Robert F. Capon, an Episcopal priest, author, theologian and food writer best known for “The Supper of the Lamb,” a sui generis book about cooking and metaphysics that has remained in print almost continuously since it was first published in 1969, died on Sept. 5 in Greenport, N.Y. He was 87.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/15/nyreg ... .html?_r=0

Noted cookbook author Marcella Hazan dies at age 89

Born Marcella Pollini in 1924 in the Emilia-Romana region of Italy, Hazan graduated from the University of Ferrara with a doctorate in natural sciences and biology.

After she married her husband, who was born in Italy but reared in New York, she realized he longed for the tastes of their homeland and concentrated on following her mother's recipes.

The biologist is said to have treated cooking as a scientist might an experiment, testing flavor combinations and potential ingredients.

“It's the same importance of what you keep out as what you keep in,” Hazan told the Associated Press in a 2012 interview.

Saw on twitter that Kim Severson of the NYT was trying to decide on a recipe to accompany the obit she was writing.

Cathy2 wrote:Noted cookbook author Marcella Hazan dies at age 89

Born Marcella Pollini in 1924 in the Emilia-Romana region of Italy, Hazan graduated from the University of Ferrara with a doctorate in natural sciences and biology.

After she married her husband, who was born in Italy but reared in New York, she realized he longed for the tastes of their homeland and concentrated on following her mother's recipes.

The biologist is said to have treated cooking as a scientist might an experiment, testing flavor combinations and potential ingredients.

“It's the same importance of what you keep out as what you keep in,” Hazan told the Associated Press in a 2012 interview.

Very sad to hear about one of my favorite cookbook authors. I must have been channeling her yesterday when I used the last batch of roma tomatoes from my CSA to make her tomato-butter sauce (unbelievably simple and delicious)

I love David Lebovitz's Hazan-centric anecdotes from his Facebook page:

"My two experiences with Marcella Hazan:

1. I was at an event/dinner, and the waiter decided to explain to us what "real" Parmesan cheese was. As Marcella sat hunched over her Jack Daniels on the rocks, pulling on a cigarette, the guy proceeded to tell her that "not all Parmesan cheese is the same", and said that real Parmesan was actually different than the stuff in the green can. I think he may have called her "little lady."

After he left our table, she looked over at me and said, "What the F*ck did he just say?"

2. Her fur (mink) coat was hanging by the coat rack where I was working. The owner of the restaurant asked me to keep an eye on it. It was probably worth a year's salary to me. So I did what anyone guy (well, some...) would do if left alone with a giant mink coat - I tried it on, and kept it on as I paraded around the kitchen in it. I'm glad she never found out. She probably would have either killed me, or laughed at the guy in the chef's coat walking around the kitchen in her mink coat.

Bye Marcella. Thanks for letting a bit of your glamour rub off on me..."

Hans Riegel, son of the founder of Germany's Haribo confectionery and much-loved gummy bears, died Tuesday from heart failure. He was 90.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ ... 1198.story

John Egerton, co-founder of the Southern Foodways Alliance and author of Southern Food: At Home, on the Road, in History

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/23/us/jo ... obituaries

Judy Rodgers of Zuni Cafe dies

Years later, in 1987, Rodgers — then cooking in New York City after a stint in France — was persuaded to return to the Bay Area by Billy West, who had opened Zuni Cafe as Southwestern-inspired restaurant in 1979. Rodgers reminisces on her early Zuni Cafe days in “The Zuni Cafe Cookbook,” a seminal part of the city in its own right:

The menu still had a vaguely Mexican bent and the most popular dish was the made-to-order Caesar Salad. I accepted the job. I was confident that the owners’ affection for France and Italy, and for traditional food, would sanction lots of experimentation, and change. I told Billy and Vince [Calcagno] that we really needed a brick oven, and within a few months there was a 12- by 8-foot hole in the middle of the main dining room, decorated with plenty of bright yellow caution tape.

That brick oven ushered in a litany of dishes…

I just heard that Judy Rodgers, of the Zuni Café, has died at age 57.

Chouxfly and I had one of our earliest... and best... fine dining experiences together at Zuni Café, and we enjoyed her fabulous "Judy Bird" chicken. We have happily applied her dry brining technique to our Thanksgiving turkeys for the last few years, with fantastic results, and each time I think of her fondly. I am stunned to hear we have lost her, and feel so fortunate to have been able to enjoy her food at least once in my life.

David Lebovitz remembers Judy.

Judy Rodgers of the Zuni Cafe has Passed Away.
I never got a chance to dine at the Zuni Cafe but I've enjoyed her recipes immensely.

