An Industry Perspective: Great Performances
By Kimberlee Preish
Photo by Isabela Elizondo
After Wednesday’s excitement at NJCU, I was thrilled about our upcoming events at the James Beard Foundation. NJCU showed so much enthusiasm and interest in our dishes, which helped prepare me for the types of questions that our team was asked throughout the James Beard lunch and dinner.
The first item of our day on Thursday was to visit Great Performances, which is another kitchen space we utilized for our JBF off-site preparations. Great Performance is much more than just a kitchen space. It is a huge catering company that involves itself in every aspect of food. Edith Lesinski, a venue coordinator for GP, sat down with our team and to give us an industry professional’s perspective of event management and production. Consider that GP caters for organizations such as Facebook and has never repeated the same menu twice! This means their chefs are constantly hard at work, not only in the kitchen but in also in order to think of new recipes and new menu items. Furthermore, GP works on any type of special events from private parties to weddings and the recently concluded Wine and Food Festival brought to audiences by the Food Network. I was surprised to find out that GP also produces grab & go sandwiches and snacks for various cafes in New York. The thing I found most impressive of GP is that they have their own organic farm, Katchkie Farm, in upstate New York. Not only do they use these ingredients for their catering and grab & go products, but they also use it as a learning opportunity to introduce them to fresh, organic products.
Great Performances provided me with another example of an Event Planning company that works closely with the food community. Throughout this experience, I have learned that flexibility is key in this type of industry. When speaking with one of GP’s chefs, Mark Grieco, he stated that flexibility is one of the hardest parts of the job; sometimes you will have to miss holidays or drop plans because that’s when this business thrives. However, he told us that once you find your niche and fall in love with the work you are doing, what’s typically considered “the dirty part of the business will not be so dirty anymore.”