Tuesday, September 1, 2009
People / Recipe File / Tombstones Iconic Cookbook Author Passes Away But Her Chicken Recipe Lives On
Posted by Nicki Wood on Tue, Sep 1, 2009 at 9:25 AM
Sheila Lukins, one-time proprietor of the 165-square-foot-shop Manhattan takeout shop The Silver Palate and author of several cookbooks, has died at age 66 of brain cancer.
She and business partner Julie Rosso opened the shop in 1977, selling cocktail fare, salads, pastas, side dishes, cookies and mousses. They also catered, and made sauces and preserves. Their food incorporated a wider world of flavors, including Greek, northern Mediterranean, Provencal, and rustic Italian.
It wasn't just a store -- it was a force for cultural change, and soon the need for a cookbook was obvious.
The Silver Palate Cookbook was published by Workman publishing in 1980. Many Americans discovered pesto, fresh mozzarella, balsamic vinegar and arugula in its pages. It's been referred to as the "Joy of Cooking for a new generation of American cooks."
Its best-known recipe is Chicken Marbella, a marinated combination of unlikeliest ingredients (prunes, olives, 1/4 cup of oregano, brown sugar) that cooked into an irresistibly garlicky, sweet-tangy caramelized sauce.
I've been mentally tracking it for years as it spreads through the populace. At first it was passed hand to hand at dinner parties. By now, it crosses my desk several times a year in community cookbooks, where it must be re-formulated and renamed to avoid piracy. On the internet, it's completely escaped its natural settings. Versions of it on recipezaar.com have headnotes that read "I got this recipe from a friend/coworker/mother-in-law" or "I found this on another recipe site." People don't know where it came from anymore, just that it's phenomenally good.
I was wondering what to do with a huge package of chicken thighs in the refrigerator. How could I have forgotten Chicken Marbella?
What's your favorite recipe from The Silver Palate? Is it Pasta Rafael, the stupendous artichoke and sausage pasta sauce? Or the apricot mousse? Rabbit with chartreuse? Marinated goat cheese? Rice salad? Summer Chicken? Blue cheese soup with bacon? The Big Sandwich? Date Nut Pudding? Flourless chocolate torte? Oven-roasted vegetables? And were you even aware that it came from the Silver Palate originally?
Comments (14)
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I had actually never heard of this cookbook, but heard a story about Sheila Lukins on NPR this morning and promptly ordered a copy of the book online.
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It's a funny book that way. I still encounter people who've not heard of it, especially non-city-dwellers. Maybe it's like Horace or Juvenal -- most peole haven't read Latin comedy, but they're familiar with it from later sources.
It was also very much a book of its era -- if you were born after 1980, it would have been eclipsed by other cookbooks by the time you reached cooking age.
Well sadly I was not born after 1980, LOL.
But I was born into a large Italian family so I don't think I even saw a cookbook until I had to take a home-ec class my freshman year of high school!
My favorite recipe in the Silver Palate is one I never actually made. When my husband and I were first dating, I had to go out of town for work on his birthday. I felt so guilty but there was nothing I could do about it. Still, he managed to find a great way to celebrate. Apparently, he spent the entire day making the Silver Palate's sauce and lasagna, and it was ready and waiting for me when I returned home. I still remember what a revelation it was to discover nutmeg in the tomato sauce---and how happy I was to discover that he was such a good cook.
I'm sorry to hear that Sheila Lukins is gone.
The Silver Palate and whatever volume of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poetry she can find is my mom's (a former English teacher) standard wedding gift. I don't own a copy but my sister does and she makes the lemon pound cake with lemon glaze on special occasions. It is the best dessert ever - especially around Thanksgiving or Christmas when all that holiday food starts to feel heavy. I attempted it once for a potluck but misread the recipe and used granulated instead of powdered sugar for the glaze. Didn't matter - there were no complaints and (unfortunately) no leftovers.
The chicken salad with nuts and grapes. It was a revelation. I know that's considered typical, and for some reason, typically Southern now, but I'd never heard nor conceived of putting *fruit* and *nuts* in chicken salad in 1982. Just a couple of years later I was making it in large quantities for the lunch service at Le Bon Vivant in Green Hills.
@jamiealex -- Bon Vivant! What a memory! The women from my dad's office used to eat Bon Vivant, like, every day. And you make the very point that so many people make about Silver Palate recipes, which is that they seem like part of the culinary culture now, but no one had ever heard of them before.
I also love 'The New Basics Cookbook' by Julee Rosso & Sheila Lukens. It's my go-to cookbook for making pizza, dough and all.
RIP Sheila L. And thanks!
Sounds like everyone else's copy is as worked-over as mine. I love the Winter Vegetable Salad, a combination of broccoli, cauliflower and peas in a tarragon-sour cream -mayonnaise dressing. I made it once with homemade mayonnaise and no one has ever forgotten it.
I do think it's a very catering-y sort of cookbook if you come to it cold at this point. That's not a criticism - catering got that way because of this book. But I hardly ever cook out of it these days because I ate all the food at every single party I went to for twenty years.
Gbea. I think it is wonderful that your mother gives the Silver Palate cookbook as a wedding gift. I recieved it in the early eighties as a 23 year old newlywed. When I read about Sheila Lukins passing this morning in "Bites", I skimmed through the cookbook.WOW. I was so lucky to get this as a first cookbook.It had recipes for basic things like croutons and recipes that contained ingredients like fiddlehead ferns that weren't available in Nashville back then.(Are they now? Anybody?)(Also, there were only a handful of gourmet restaurants in Nashville back then)It also was so informative. From info on cheeses, wines,nuts,herbs,root cellars,cocktails,menus,etc... it has hints on how to pamper your houseguests,decorate,party ideas.101 of being a good host while enjoying your own party and life in general.
I realized today how much I learned from this book.The joy of good friends and good food... Best recipe I can think of.
Gbea,I would like to go to dinner with your mother sometime. Some of my favorite quotes from the cookbook:
"When one has tasted watermelons one knows what angels eat."
-Mark Twain
"A wine drinker,being at table,was offered grapes at dessert.
'Thank you,he said,pushing the dish away from him,but I am not in the habit of taking my wine in pills.' "
-Brillat-Savarin
"Cuisine is when things taste like themselves."
-Curnonsky
"How do they taste? They taste like more."
- H.L Mencken
"To know your ruling passion,examine your castles in the air."
-Archbishop Watley
"A day withot wine is like a day without sunshine."
-Brillat-Savarin
Alleged dying words of Kit Carson:"Wish I had time for just one more bowl of chili."
"No man is lonely while eating spaghetti."
-Robert Morley
"Man loves company even if it is only that of a small burning candle."
-Georg Christoph Lindenberg
and the last quote in the Silver Palate Good Times cookbook: "There is no love sincerer than the love of food."
-George Bernard Shaw
just a sampling...
THANK YOU SHEILA AND JULIA
OH ! fAVORITE RECIPES :Sweet Potato Vichysssoise, angel hair pasta with foie gras and duck cracklins,raclette beignets,shredded beef, and cold lime mousse served with brownies(in the second Silver Palate cookbook)
@BarbaraPlease, you're right that every party ever catered from 1980 to 2000 was Silver Palate food. But each time I open the book I find something to cook that I've never tried before. The sweet potato vichysoisse @asparagussspring mentioned is a good example, or the Greek Lamb and Eggplant Salad I just spotted as a possible destination for this week's eggplant from the garden.
Now Lukins' cornbread with one-third cup sugar, we might have to get to arguin' about...