Jean-Claude Beton, who transformed Orangina, an obscure citrus soda made in the Mediterranean, into a distinctive international brand, died on Monday in Marseille, France. He was 88.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/07/busin ... aries&_r=0

Hi,

Wish I had found it myself, though fortunately someone sent me the link:

Alex Shear, A Collector of American Kitsch Dies

“American culture is now global culture,” Mr. Shear told the marketing magazine Promo in 2000. “And the good news for me is that I own most of it.”

You can only dream of having such an interesting obituary.

Regards,

In-N-Out Burger bun baker John Markulis dies at 83

...
Markulis and founding-family partner Tom Grimes focused on serving Southern California's drive-through burger culture. "There are two ways you sell a product: eye appeal and taste appeal. And, with a hamburger, the first thing you do is taste a bun," Markulis told the Register in a 2011 article.

The factory, based in Carson since the '70s, makes more than 300 types of breads and buns. In-N-Out has used Puritan's specially formulated 4-inch buns since the 1950s.

"Not only are our hamburger buns absolutely delicious," Puritan's website says, "they are specially designed to stand up on the grill and will not fall apart when full of meat juices, dressings and condiments." It's a seven-hour process to make the buns, from sponge to final product.
...

Edwin C. Pendrys summed up his career in "Memoirs of a Fast Food Man," an appropriate title for the operator of the several Burger King restaurants in the Chicago area who also ran House of Sandwich and Speedy Burger.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... 5872.story

Here is the NY Times Obit for Gabriel Axel, the Danish director of Babette's Feast, who recently died at 95. The movie's acclaim and its significance as the first of the food-as-metaphor films are both noted in the obit. I'm not sure that the article really captures the meaning of the film, (at least as it struck me,) but there are some interesting notes about the making of the film. Be sure to read to the very end of the article, there is a little surprise at the end.

Josephine,

Excellent obit full of lots of interesting information, thanks for linking to it. I learned I am not the only one who considers this one of their favorite movies.

Regards,

Clarissa Dickson Wright of "Two Fat Ladies" fame has passed away.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ge-66.html

Coogles wrote:Clarissa Dickson Wright of "Two Fat Ladies" fame has passed away.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ge-66.html

That was a great show, and Clarissa always seemed like a very nice lady.

zoid wrote:

Coogles wrote:Clarissa Dickson Wright of "Two Fat Ladies" fame has passed away.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ge-66.html

That was a great show, and Clarissa always seemed like a very nice lady.

Man - I completely forgot about that show. A classic.

zoid wrote:

Coogles wrote:Clarissa Dickson Wright of "Two Fat Ladies" fame has passed away.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ge-66.html

That was a great show, and Clarissa always seemed like a very nice lady.

Didn't the other "Fat Lady" pass away a year or so ago as well?

stevez wrote:

zoid wrote:

Coogles wrote:Clarissa Dickson Wright of "Two Fat Ladies" fame has passed away.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ge-66.html

That was a great show, and Clarissa always seemed like a very nice lady.

Didn't the other "Fat Lady" pass away a year or so ago as well?

1999. My how time flies.

I'm sad to see that news. Loved them both. I've got a set of DVD's of their show and think I'll start a "Two Fat Ladies" marathon tonight.

Katie, I've got the cookbook if there's a recipe you need.

Ah, good to know, thanks. Maybe I could borrow it from you sometime. Watching their shows inspired me to try some things that I otherwise would never have dared to try to cook.

I learned the surviving fat lady had a youtube program:

Thanks for posting this, Cathy. I'm watching the show now.

Reading about Clarissa Dickson Wright led me to reading about Jennifer Paterson, and I found this charming obituary for her. "Luckily she never killed anyone."

Roger Fessaguet, who presided over the exalted kitchen of the elegant Manhattan restaurant La Caravelle in the 1960s and ’70s, when it attracted A-list celebrities with classic French cuisine and Parisian ambience, died on Wednesday in Damariscotta, Me. He was 82.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/04/nyreg ... .html?_r=0

Barbara Gibbons, the author of “The Slim Gourmet” syndicated column and cookbooks — and the original 208-pound customer for their low-calorie recipes — died on March 26 at her home in Dallas. She was 79.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/06/nyreg ... .html?_r=0

"Joseph Pedota, who founded Bari Foods, the Grand Avenue grocery named for his Italian hometown, has died at his home in Westchester. He was 96 and lived long enough to see the thriving business he started in 1973 get passed on to the next generation." from The Chicago Sun-Times http://www.suntimes.com/news/obituaries/27592337-418/story.html#.U34TQekU_v1

That's a nice obit for a person who had a long and interesting life. Thanks for pointing it out. I was in there the other day around lunchtime, and despite other old-line neighborhood Italian businesses making sandwiches now (D'Amato's, JP Graziano's) and the emergence of newer shops (Vinnie's, eg), the line was still out the door (I was there for Bridgeport coffee and some cheese). In fact, the line was out the door at the other places too. The tide of quality Italian subs is raising all the boats.