![]() There were antique kitchen implements, cheese graters, meat grinders, nut crackers, raisin seeders, chocolate molds, books and even menus. Johnson & Wales University, the world’s largest school devoted to the food and service industry, was the recipient of over 200,000 assorted items, described as a treasure trove of historical artifacts, which filled sixteen trailer trucks used to make the transfer to the school. Ten thousand books of Hungarian literature were donated to Indiana University while a small collection of composer Franz Liszt’s letters was given to Boston University. He had a collection of twelve thousand books devoted to what he called “Hungarology” – books about his native country – which were eventually donated to the University of Chicago Joseph Regenstein Library. Actually, Szathmary didn’t just collect cookbooks-he amassed an enormous collection of rare cookbooks, scarce pamphlets and unique manuscripts spanning five centuries of culinary art. What cookbook collector hasn’t heard of the Iowa Szathmary Culinary Arts Series! But, in case you haven’t, briefly, Louis Szathmary, in addition to being a chef and the owner of the famed Bakery Restaurant in Chicago for many years, was a cookbook collector. In addition to writing fiction and poetry, Algren also wrote two travel books. (Nelson Algren was a fiction writer and the author of “THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM” which won the first National Book Award. Szathmary, who knew Algren personally-and purchased the manuscript from him–wrote the introduction to “AMERICA EATS”. “AMERICA EATS” was published in 1992 as part of the Iowa Szathmary Arts Series. He lived in Austria and other Western European countries before coming to the USA in 1951.Ī few clues to Szathmary’s background appear in the preface to “AMERICA EATS”, by Nelson Algren. After service in the Hungarian army during World War II, Szathmary spent time in a succession of German and Soviet prison camps and thereafter was a displaced person confined to the American occupation zone in Austria. ![]() ![]() He learned to cook in the Hungarian army. Szathmary was born in Hungary on June 2, 1919, reportedly on a freight train while his family fled invading Soviet troops. Louis Szathmary, described by one writer as “a heavyset man with a generous face and large bushy mustache “(a description that matches the face on the cover of “The Chef’s Secret Cook Book”) was, surprisingly, a Hungarian who had a doctorate in psychology from the University of Budapest and a master’s degree in journalism. Szathmary had an incredibly fascinating life. My favorite is Louis Szathmary! (Pronounced ZATH-ma-ree). I think I would rather tell you about another super-chef, one you may not know as much about. Lincoln and others have been written about in depth by other writers. Many of the old-time chefs and cooking teachers of the 1800s – women such as Fannie Farmer, Miss Leslie, Mrs. Who isn’t familiar with Rachel Ray and Paula Dean, Bobbie Flay and dozens of other TV chefs? Other famous chefs appear on television and cable cooking shows many of them have become familiar household names and faces. I must have several dozen chef-authored cookbooks on my bookshelves. Finding chefs to write about was no problem-there are so many, especially nowadays, when hundreds, if not thousands, of four-star restaurants throughout the USA all boasting of their own super-chefs, who in turn frequently write cookbooks.
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