The first-ever Winter Olympics took place in 1924, in a small resort town in France. Theevent drew 10,000 spectators in person. Back then, a global TV broadcast and liveinternet stream were the stuff of science fiction.

Fast-forward to 2014, and the 22nd Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, is expected toreach billions of viewers worldwide. For U.S. viewers, NBC will offer primetimecoverage of nearly 100 different events this February. That means a lot of hard-workingcommentators, producers and technicians setting up shop in Olympic Park.

That also means a lot of mouths to feed.

“Imagine taking 5,000 people camping for two solid months, serving 12,000 meals aday,” says John Crisafulli, president of Behind the Scenes (BTS) Catering. With NBC asa longtime client, the San Diego-based catering company will provide all food for theU.S. broadcast and international media partners, as well as the top corporate sponsorsand many athletes.

How, exactly, does an independent catering company like BTS pull off an event of suchepic proportions? Crisafulli shares his know-how.

Embrace your independence Behind the Scenes Catering has been working with NBC since the 1995 America’s Cupin San Diego, CA. Winning that contract involved some chasing, but ultimately, thecompany’s smaller size and tailor-made services were key to closing the sale.

“Initially, NBC’s mindset was to have one large, multinational company take on theOlympics, and that’s just not us,” says Crisafulli. “But because we’re nimble in makingour services fit within the client’s budget, it ended up working very well.” Indeed it did,as this will be the eighth Olympic Games for BTS.

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by Eve Daniels

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Be a partner vs. a vendorIn a nutshell, the standard client/vendorrelationship goes something like this:They tell you what they want, youprovide the service, they pay you, end oftransaction. While that model may workfor some caterers, it’s not the way BTSoperates.

“We’ve continued to build relationshipsover the years by considering ourselves abusiness partner with our clients. Part ofthat is the way we structure ourcontracts. We do a lot of contracts on afixed management fee basis, especiallywith larger events.”

Instead of charging per head, BTS oftendetermines a budget based on needs andcharges a flat rate. Crisafulli says thisstrategy removes the gaming (no punintended) from normal contracts.

“Because we’re working on a cost basiswith open book accounting, there’s acomplete level of trust. Yes, it’s less moneythan you would usually make margin-wise if you were doing per person, but it’salso a fixed amount that you’reguaranteed to make. So it takes the riskout of the relationship for both sides.”

Make health a high priorityFrequent business travel in your owncountry, much less across the globe, cando a real number on your health. Andgood health is essential to providinggood service. On that, Crisafulli hassome simple yet solid advice: “Sleepwhenever you can, including on planes.”

He’s also an advocate of healthy eatingand an overall healthy lifestyle. Thisphilosophy makes sense in more waysthan one, given how many athletic eventsBTS has catered, from the Super Bowl tothe X Games and, of course, the Olympics.

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Speaking of Sysco, BTS is working withthem to develop a system for shippingproducts and cross-stocking items theydon’t normally stock. They’re alsoworking with a German logistics companyto sort out the piles of paperwork.

On top of all this, there’s the powers-that-be. One example:

“We had to move products from SanDiego to L.A. to get the USDAinspections in the middle of thegovernment shutdown, so that put usbehind a week or two. When that wasover, the USDA wasn’t certifying anycargo going to Russia, which had to dowith some payback from Russia’s ban.So politics sometimes plays a role and,like it or not, we have to figure out waysto work around that.”

Keep things interestingDespite the food-related challenges, themajority of guests won’t see the samemenu more than three times. From a 15-day rotating core menu, Crisafulliencourages his chefs to get creative, toswitch around the proteins and to useanything in the pantry. They also movethe chefs around at the venues.

“If you ate in the same restaurant for 60days straight, you’d get bored. So we doa lot to keep the menu exciting.”

In addition to a core group of chefs fromSan Diego, BTS brings in contract stafffrom Australia, Europe and other regionsof the U.S. and the world. “It’s not justAmericans feeding Americans. We’re asdiverse in our staff as you would imaginein an Olympic Games.”

BTS is working at about 10 differentvenues during the games, where theyhave commercial kitchens set up in atemporary structure. Because they’reshipping in products from the U.S.,they’ll have some new gluten-freeoptions this year to complement theirnormal offerings.

As for the presentation, BTS will strivefor innovation in everything from regularmeals to high-profile cocktail receptions.

“Our smallest venue is maybe 120people and our largest venue is up to1,800. You can do a lot with both. Someof our chefs will do sous-vide, others willdehydrate certain products. We give thechefs tools they can play with.”

Have funWhen Crisafulli started out in thecatering business, the plan was to do itfor a couple of years and then move on.

“That was 23 years ago,” he laughs,“and I still love it every day. I love beingable to travel around the world andbring our employees along, and tobring those experiences back to thework we do in the U.S.”

An avid snow skier, Crisafulli will do his best to take a break in Sochi and watch the ski competitions. Therest of the time, he and his staff will do their best to provide service worthy ofthe gold.

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“We’re always looking for ways to keep the crew and clients healthy so theycan do their jobs. We try to provide goodchoices in fresh and whole foods to keepenergy levels up and make sure everyonelooks good on TV.”

Prepare yourself for politicsLocated in the Krasnodar Krai territory,Sochi is a developing city with limitedresources and unlimited political issues.To say the logistics are tricky is a bit ofan understatement.

“Typically we try to source as much aswe can in-country, but in this games weweren’t able to guarantee the safety ofour supply chain,” says Crisafulli.

In response, BTS has to ship in their foodand equipment from the U.S. andneighboring countries. This involves allthe complexities of moving 50 to 60containers of product from one countryinto another.

This year, most of the produce will comethrough vendors in Italy, France, Spainand the Netherlands. Four days a week,the trucks drive 26 hours betweenMoscow and Sochi. Along with an offsitestorage facility outside of Olympic Park,BTS has its own cold storage logisticstrucks. “We control the entire supplychain from start to finish, so we becomeour own Sysco, in a sense.”

Imagine taking 5,000 people camping for twosolid months, serving 12,000 meals a day.”

— JOHN CRISAFULLI, PRESIDENT, BEHIND THE SCENES CATERING

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