool was also prepared by DO&CO in Munich and flown to Paris. “On behalf of my company, I had worked with three chefs from Madrid, Barcelona and Croatia. The Croat was in Munich to ensure Luka Modric enjoys his post-match grub,” Neogi, a die-hard Bayern Munich and East Bengal fan, said.

A student of Patha Bhavan in south Calcutta, Neogi did his graduation in hotel management from the Institute of Hotel Management in Taratala and post-graduation from Dusseldorf. He then worked in Nepal and Taj Bengal before joining his elder brother in the family’s catering business, Continental Caterer. He moved to Munich with his family for the treatment of his seven-year-old daughter Sanhita. “She had an operation in her leg at the same hospital where Bayern and Germany footballer Manuel Neuer had a knee surgery earlier this year,” Neogi said.

Within months of Neogi shifting base came the pandemic and the lockdown. “Those were dark days,” he said.

Bundesliga pressed the restart button as early as mid-May 2020 but Neogi said there was hardly any business in the beginning. “Since it was closed-door football, we used to cater to may be just 150 people. Even late last year when there was a spike in Covid-19 cases business got affected. Now it’s much better.”