For years they have trained, pushing themselves to exhaustion as they toiled, pursuing perfection in each painstaking detail.
Now they are prepared for the Olympic effort it will take to give the world what it expects: a party to remember.
"The Olympics is about athletics ? and it's also about a great party," said Tim Hackworth, spokesman for SYSCO Intermountain Food Services, the official food provider for the Winter Games. "We have to be perfect every time they order."
But it is no small undertaking to deliver on the details that will make the party memorable: beautiful bouquets in the arms of medalists, corporate tents draped in grand decor and filled with an array of world-class delicacies, the truckloads of food that will nourish athletes and spectators alike.
"It's scary. There are butterflies in everyone's stomach ? besides great food," said Maxine Turner, owner of Cuisine Unlimited, which is catering an estimated 10,000 private and VIP meals a day during the Games. Turner has catered many large-scale national events, including a presidential dinner, Lincoln Center events and the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, but she said this month will take things to a new level.
"This is unbelievable. I have never experienced anything like this," she said. "This is even a bit overwhelming. We've been working on Olympic projects for four years."
To meet the demand for her services during this Olympics, Turner has partnered with New York-based Framboise catering to form Culinary Expressions International. Her normal 60-person staff, including three Maxi's Delis, has ballooned to more than 300 for the event.
These new "staffers" were selected by personal invitations submitted two years ago to top catering firms across the country. Ninety percent of this work force arrived in town last weekend and will stay in fully equipped downtown apartments ? "let me tell you, that's a lot of towels!" ? and be transported by an army of passenger vans procured for their stay.
"I bet almost every state in the union will be represented," Turner said, estimating that more than 50 catering companies are part of her temporary staff. "Clothing them alone has been a problem."
All have had full FBI checks and Olympics accreditation; some have been additionally fingerprinted and photographed.
In addition to its large downtown commissary, where much of the catered food is prepared, Culinary Expressions has built 12 new satellite kitchens in the past six month and created a mobile kitchen to be housed in a semitrailer truck to serve events ranging from Salt Lake City to Park City and beyond.
Catering trucks are making food deliveries in the wee hours of the morning to avoid estimated traffic delays of four hours to some venues during daylight hours. One Maxi's Deli has been closed and converted to a full-time dessert bakery. All in all, the kitchens will be operating 18 hours a day, and staff will be in high gear 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The goal is seamless service to the clients, which include major corporate sponsors, Australian and Greek delegations and the media. The list of gourmet offerings includes some created especially for Olympics crowds, such as the "Wild West Seven Beast Feast" featuring buffalo, elk, duck, lamb, trout, black bear and rattlesnake.
"The most difficult part is keeping the balance. The hours are incredibly long," Turner said. "Have there been any surprises? Not yet. Will there be? Probably."
For SYSCO's Hackworth, one of the most challenging logistics will be bananas ? as in 50,000 pounds of bananas that will arrive green and be transferred through five different warehouse temperature zones to ensure they reach the mouths of athletes in perfect condition each day.
As the Olympics' first single provider for food service, SYSCO will deliver 7.8 million pounds of food to 15 locations over 18 days. The food will be transformed into an estimated 2.6 million athlete, spectator and worker meals by official caterer Compass. That translates to 15 to 17 trucks dedicated to Olympics deliveries each day, each of them time-tracked, searched before and after delivery and sealed with an Olympics symbol.
"It really puts a lot of the burden back on the distributor like SYSCO to make sure they have what they want when they want it," Hackworth said. "We know really we're the only option."
SYSCO isn't taking any chances. Its 375,000-square-foot West Jordan warehouse is stocked to capacity, ready for both its Olympics and 4,000 regular customers across six Western states. To avoid disrupting local service, SYSCO has called in 24 drivers from other SYSCO companies in California, Oregon, Idaho and Washington to make its Olympics deliveries.
Food entering the warehouse could be destined for any customer. But once chosen for an Olympics destination, the food is scanned by a specially installed airport-type X-ray machine, palletted, shrink-wrapped and then stored in a secure area guarded by federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents. Once loaded, the trucks are sealed and must remain sealed until reaching their destination.
"We think it's important that people feel good about the food, and we have a lot of people who have worked to make it safe," Hackworth said. "Food is such a common denominator for all of us, and it's such a great way to bring people together."
Those plants setting the decor in the athletes' village, AT&T Broadband Olympic Plaza tent, Alta Club, Salt Lake Organizing Committee offices, Club Freedom and other high-profile locations also didn't appear by magic.
The staff of Cactus & Tropicals has been working nearly around the clock to fill orders, meet security requirements and maintain its plants throughout Salt Lake City, Ogden and Park City.
"It has to be pretty specific. It has to be perfect," said general manager Kathy Harbin. "In the last two weeks, we've just gotten a lot of calls from people saying 'I need this, and I need it at 9 a.m.' There's really no flexibility."
On a recent day Harbin and staff were wrestling with a 7-foot palm, several rare bonsai and orchids and assorted ferns designed to provide the "funky and sleek" decor for AT&T Broadband's sponsor tent.
"We've been working on this for about six months," Harbin said, estimating that 95 percent of the company's current business is Olympics-related. "Being a florist you have to look ahead, and you have to ask your growers to grow more for you."
Plant deliveries are precisely scheduled for security reasons. But getting back to them for watering and maintenance is even trickier. It takes a full half-hour for Cactus & Tropicals' Olympic Village technician to park and pass through three security checkpoints. And plants already housed in the E Center venue are a lost cause.
"They said, 'Don't even bother,' " Harbin said. "We just hope they'll maintain them over the next month."
Cactus & Tropicals also has been hired by Hallmark, the official supplier of "personal expression products" to SLOC and the U.S. Olympic teams through the 2004 Summer Games in Athens, to help prepare and arrange the 210,000 roses destined to become athlete and VIP bouquets. The company has drawn from other nurseries to provide the two shifts of seven people working with Hallmark each day.
"Business slowed so much after 9/11. I'm really grateful for this work, because it's going to help us get some cash flow back," said Cactus & Tropicals owner Lorraine Miller, estimating the Hallmark contract alone will account for 20 percent of February business. Staff has voluntarily chipped in to get the work done, with delivery drivers offering to arrive at 4 a.m., she said.
"We're going to make it work," Miller said, echoing statements by other Olympics providers. "That's one thing about our staff here is that they just 'get it,' and they'll do whatever it takes."
"Far be it from me to say a snowstorm couldn't stop us. But there's a lot of experience to make this happen," caterer Maxine Turner said. "We're spit and polished and ready to go."
E-mail: moneill@desnews.com