Lunch tasting at J&L Catering

I had the pleasure of accompanying Jiwon (Managing Director at ALLURE) and Vickie (Account Executive at ALLURE) to a wonderful lunch tasting at J&L Catering!

J&L Catering was previously owned by John & Lisa, thus the name J&L Catering. Ted Grady, an event planner on the J&L team, and Kevin Kelly, the executive chef, both decided to buy the company from John & Lisa and made it their own. With Ted's expertise as an event planner and Kevin's experience as an executive chef, their partnership of J&L Catering has made it what it is today. The most notable event that they recently catered for is the Lincoln Park Zoo Ball 2010.

What ALLURE had to say about J&L Catering:

"ALLURE loves J&L Catering! J&L reflect ALLURE beliefs in taking care of the customer as the number one goal. We believe passion and excellence go hand in hand when it comes to producing events and meetings, J&L understands that about ALLURE. The team and J&L make it easy for planners and customers to be creative allowing us to push the boundaries of catering and operations from being average to amazing! It's always exciting to sit down with the J&L team and learn the innovative things they are doing to accomodate the ever changing event world!"

We were greeted by our gracious host &

Senior Social Event Director of J&L Catering,

Scott Reichelsdorf.

Jiwon & Scott

Top : Scott Reichelsdorf, Kevin Kelly (Co-owner and Executive Chef), Kary Markey(Party Captain--pretty cool title--the person that actually runs all the catering aspects the night of an event)

Bottom: Vickie & Myself

The lovely dining area in the back where we got to taste the food!

Lovely setup of the food

Grilled chicken with black bean & corn salsa

Hanger steak platter

Chilled gazpacho soup

Mac & cheese bar!
Accompanied with bacon, crispy fried onions, grilled mushrooms, and hot sauce!
Love it!

Scones & biscuits

Upon learning that I don't eat meat, Scott asked the chef to prepare a vegetarian dish for me!
Thanks, Scott! It's a lentil cake accompanied with an olive tapenade and tomato jam!

Our talented sous chef, JR !

& now... the desserts ;)

Just chocolatey goodness

Need I say more? :)

The lunch tasting at J&L Catering was a wonderful learning experience for me because I saw firsthand how important the logistics of what's needed for any event/meeting is, and how important it is for ALLURE to maintain relationships with quality companies such as J&L Catering to facilitate the perfect event/meeting/wedding! At ALLURE we really "take care of the details" and our choice of vendors is no exception! We want, and will only work, with people that put care and detail into what they do!

Again, thank you J&L Catering for the lunch tasting and thank you Jiwon for the lovely experience! For more information on J&L Catering and their services, check out their website.