Sheila Lukins

She was one of the women behind the silver palate cooks books. She passed away on Sunday at the age of 66.

Now of course I understand the current frenzy around Julia Child...but for me my Julia was Shelia. It was the go to cook book in my mothers kitchen. I loved sifting through it, looking for something for mom. The smell of the pages...the interesting drawings...we literally used the book so often we had to by a new one because the book fell apart. I still of course have that book that is so difficult to use because it is in pieces. But I love it, I love my moms handwriten notes in the margins explaining a reciepie as wonderful or not worth the effort.

It makes me so sad that we have lost this gift to the culinary arts. I wished their store still existed on the upper west side, how I longed to go to their tiny shop and sift through the piles of goodies they had waiting for purchase.

These women are people I would have loved to meet and discuss with, I of course was never so lucky but she will forever be a huge influence in my kitchen. She lives on in her pages, in the food and in my home.

Tonight I think I will be cooking from the silver palate...