One year ago: Sheila Lukins

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Sheila Lukins showed that takeout food could be gourmet fare.

Lukins, an influential cookbook author who died a year ago at 66, wrote one of the 10 best-selling cookbooks of all time, ‘The Silver Palate’, in 1979 with her business partner, Julee Rosso. They ran a takeout shop of the same name.

‘From tiny little shops like the Silver Palate, people started realizing they didn’t have the time but still wanted it handmade and delicious,’ Mary Sue Milliken, co-chef and co-owner of the local Border Grill and Ciudad restaurants, told The Times’ Valerie J. Nelson for Lukins’ obituary.

‘Look what’s happened -- now you walk into every grocery store and they have this ‘grab and go’ thing, which all spawned from these shops.’

-- Keith Thursby