Audio By Carbonatix
If we used the same title for chefs as we do for poets, then Sheila Lukins would be America’s chef laureate. Without knowing it, you’ve probably sampled her menu on board a United flight (back when they fed their passengers) or in a recipe from Parade magazine, where she’s reigned over the food column since 1986.
Lukins began her career cooking for friends or neighbors in need who then encouraged her to market her talents in the kitchen. She opened The Other Woman catering company in the mid-’70s to feed bachelors; that blossomed into a gourmet takeout business called the Silver Palate, which hit the scene the same year as Dean & DeLuca, and with as much fanfare. From there her career soared, largely because of her cookbooks, which together have sold more than 5.5 million copies. In my kitchen, her New Basics Cookbook is as well-weathered as the old standard Joy of Cooking.
This year, the Silver Palate Cookbook, the most well-known of Lukins’s series, which she co-authored with Julee Rosso, celebrates its 25th year on the shelves by printing in color. Lukins will tout the book this evening at 7:30 p.m. at the Tattered Cover, 2526 East Colfax Avenue; be there to meet her, hear her stories and get a cookbook signed for the next generation of gourmets in your family. For more information, call 303-322-7727 or visit www.tatteredcover.com.
Tue., Aug. 28
