Louis Szathmary: The Legendary Chef

Louis Szathmary, also known as “The Legendary Chef”, paved the road of success for multiple culinary artists across America and Europe. Behind his name is great respect for the many contributions he awarded to colleges and the many lessons he had to offer. Hard work and determination was a manner he knew far too well. This is the reason why I admire Louis Szathmary. The late Louis Szathmary was born on June 2, 1919 in Hungary on a train escaping the strife of the Soviet Union. Louis joined the army and learned how to cook. After his service in the Hungarian army, Szathmary spent time in a succession of German and Soviet prison camps. Soon after, he became a displaced person confined to the American occupation zone in Austria. He lived in
Austria and other Western European countries before coming to the United States. Louis stated that when he arrived to America in 1951, he was “virtually penniless”. His pockets only contained $1.10 and all he owned was a change of underwear, two pairs of socks, a Sunday suit, and fourteen books. Being the bibliophile that he was, Louis began to purchase and collect books at low tariff prices. Louis worked two jobs to be able to pay for his books. He explained that he “rummaged through books in bins, on tables outside the door, and amid the garbage the accumulated in the back of used bookshops.” As time and money improved, he often worked at one job during the day and another in the evening. On the seventh day, he recalled, “I spent all the money I made on books.” As Louis continued to collect books, his interest in culinary arts and food management began to mature. This led him to buy books in these fields as well. Louis and his wife Sadako Tanino, purchased, operated, and sustained The Bakery Restaurant in Chicago for 26 years. Each year he gained 1million dollars for most of the time they were in business. Louis took interest in writing and soon became the author of several cookbooks including “THE CHEF’S SECRET COOK BOOK”, “THE CHEF’S NEW SECRET COOKBOOK”, “THE BAKERY RESTAURANT COOKBOOK”, and “AMERICAN GASTRONOMY”. He was an advisory editor for countless cookbooks, and their volumes. His loyalty was completely dedicated to American cooking and their books. Louis was a fructiferous writer in addition to cookbooks and poetry. He wrote columns for Chicago Daily News and Sun Times for twelve years until he became disinterested. Soon after closing his restaurant, Louis operated Szathmary Associates. This was a food system and design management consulting business, which occupied most of his time. Louis wanted to be a chef of diversity and explore more than Hungarian cuisine. He adopted the American potpourri of cooking, which embraced multiple nationalities. He was famous for his multicultural cuisine, specifically his Beef Wellington. Szathmary is responsible for creating the first frozen dinner for Stouffer Food Corporation. He worked as product development manager for Armour, coming up with new foods and ways to prepare them. Szathmary also designed a kitchen for military field hospitals. Which could be dropped by parachute and assembled in combat zones. “You see, my dear ladies, cooking is just like playing the piano—it needs talent, training and practice” (Louis Szathmary). This was an ardent quote that he said towards a group of women. Louis wanted to deliver his skills to others and gave people the chance to learn from him. He taught that when a chef teaches a skill and it comes out terrible, it’s not the dish that’s bad but the unexperienced hands that made it. Szathmary was the starter for many museums and great works of art. Not only was Louis a book collector but he also collected scarce pamphlets and unique manuscripts spanning five centuries of culinary art. His collection consisted 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. Ten thousand books of Hungarian literature were donated to Indiana University while a small collection of composer Franz Liszt’s letters were given to Boston University.
Johnson & Wales University, the world’s largest school devoted to the food and service industry, received over 200,000 different kinds of items. There were antique kitchen implements, cheese graters, meat grinders, nutcrackers, raisin seeders, chocolate molds, books and even menus.
Johnson & Wales also received a presidential autograph archive that included documents dealing in one way or another with food, drink, or entertainment, written or signed by every American chief executive.
The autograph collection contained historic items from Neapolitan to even Charles Dickens.
To add even more honor to his name, Szathmary donated over 20,000 cookbooks to the University of Iowa Libraries, creating the Szathmary Collection of Culinary Arts.
I chose Louis Szathmary to be my chef role model. I admire how he built a foundation for many other culinary artists in either America or Europe. He donated countless book in order to further the education and skills for old and upcoming chefs. Szathmary’s skills were extraordinary and gave insight to those who sought him as a role model. Even as his fandom grew, he didn’t become egotistical. Louis Szathmary is the foundation novice chefs and the highlight to many culinary books across America. From Szathmary, I learned the determination and grit needed to succeed in not only culinary, but countless other fields of study. He turned his career into an obsession until that was his only concern. Books, manuscripts, articles and personal research was no longer a task but a hobby. That should be my top
priority.