Goldman Sachs workers to take out garbage

NEW YORK — The Salvation Army plans to serve 10,000 free dinners across the city this Thanksgiving — meals planned by a star chef, cooked by one of New York's ritziest caterers and cleaned up by employees of one of Wall Street's most vilified financial firms.

The number of meals is 10 times as many as last year and come at a time when more and more Americans are struggling to put food on the table.

The turkey dinner will be prepared by Great Performances, a catering company that stages banquets for the grand ballroom of The Plaza. Leading the culinary team is star chef Marc Spooner, a winner of the Food Network's "Chopped" TV contest and the caterer's chef de cuisine.

Three hundred employees of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Wall Street's richest firm, have volunteered for the holiday feast and will be tasked with taking out the garbage.

"Goldman wants their volunteers to sweat," joked Spooner, who at 6-foot-6 towered above a recent tasting session for the meal at Great Performances' kitchens in the SoHo neighborhood.

Goldman Sachs said the firm supports the effort, but referred all questions to the Salvation Army. The company's volunteers were not available for comment and their names would not be released, the Salvation Army said.

The investment bank is enjoying skyrocketing profits, with angry critics pointing to huge employee bonuses expected at year's end as evidence of the kind of greed that triggered the recession. A year ago, the firm received billions in federal bailout money. So far this year, it has set aside $16.7 billion for compensation — or about $530,000 per employee — and has set aside $23 billion for bonuses.

Spooner recently joined dozens of volunteer food professionals to figure out how to serve 10,000 meals simultaneously at 10 Salvation Army community centers from Brooklyn and Harlem to the Bronx.