Passings

[legant]

Vincent Gruppuso, 67, Seller of Pudding Snacks

Vincent Gruppuso, the founder of Kozy Shack Enterprises, a company in Hicksville, Long Island, that sells millions of four-ounce cups of pudding, particularly rice pudding, at supermarkets in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Europe, died Dec. 29 at his home in East Hampton, N.Y. He was 67.

The cause was complications of diabetes, said his son-in-law Michael Caridi.

[legant]

Eddie Miller, Ace Chowhound Ate His Gut Out

Eddie "Bozo" Miller, 89, an icon of gluttony who claimed to have bested man -- and beast -- in outrageous displays of eating and drinking, died Jan. 7 at his home in Oakland, Calif. He had diabetes and heart trouble.

[legant]

Jean-Claude Vrinat, Owner of Famed Paris Restaurant

Jean-Claude Vrinat, for more than three decades the owner and director of the Taillevent restaurant in Paris, which is regarded by many as the pinnacle of elegance in French cuisine, died Monday. He was 71.

Under Mr. Vrinat, Taillevent became a gastronomic benchmark by which other great Parisian restaurants are judged.

[legant]

Carl Karcher turned hot dog stand into a fast-food empire

Carl Karcher, who borrowed $311 to buy a Los Angeles hot dog cart in 1941 and turned it into a fast-food empire with more than 3,000 Carl's Jr. and Hardees restaurants in 13 countries, has died.

[legant]

Ed LaDou, chef pioneered gourmet pizza revolution

The first pizza chef at Wolfgang Puck's Spago and restaurateur who gained notoriety with a salad rumored to induce labor in pregnant women.

[legant]

Lovie Yancey, founder of the Fatburger restaurant chain

"I think of that stand as like a little postwar survivor that's a tribute to the entrepreneurial spirit of an African American woman who really did usher in what became a very good model for a franchise business"

[legant]

Viktor Schreckengost, a celebrated industrial designer whose products included mass-produced dinnerware

In the 1930s, Viktor took up the cause of making the American homemaking job not only easier, but more pleasant by creating dishes that fit modern tastes and lifestyles.

The dinnerware shapes and treatments that Schreckengost devised for several American manufacturers are among the most innovative designs in the history of American dinnerware.

[legant]

Napa Wine Trailblazer Peter Newton

Peter Newton, a pioneer in the California wine industry who founded Sterling Vineyards and Newton Vineyard, was among the first in Napa to experiment with Old World techniques, and showed the region's promise with Merlot

[legant]

Jamie Davies, 73, Schramsberg Winery Founder

Jamie Davies, who with her husband, Jack, founded Schramsberg Vineyards and pioneered the production of fine sparkling wine in California. Davies was considered the grande dame of the American sparkling-wine industry.

[legant]

William F. Doering was recognized for his contributions to the field of international wine classification and labeling.

[legant]

Bill Jackson, 54, Chef, Restaurant Executive

[unable to post stable link; excerpt below]

Bill Jackson, 54, a chef praised for his Modern American cuisine and a partner in a prominent local restaurant group, died March 1 at his home in Churchton.

Since 2000, Mr. Jackson had been a corporate executive chef and partner with Great American Restaurants, which owns Carlyle, Sweetwater Tavern, Coastal Flats, Artie's, Silverado, Mike's "American" and Best Buns Bread Co. He formerly spent 12 years as executive chef and managing partner at Best Buns and Carlyle, long known as Carlyle Grand Cafe in Arlington's Shirlington Village.

In 1994, Washingtonian magazine called Mr. Jackson "the person mainly responsible for [Carlyle's] reputation as a wonderful place to eat," with a menu based on the fundamentals of French cooking but with Asian influences.

The Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington named him chef of the year in 1995. He was a 1976 honors graduate of the Culinary Institute of America. Afterward, he was hired by chefs Pano Karatassos and Paul Albrecht to work at their resort, the Lodge of Four Seasons, at Lake of the Ozarks, Mo. He later spent nine years as chef at their highly rated fine-dining restaurant, Pano's & Paul's, in Atlanta.

