Bidding farewell to Paul Newman, a film icon and a foodie

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Paul Newman was a rare breed -- an A-list celebrity who never took himself too seriously. He was a perfectionist about his craft, as well as his food. Times Staff Writer Lynn Smith’s story about Newman’s life and death tells how his particular taste in salad dressing and his penchant for mixing up batches in the bathtub and giving them away at Christmastime led to a multi-million-dollar empire.

The food world -- like the film world and the rest of the world -- was mourning the loss Saturday of a celebrity whose name was as good as gold to consumers.

Christopher Kimball recalled being skeptical when he first heard about Newman’s salad dressing. But Kimball, whose TV show, ‘America’s Test Kitchen,’ and ‘Cooks Illustrated’ brand of cookbooks and magazines put products and recipes through rigorous testing, said he was immediately won over by the high quality of the dressing’s simple ingredients. So was the rest of America. It certainly didn’t hurt that proceeds went to charity. But that’s not what kept people coming back when the ‘Newman’s Own’ brand extended into popcorn, lemonades, salsas and the like, Kimball said.

‘People knew: If his name was on it, it was high quality, it was good.’