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Posted

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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"

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 […]”

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

Posted
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.

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

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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."

Posted
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.

Posted

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.

Posted
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.

Posted

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

Posted

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.

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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.

Posted

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.

Posted

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

Posted

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."

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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

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

RIP

Posted
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.

Posted

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."

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

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.

Posted
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.

Posted

Don,

That is very sad news indeed, his Fumes were an embarrassment of riches compared to those produced by his neighbors. The brightest star of that region is now gone.

Posted
Didier Dagueneau died in a small plane crash yesterday near Cognac.

I understand many people on this website aren't familiar with him, but this is a major loss in the wine world.

There was an episode of Jancis Robinson's Instructional Wine Videos on Sauvignon Blanc. As I remember it, she took a bottle of New Zealand SB to Dageneau and poured it blind for him. When she told him it was NZ SB, he refused to spit it in his cellar and went outside to spit. It was pretty funny.

Posted

Robert Steinberg, only 61 years old; co-founder of the San Francisco/Berkeley Scharffen Berger chocolate enterprise. Helped make really good American-made, beans-to-bars chocolate accessible to the masses. We visited his factory in Berkeley a few years ago and can still remember the ethereal smells and intense flavors. In fact, I think I will go to my pantry and have a chunk right now in his memory...

Posted

George Arzeno Brugal, of the eponymous Dominican Rum company

George Arzeno Brugal, president of the Dominican Republic’s largest rum distiller, died in Tampa, FL, Friday while taking part in government-sponsored talks to deal with the effects of the global economic crisis.

Luis Conception, a company spokesman, confirmed Brugal's death, saying he had not been ill and that his children were with him when he died.

Brugal was president of the rum and beverage company Brugal, founded in 1888.A year ago this month it sold 83% of the company's shares to The Edrington Group, a Scottish distilling company, for $400 million.

He also was president of the Brugal Foundation which has made major grants to non-profit Dominican institutions for the past decade.

Brugal distills a variety of rums, such as Barceló and Bermúdez, in addition to the Brugal label.

Posted

Dottie, one of the waitresses synonymous with the late Sherrill's Bakery on Capitol Hill, died recently at the age of 81. (This is according to a family member. Age is possibly approximate.)

Posted

Karen Cathey died Monday from complications from cancer. Karen was the president of Bon Vivant, LLC, a food marketing consulting firm in Arlington, Va., a past chairman of The American Institute of Wine & Food and a dear friend. She will be missed.

Posted

Agricultural scientist Norman Borlaug, the father of the "green revolution" who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in combating world hunger and saving hundreds of millions of lives, died Saturday in Texas, a Texas A&M University spokeswoman said. He was 95.

Posted

Agricultural scientist Norman Borlaug, the father of the "green revolution" who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in combating world hunger and saving hundreds of millions of lives, died Saturday in Texas, a Texas A&M University spokeswoman said. He was 95.

It's possible that no one has done anything more important with food--certainly not in the last few hundred years. Truly an extraordinary man.

Posted

It's possible that no one has done anything more important with food--certainly not in the last few hundred years. Truly an extraordinary man.

Dr. Borlaug was one of my graduate school professors, and was an incredibly gracious and enthusiastic teacher despite the huge demands on his time from multiple sources and directions. He had a marvelous sense of humor as well. I'll miss him. :rolleyes:
Posted

My Father, Henry Moomau, passed away last week. Not extremely significant to the food world at large, but he loved to eat well in any place, and as any good beef farmer, loved his steak. When he was in the hospital he kept telling us he hadn't had anything to eat, and the first place he wanted to go when he got out of the hospital was Ruth Chris. He introduced me to so many foods I wouldn't have otherwise eaten at a very young age. He took us kids with him to fine dining places, like Commander's Palace, and we behaved so that we could go to the next good place Dad took us. When I was young he would often order a tasting menu at a fine restaurant and would split it with me so I got lots of small tastes of different things and wasn't relegated to a childrens menu or just a dish. He grew up in the country and loved scrapple, fried chicken, buckwheat cakes and all the other joys of Southern cooking. He ate some gross things like peanut butter, sandwich spread and tomato sandwiches, and the poor guy couldn't cook to save his life, he burnt soup even. But he was a connoisseur of food be it doughnuts and pizza or fine dining, he loved it all, if it was good. He had wanted to come down to visit my Husband and I to get good pizza and go to Ray's, I wish he had been able to make it.

Posted

He introduced me to so many foods I wouldn't have otherwise eaten at a very young age. He took us kids with him to fine dining places, like Commander's Palace, and we behaved so that we could go to the next good place Dad took us. When I was young he would often order a tasting menu at a fine restaurant and would split it with me so I got lots of small tastes of different things and wasn't relegated to a childrens menu or just a dish. He grew up in the country and loved scrapple, fried chicken, buckwheat cakes and all the other joys of Southern cooking.

When I leave this earth, I can only hope my child remembers my passion for food and dining as vividly as you remember your father's. Sorry for your loss.

Posted

My Father, Henry Moomau, passed away last week. Not extremely significant to the food world at large, but he loved to eat well...