Great American Restaurants is scheduled to open a Reston restaurant this fall in Mr. Jackson's honor, Jackson's Mighty Fine Food and Lucky Lounge.

[1000yregg]

the founder of my guilty pleasure fast food chain has joined the colonel.

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/03...in_germany.html

[legant]

Al Copeland, 64; founder of Popeyes Chicken

Al Copeland, who became rich selling spicy fried chicken and notorious for his flamboyant lifestyle, died Sunday at a clinic near Munich, Germany.

Inspired by the success of a Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise in New Orleans, Copeland in the early 1970s [… opened] a restaurant, Chicken on the Run. ("So fast you get your chicken before you get your change.")

After six months, Chicken on the Run was still losing money. In a last-ditch effort, Copeland chose a spicier Louisiana Cajun-style recipe and reopened the restaurant under the name Popeyes Mighty Good Fried Chicken, after Popeye Doyle, Gene Hackman's character in the film "The French Connection." The chain that grew from that one restaurant became Popeyes Famous Fried Chicken.

Also see the BayouBuzz.com obit.

[legant]

Alson Howard Smith Jr., 80, the holder of Tastee Freez franchises in Virginia, West Virginia and portions of Pennsylvania, died March 23.

In a 1982 article in The Washington Post, Mr. Smith, was described as "a short, rumpled Tastee Freez entrepreneur […]”

[hmmboy]

Herb Peterson, creator of the Egg McMuffin

http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/egg-...S00010000000001

[legant]

Geri Cook, 83; shopper made a career of bargain-hunting

Geri Cook wrote the "Bargains" column for The [LA] Times. In it she directed readers to [...] restaurants with "happy hours" that include free hors d'oeuvres and coffee bean shops where the price goes down the more you buy.

[legant]

Lucy Appleby, 88; cheese-maker who fought pasteurisation

Lucy Appleby was one of the most accomplished cheese-makers of her generation and took a bold and ultimately successful stand against attempts to have unpasteurised cheese-making banned in Britain

[Tweaked]

Irvine Robbins...co-founder of Baskin-Robbins

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080506/ap_on_re_us/obit_robbins

[Sthitch]

The great chef Paul Haeberlin has passed away.

[Mark Slater]

Robert Mondavi has passed away at age 94.

[Pool Boy]

Robert Mondavi has passed away at age 94.

Wow. He was one of the godfathers of the American Wine Industry.

[legant]

Walter Camp Jr., 79, who was president of one of Washington's first health food stores, Vita Food Co.

I believe there were at least two stores: one next to the WaPo building on M street; the other on 14th street, now home to a watch repair shop.

[legant]

Huntington Hartford, 97; Heir of a principal founder of the Great Atlantic & Pacific [A&P] Tea Company which provided him with a living of about $1.5 million a year.

What did he do with that $1.5 million a year? Click.

[johnb]

Huntington Hartford, 97; Heir of a principal founder of the Great Atlantic & Pacific [A&P] Tea Company which provided him with a living of about $1.5 million a year.

What did he do with that $1.5 million a year? Click.

The article made one slight error. He didn't sell out to Resorts International. He brought in Jim Crosby and Jack Davis of the Mary Carter Paint Company as partners, and they gradually bought him out piecemeal. They subsequently renamed the whole thing Resorts International, got the necessary gambling license, and made big bucks. Later RI was one of the first, if not the first, operators in Atlantic City. I once did a consulting job for them (how to better supply foods to the Bahamas operation, which relied on old DC-6 freighter flights from Miami carrying prime meats and such that were not otherwise available in Nassau). When I went to their HQ in Atlantic City to make the final presentation, I made it a point afterwards to get over to the White House to have one of their legendary sandwiches. I couldn't finish it, so I wrapped it up and took it along home on the little plane that I had to fly between DC and Atlantic City. Unfortunately, I left it on the seat when I deplaned, a lapse I have often thought about and regretted ever since.

