The Eighth Tribe, 1981 (8. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1981-11-01 / 11. szám
Page 8 THE EIGHTH TRIBE November, 1981 The Bakery, Chicago, III. Chicago, 111.: The Bakery It happened in Chicago a number of years ago. The entire Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy at its head, sat down and waited expectantly. Yet in the hours that followed, the only applause was for a maestro who never led an orchestra in his life. Hungarianborn Ormandy and his "fabulous Philadelphians" had come en masse for a gala dinner in their honor at The Bakery, the illustrious Chicago restaurant presided over by one of America's archdukes of high cuisine (and another Hungarian), chef Louis Szathmáry. The master rose splendidly to the challenge with such chefs-d'oeuvre as roast sirloin with horseradish sauce (dubbed "Beef á la Ormandy"), Liptay cheese, Tokaji dessert wine and Dobosh torte. Appropriately, the man behind these Austro-Hungarian festivities looks a bit like Emperor Franz Josef. Chef Louis, as he is known, is an imposing, gray-haired figure with a handlebar moustache and imperial bulk. The scion of a highly cultured Hungarian family, he emigrated to the United States in 1951, embarked on a rapidly ascending spiral of jobs in the food industry and, in 1963, established The Bakery, which soon entered the pantheon of great Midwestern restaurants. Trained as a psychologist and journalist in Budapest and later employed as an actor, Chef Louis has combined his many aptitudes and careers, applying his knowledge of the human psyche to the invention of recipes, churning out several books on food and hundreds of magazine articles, and making numerous TV and radio appearances. At The Bakery, however, the joy and gustatory pleasures of the table are all that matter. Chef Louis draws on the ageless cuisines he has mastered, with a nod to contemporary preferences. Beef Wellington and roast duckling are favorites at The Bakery, but otherwise the menu is struck off anew each day—depending on the chef's inspirations—and is memorized by the waiters. Entrées may be as simple as char-broiled steak, as familiar as continental favorites like beef stroganoff, French turbot or chicken paprikash, or as esoteric as roast pork stuffed with Hungarian sausage. Chance and the master's whim might also put a carrot-blueberry salad and sugarloaf cabbage on the table, and, for dessert, fresh banana eclairs, allnut tortes or bourbon pie. It is masterworks like these that, one imagines, must have brought Ormandy and his men to their feet with a cry of "Encore!" The Bakery, 2218 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago, 111., (312) 472-6942. When you are thinking of what kind of present to give to your children or grandchildren on their birthdays or any other occasion, choose a gift subscription to The Eighth Tribe and one of the books listed on the last page of this magazine. The Eighth Tribe magazine’s importance has been acknowledged in many circles, but no magazine has a future without sufficient funds, which can only come from the subscribers. We ask our readers to get as many subscribers as they can.
