Imagine you’re a young woman with a passion for the arts, living in New York, and with plans of becoming the next Margaret Bourke-White. But as often happens, life cooks up a different direction.
That is the story of Liz Neumark, founder and chief executive of Great Performances, the catering and on-site foodservice company specializing in providing high-end food for such New York mainstays as the Asia Society, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola in Jazz at Lincoln Center, and the Plaza Hotel when it reopens in November.
Neumark, who founded the company nearly 30 years ago as an employment agency for servers interested in earning extra money while following their artistic pursuits, has since turned Great Performances into a $30 million-a-year business specializing in upscale menus featuring local and organic foods grown on the farm she and her husband purchased about three years ago.
Katchkie Farm in Goshen, N.Y., is Neumark’s great passion these days. Purchased following the untimely death of her 6-year-old daughter, Sylvia, Katchkie has become something of a haven for Neumark and her family as well as a legacy to the child she lost.
But Neumark’s customers and clients also are embracing the farm as more of the produce grown there shows up on menus at Great Performances accounts.
How did Great Performances begin?
A long time ago, when I was very young, I wanted to be a photographer. I was making no money and needed to supplement my income, but I was unwilling to go the restaurant route [and become a waitress]. I worked [as a server] at private parties, but it was a male-dominated field. It was at this time, around 1979, that I, with a friend of mine—a tall, blonde flamenco dancer from Minnesota—started a waitress service called Great Performances that was specifically for women interested in the arts. You know how they say timing is everything? From the beginning it seemed to mushroom into a catering business with chefs cooking at private-home events. We slowly started to bring in food, hors d’oeuvres and appetizers mostly, and in 1982, with a $25,000 loan, opened our first kitchen down in Soho.
So instead of becoming a photographer, you became a businesswoman.
At the time it seemed like we’d borrowed $25 million, not $25,000; it was just so unbelievable. We were this crazy group of women artists, and, well, it just grew from there.
But sadly, we decided to stop staffing in the mid-’90s to concentrate on the foodservice.
In addition to catering you have an on-site foodservice division at the company. What is the most challenging aspect of that business?
Both are very competitive, but on the contract side it’s become extreme. Lately it’s like a feeding frenzy in terms of bidding for accounts. But I decided that just because a contract is out there doesn’t mean we have to bid on it.
I’ve learned a few things: Even though everyone wants to go out and bid on everything, what makes it work is the [client and provider’s] goals have to be aligned. I want them to be successful, and I want me to be successful, too.
How can you afford to be so choosy when deciding which accounts to bid on?
I don’t have to make tons of money, but I do have to break even. If you bid for an account because of its prestige, it’s for the wrong reason. We will only go after accounts that buy into our economic model and clients will want to buy into us because of the product we offer. We want dollars to be spent on nutrition, not on cannibalizing endowment [funds].
AT A GLANCE Name: Liz Neumark Title: founder and chief executive of Great Performances Hometown: New York Education: bachelor’s degree in urban studies from Barnard College in New York
How do you account for the success of Great Performances as a catering and onsite foodservice provider?
In addition to having a strong critical mass of clients plus great food and service, we try to be aware of budgets and not being a snob about things. By bringing all those components together, we’ve been able to develop long-term relationships [with clients].
Can you tell me how you ended up purchasing Katchkie Farm?
I had been talking for years about a farm, and then a few years ago it became time to stop talking and start doing. There was a major event in my life—our young daughter, Sylvia, died suddenly—and I thought, “How am I ever going to come back to work and worry if someone is upset over the color of a napkin?” The farm was the only place I felt OK.
Sylvia could light up a room, and she loved animals. So we decided to build the Sylvia Center as a legacy to her. You know, when young children die they don’t have legacies like adults do. This is hers.
It’s a fully-operating, learning farm where we teach at-risk children about fresh fruits and vegetables and where they come from.
Katchkie is an interesting name for a farm. How did you come up with it?
It’s actually a Yiddish word and means duck. For some reason when my son Sam was born I started calling him “Katchkie.” He’s 12 years old now and tall, dark and handsome, so of course I don’t call him that in public anymore. I told him when we got the farm it would be named for him.
What kind of impact do you hope to make by incorporating the farm into your business?
You know it’s very hard for consumers to impact global warming, but if you can find a way to do your part and make a difference, it’s very exciting.
At the end of the day I’m a caterer and I cater to what people want. But that doesn’t mean I can’t educate them at the same time.