[johnb]

J. R. Simplot, developer of the frozen french fry, 99 years old. A billionaire, ranked 89th in the Forbes list of richest Americans.

[Poivrot Farci]

A less J.R. Ewing eulogy would include that he was a resourceful 8th grade drop-out self-made billionaire miser who ran away from home at age 14 buying teachers’ IOU paychecks for 50 cents on the dollar, buying a few hogs with the profits, feeding them wild horse meat and potato scraps, growing potatoes from certified seeds to reduce disease threats, supplying most of the potatoes and dried vegetables to troops in WWII, revolutionizing the potato industry with portable electric potato sorters, wearing the same glasses for 30 years, driving the same car, donating his house to the state as a governor’s mansion and yes, a frozen french fry baron which legend has was by the grace of a coin flip.

"The only thing I did smart, and just remember this - ninety-nine percent of people would have sold out when they got their first twenty-five or thirty million. I didn't sell out. I just hung on."

[johnb]

A less J.R. Ewing eulogy would include that he was a resourceful 8th grade drop-out self-made billionaire miser who ran away from home at age 14 buying teachers’ IOU paychecks for 50 cents on the dollar, buying a few hogs with the profits, feeding them wild horse meat and potato scraps, growing potatoes from certified seeds to reduce disease threats, supplying most of the potatoes and dried vegetables to troops in WWII, revolutionizing the potato industry with portable electric potato sorters, wearing the same glasses for 30 years, driving the same car, donating his house to the state as a governor’s mansion and yes, a frozen french fry baron which legend has was by the grace of a coin flip.

"The only thing I did smart, and just remember this - ninety-nine percent of people would have sold out when they got their first twenty-five or thirty million. I didn't sell out. I just hung on."

That's right. A good entrepreneur, and an interesting ol' guy. Made his money the old fashioned way--by being smarter than everybody else.

You didn't mention that he shot the horses himself.

[legant]

Frank Shattuck II, 89, Who Helped Guide Schrafft’s

Frank G. Shattuck II, the last president of the company that owned Schrafft’s restaurants, a New York City-based chain that for decades offered home-style food in genteel surroundings to secretaries, errand boys, court clerks and others watchful of their wallets.

Also see this 1968 Time article.

[legant]

That's right. A good entrepreneur, and an interesting ol' guy. Made his money the old fashioned way--by being smarter than everybody else.

You didn't mention that he shot the horses himself.

From the NY Times obit:

… signed a contract with Ray Kroc to supply fries to Mr. Kroc’s chain. Mr. Simplot promised to build an entire factory just for McDonald’s. The deal was sealed with a handshake.

… shot wild horses, which — after stripping the hides for future sale at $2 each — he mixed with potatoes and cooked on sagebrush-fueled flames. The hogs ate the result. When he sold the fattened pigs, Mr. Simplot made more than $7,000.

… did not fix his car’s brakes because he did not want to spend the money.

[legant]

William G. Barron, 86, co-owner of the Sea Shell restaurant (Oxon Hill), and later co-owner of the Three Aces restaurant (Silver Spring).

[mdt]

Pringles can designer buried in same, click.

[legant]

Allen Gagnon, 71; Red's Eats owner served one of Maine's most popular lobster rolls

[legant]

Wilbur Hardee, 89; launched restaurant chain, but lost control of business in poker game

Wilber Hardee, a farm boy turned grill cook who went on to open the first Hardee’s hamburger stand in 1960, starting a chain that now has nearly 2,000 restaurants

[johnb]

It has not been noted here yet that Hiroaki "Rocky" Aoki, founder of the Benihana chain, died last Thursday, apparently from complications of hard and fast living.