I'm sorry for your loss and glad you wrote this - it makes me realize from where my affection for food springs.

My father passed last August - and he loved creating at the stove. His method was maddening - he never tacked anything, so if a dish came out great, he only had a rough idea of how it got that way. No two were the same, but at the same time he honed his skills and over time, few if any dishes were bad. He'd been doing the steak "sear" method for many years, and would turn bags of tomatoes from his garden into a year's worth of magical pasta sauce.

He and his neighbors formed a "gourmet club" that met every month - that club lasted 30 years, and my father is now buried next to one of his tablemates.

He had no formal training. He probably wouldn't win any contests. But dinner with Dad was worth dropping everything to enjoy. I'm pretty sure that his heaven starts with a really well-stocked kitchen.

Posted

Theo Albrecht, owner of Trader Joe's (through a family foundation).

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postmortem/2010/07/theo-albrecht-trader-joes-owne.html?hpid=news-col-blog

He and his brother Karl are/were the two richest men in Germany, having gotten so through their ownership of Aldi. Long story, but they split it up many years ago, basically dividing up Germany, and the world, into Aldi North and Aldi South. Aldi stores in the US are owned by the brother.

Posted

If you enjoy dining alfresco in DC, apparently you have Sarah Bassin to thank.

Times haven't changed that much...

A deputy police chief warned that "this type of operation would provide a favorable setting for ladies of easy virtue as they ply their trade up and down the street."

Posted

My husband's grandfather passed Friday. It has been a long year for us. I wouldn't say he was a food connoisseur, but he did have a lot of stories that could be turned into complete episodes of Mad Men.

Posted

It has been a decidedly bad year in our family, after my Dad's passing earlier this year, in August my husband's grandfather passed. He was a funny guy he loved to go out to eat, but my funniest memory is him ordering fajitas (fa-gee-tahs). Then this morning my last grandparent, my grandfather, Sull passed away. He lived a very good life was 93 and always got to live at home, he passed away in his sleep after a month ago being diagnosed with leukemia. He raised a garden and had a cellar of cans anyone would have been proud and perhaps a little amazed at. Even at his old age he made sure his family was fed.

Posted

The burrito guy in Farragut Sq. When I worked in the area it was a bit far for me, so I never personally experienced the burritos, but for those who did here is the news on his passing.

click

Posted

Loui See Ling was the owner of the Shanghai Restaurant on Fidler Lane in Silver Spring [where Cubanos is now] and seen in this family photo provided to the Washington Post.

PH2010100903879.jpg

Mr Ling's obituary noted that the elders in his Canton hometown pooled their money and sent him to start a business in America. He died on September 15th at the age of 102.

The obituary, written by T. Rees Shapiro, also chronicles the market-driven evolution of the restaurant's cuisine over its 50 years in business.

Posted

Christopher Calomiris

I was so happy when I started to see him working at their stand again on weekends late last year. I figured that whatever was wrong, he must be doing better. He'd been gone for such a long time before that. Just a few weeks ago, I stopped by their stand and needed some dill. He was standing right there, so i asked him for it. He seemed so frail and unsteady on his feet, I felt bad I'd asked him, but I figured he was there because he wanted to be. I feel sad :) .

Posted

Part of being a kid on the Hill in the '70s and 80's was getting a banana from Mr. Calomiris when ever you were at Eastern Market. I can't even imagine how many hundreds of pounds he must have given away over the years.

Posted

Jimmy Hogge, waterman and owner of Buster's Seafood, a fixture at the Arlington Courthouse and Dupont Circle Farmers' Markets.

It was always a treat to pass a little time chatting with him, talking about oyster rakes, how best to prepare rockfish belly, and various other topics. He provided a connection to another time and way of life and I'll miss him very much.

Posted

Jimmy Hogge, waterman and owner of Buster's Seafood, a fixture at the Arlington Courthouse and Dupont Circle Farmers' Markets.

It was always a treat to pass a little time chatting with him, talking about oyster rakes, how best to prepare rockfish belly, and various other topics. He provided a connection to another time and way of life and I'll miss him very much.

This brings a tear to my eye. What a wonderful man. I could listen to him talk for hours. :(

Posted

Jimmy Hogge, waterman and owner of Buster's Seafood, a fixture at the Arlington Courthouse and Dupont Circle Farmers' Markets.

It was always a treat to pass a little time chatting with him, talking about oyster rakes, how best to prepare rockfish belly, and various other topics. He provided a connection to another time and way of life and I'll miss him very much.

Oh no :( This is very sad and I'll miss seeing him at the markets.

Posted

Michael Altenberg passed on Saturday morning.

http://articles.chic...bistro-campagne

Michael was an important guy in local-substainable-harmonious-whatever movement in Chicago. Not just for the sake of being able to say he did, but in a beautiful selection of classic preparations straight from Escoffier. He didn't bring a lot of attention to himself however, and thusly flew under the radar. A great friend of mine has been at Bistro Campagne for years and I am thankful he introduced me to Michael many years ago.

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