Ryan Jaranilla has gone to Beijing to serve as senior executive chef for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. He will serve some 12,000 best athletes from all over the world and the 5,000 members of the press who will cover the event.

Chef Ryan, the way he wants everybody to call him, is second in command. He reports to the director every day. He makes it a point that the daily menus are different and tailored to the varying types of athletes. He believes that a weightlifter would need a heavier meal than a gymnast. Besides, he takes into consideration their cultural food preferences.

Chef Ryan is a regional manager and executive chef for the Aramark  Corporation, a food services company  and the food company for the Olympic Games for the last 40 years. In an interview process undertaken for the Olympic post that went on for several months, he was one of 11 manager-level applicants chosen over 250 others. It was in February that he learned he was going to Beijing.

With reports from ABS-CBN News Online