[legant]

Renato Percario, Chef to Princess Margaret, King Constantine and Ivana Trump who specialised in extravagant sugar sculptures

[legant]

Simone Ortega, 89, a Spanish chef who won top culinary awards in both France and Spain

Ortega's best-known book, “1,080 Recetas de Cocina," has sold about 3 million copies and gone through 49 printings since it was published in 1972.

[legant]

Leo Crespi who was generous with his intellect but not when it came to tipping

In the late 1940s, he proposed the National Anti-Tipping League to champion an end to gratuities. He framed it as a matter of social justice. In his plan, league members would leave a card advising a waiter to ask for a better living wage from his boss rather than expecting diners to make up the difference. Dr. Crespi thought tipping had become a nuisance, an expected social gesture customers base on ego, embarrassment or attempts to please the server.

Rarely, he noted, do diners base the gratuity on the service quality, adding, "Most people do not have the requisite nerve."

If he had ever gone to restaurants, his enduring study of tipping -- cited by the New York Times and more-scholarly works over the decades -- would have been more than an academic point. But Dr. Crespi was alarmingly frugal. He never ate out.

[legant]

Basil Rifkind, 73, was one of the principal figures on a 1984 landmark study that provided the first conclusive evidence that lowering blood cholesterol can prevent heart attacks.

And in his honor, I'll have a breakfast of eggs, bacon, and blueberries with heavy cream

[legant]

Josephine O'Brien Tavenner, 85, an Olney restaurateur whose establishments included the Silo Inn, Mr. T's Sandwich Factory, the Sea Barn, the Rib Room, Jake's Crab and Rib, Jake's Country Market, Jo Jem's, Silo Inn East, the Kahlua Hut and Jake's Hideaway.

Washington Post restaurant critic Eve Zibart, writing in 1988, described it as one of a number of "family-style relics in the upper Montgomery County environs; driving up there is like taking a '50s-style family vacation in the car, looking for the restaurants with plaster fawns in the front yard and a discreet COLD DRAUGHT sign in the window. The Silo Inn was a neighborhood Sunday supper spot back when the only 'neighborhood' to speak of was Leisure World."

[legant]

Sidney Craig, who with his wife Genevieve built the Jenny Craig weight loss program into a multimillion-dollar business based on a philosophy of moderation, with small-portioned meals, a balanced diet and regular physical exercise

[DonRocks]

This thread reminds me of Harold and Maude!

[legant]

Well, the LOC did classify H&M as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant"

[legant]

At about midnight Tuesday, managers were told that all of the Bennigan's restaurants nationwide will be closing as of July 29.

RIP

[dmwine]

Tom Shelton of Joseph Phelps Vineyards. An eloquent spokesperson for Napa Valley Cabernet.

[johnb]

At about midnight Tuesday, managers were told that all of the Bennigan's restaurants nationwide will be closing as of July 29.

RIP

Actually, to be accurate, it was the corporate owned stores only. Some or all of the franchise locations may keep going.

Same company owns Steak and Ale, and those have met a similar fate, if I understand correctly.

[legant]

William R. "Obie" O'Brien, 73, a bartender who once co-owned the popular watering hole Tammany Hall

The bar gained a reputation as a favorite hangout of what The Washington Post called "reporters, federal agents, street freaks, students and professional bar stars."

[SrtaJRosa]

Bernie Mac, passed way too young. I will be toasting in his honor later this evening. I especially loved viewing My Sister's Kids

[goldenticket]

Isaac Hayes - voice of "Chef" on South Park (in addition to his many contributions to the musical world).

[DonRocks]

Isaac Hayes - voice of "Chef" on South Park (in addition to his many contributions to the musical world).

Theme From Shaft was way ahead of its time. Let's not forget Escape From New York. Popping a Gaston Chicquet in about ten minutes and toasting you with the first glass. Cheers Chef.

[Halloween]

Theme From Shaft was way ahead of its time. Let's not forget Escape From New York. Popping a Gaston Chicquet in about ten minutes and toasting you with the first glass. Cheers Chef.

Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes. Way too much for one weekend.