“I luff you like a brother.”
Louis I. Szathmary (1919-1996)

Blank still delights in impishly imitating the cooking advice of his late Hungarian friend, Chef Louis Szathmary. As he takes on a heavy accent and furrows his brow in stern disapproval, the chef wags a chastising finger. “Freetz,” he precisely intones, “I luff you like a brother, but you don’t know sheet about cookink potatoes. Don’t vorry,” the eyebrows relax, “I vill show you how!”

Through their ribald faxes and daily telephone conversations, it seemed each had found an earthy doppelganger. Both were former professionals and military officers who ran successful restaurants. Both loved the foods of central Europe. And both maintained massive cookbook collections plundered for facts, recipes and inspiration. Szathmary’s exacting expectations, his books, and his letters to Fritz are an enduring legacy of instructions that began years ago.

Szathmary wrote several cookbooks. His recipe for roast goose has undergone a particularly thorough reading by Blank. Despite all the ink, the dish appears virtually unchanged every winter on Deux Cheminées’ menu. Szathmary’s thumbprint on Blank’s cooking is reflected in a sizable collection of Hungarian cookbooks.