First there is Nanina’s In The Park …. a magnificent New Jersey landmark nestled in a historical park setting. With more than 50 years of catering tradition and a spectacular multimillion-dollar renovation, Nanina’s In The Park is one of New Jersey ‘s premiere caterers. Located on the cusp of New Jersey’s prominent Branch Brook Park, Nanina’s offers the ideal venue for remarkable catered events including spectacular weddings, distinguished corporate affairs, and all your family celebrations; reserved exclusively for one affair at a time. Famed for their original Italian cuisine, Nanina’s reputation for excellence has continued for generations.

During the same era, circa 1955, in beautiful Campania , Italy , a grandfather taught his fourteen-year-old grandson Vincenzo, the true secret of how to create delicious, authentic Italian cuisine. Today, fifty years later, Vincenzo Loreti is the head chef at Nanina’s In The Park. The unique variety of Nanina’s homemade sauces has captured the essence of quality and flavor that keeps our customers coming back for another taste of Italy.

With great fortune, came the “marriage” of two remarkable entities; a renowned catering institution and an exceptional chef with old-world culinary expertise.

Then came the great idea… it started with a topic for a class project and with the help of 35 business students, it became a delicious reality. The Monmouth University Entrepreneurship class of 2005, in a joint venture with Nanina’s in the Park and Chef Vincenzo, have designed, developed and brought forth to the general public (with discerning palates…) 2 delectable, homemade, gourmet, Italian sauces. In the fall semester of 2005 Professor John Buzza (also, a general Manager at Nanina’s) introduced the idea of bringing a gourmet pasta sauce into the consumer market. The students of this class jumped at the proposal, and so began the process of bringing this great idea to fruition. The class was subdivided into departments of a company; research and development, design team, production, sales, marketing, and distribution. The company came to be known as University Promotions. To many, this looked like a venture that was beyond the scope of a college classroom project. However, time would prove that was clearly not the case. In the span of three months, the production team researched and developed a relationship with Del Grosso Foods, who aided in mass producing the gourmet pasta sauce. Meanwhile, the design team was hard at work putting ideas together for the label, the most important part of the production. Research and Development, was hard at work putting together information that would help direct the class in the next part of the process. At the same time, Sales and Marketing put together ideas for selling the product in stores, pounding the pavement on campus, and contacting supermarkets to gage the projected response from the consumer. Moving forward, Distribution was focused on finding the most efficient and cost effective way to get the pasta sauce in the stores and into the hands of the customer.

December 15th 2005, the entrepreneurial students unveiled Nanina’s in the Park Homemade Sauces to the public. Businesses near and far were invited to attend the special event which introduced Nanina’s in the Park homemade Marinara Sauce and Vodka Sauce. Attendance was expected to be about 150, surprisingly; over 380 guests made the premiere a huge success.

This was truly a unique experience for the team of students, who had to make decisions that would inevitably impact the success of the product. These were not lessons they could learn from a book, for that can only take you so far; they learned rather, from a hands on approach. The project took on a life of its own using not only class time, but much personal time, as well. To see this product through from conception to completion took much more time and effort than the usual class project. Nanina’s In The Park recognizes the hard work and effort put forth by both the students and the University and in appreciation, they have earmarked a portion of the profits for an entrepreneurial scholarship for the students of Monmouth University.