Elegance, worldliness and finesse are three ingredients of the success that belongs to Elizabeth Galanos Gregory.

At the helm of catering for the redesigned, more upscale Greer’s grocery stores, the pastry chef and newlywed is literally infusing traditional Southern catering items with exotic essence from her main kitchen at Greer’s Fairhope Market on Section Street. And so much of her fare is perfect for the ultimate contemporary Southern wedding reception or party menu.

Take cornbread muffins, perfumed with lavender syrup, or Gregory’s favorite dessert, luscious pears, poached in white wine and finished in crisp Greek phyllo. Named Asian Pear Spring Rolls, they are wrapped up in a mainstay of her own heritage.

Juggling a few panfuls of chocolate cupcakes on a recent morning, Gregory talked about her chocolate dreams for the stores’ delis and catering departments.

These are no ordinary cupcakes, mind you, glazed in a thick chocolate ganache and studded with delicate gum paste flowers.

It’s this graduate of The French Culinary Institute’s Pastry Arts Program in New York who envisions specialty exotic chocolates and truffles lining glass shelves for her customers.

One of her own favorites, after sampling her share of world-class bon-bons from Manhattan chocolatiers, is green tea-infused dark chocolate truffles, which she rolls by hand.

Growing up in one of Mobile’s strongest Greek families gave Gregory a feel for cooking at a young age, but it was afternoons of watching Martha Stewart cook on television during her years at Auburn University that coaxed Gregory away from her fashion design major and into a professional kitchen.

“I would watch Martha Stewart cook a good recipe, then I would come home on the weekend and try it for my family,’’ she recalled.

These days, Gregory delights customers with scrumptious deli items and helps everyone from pool party and cocktail party hostesses-to-brides plan pleasing menus to complement their themes.

She also knows how to bring the Southern wedding reception to the table for a sit-down, something not so common in the Deep South. It was the dining style she chose for her own wedding, so she knows how to help brides on most any budget serve lovely fare in the style that’s their own.