For Marc Bruno '93, the 2008 Olympics means managing 3.5 million meals -- serving 10,000 people an hour -- with food that not only packs a punch for peak performance but has the smells and tastes of home.

Bruno

Bruno, vice president of Aramark's Olympic Catering Project, is charged with not only leading the catering services in the Olympic Village, but also in the International Broadcast Center, Main Press Center and the Media Villages. He heads a staff of nearly 7,000, including some 230 chefs from 10 countries, to feed almost 65,000 athletes, coaches, officials and members of the media throughout the Olympics (Aug. 8-24).

His biggest challenge, Bruno told the Philadelphia Inquirer in May, is to ensure that the food arrives at the right time, at the right temperature and in the right quantities. Another Herculean task: transporting food in Beijing, a city where few 18-wheelers are on the road.

"We've helped create what will become a standard process post-Olympics, and, quite frankly, we're very proud to be part of that," Bruno told the Nation's Restaurant News in June, adding that Aramark is helping local companies that have invested in servicing the Olympics. "We've told them that if they built warehouses and invested in trucks, we'd help them figure out how to develop [the business] afterwards. We've allowed for the development of infrastructure and technology and expanding the transportation network. Now there's a safe and robust ability to host these types of events much into the future."

According to Aramark, Bruno successfully negotiated and signed the company's largest Olympic contract to date. Beijing marks Bruno's fourth Olympic Games.

"We have a good understanding of what the athletes want to eat," Bruno told the Cornell Hotel School in 2004, while preparing for the Athens games in. "They eat very particular things, and they eat a lot."

It's not all work and no play for Bruno, though, who noted he has shared meals with such athletes as Muhammad Ali and members of the U.S. "Dream Team" basketball squad.

"Dining is very much a social experience for the athletes. They are warm, friendly people, and they often invite us to eat with them," said Bruno, adding that he also has met his fair share of presidents and heads of state, dignitaries and celebrities who have found their way into the athletes' dining hall.

Bruno holds a B.S. from Cornell's School of Hotel Administration and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Ingredients for Olympic glory

Marc Bruno '93, charged with heading up Aramark's catering services the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, China, has some 3.5 million meals on his mind, for the 28,000 athletes and their coaches and other staff from all over the world in a dining room that seats 6,000 and is open 24 hours a day.

To serve a "world menu" of more than 800 recipes throughout the games requires:

• 93,000 pounds of seafood
• 130 tons of meat 38,000 pounds of pasta (dry)
• 134,000 pounds of rice (about 20 million half-cup servings when cooked)
• 743,000 (232 tons of) potatoes
• 800,000 (44 tons of) eggs
• 1 million apples
• 936,000 bananas
• 312,000 oranges
• 684,000 carrots
• Nearly 24 tons of onions
• 50,000 pounds of mushrooms
• 57,000 pounds of cheese
• 190,000 loaves of bread
• 5,500 pounds of butter
• 16,000 pounds of tofu
• 20,000 heads of lettuce

All those ingredients will create a rotating menu of:

• 320 hot main entrée dishes
• 160 vegetable and potato dishes
• 128 rice and pasta dishes
• 400 different dessert, pastry and bakery items