Les
Dames d’Escoffier is the only
organization of its kind: a
world-wide
philanthropic society of
professional women leaders in
the fields of food, fine
beverage, and hospitality.
Co-Founders:Ann Arbor Chapter of LDEI
(written
by Sandra Lach
Arlinghaus)
My mother, Alma
Lach, was a great Chicago
Chef, holding the ‘Grande
Diplôme’ of Le Cordon Bleu
in Paris France (awarded
June 29, 1956), as well as
numerous honors in the
culinary worlds of food
and wine (including ‘Dame
of Distinction’ from the
Chicago Chapter of Les
Dames d’Escoffier,
Chevaliers du Tastevin,
Chaine des Rotisseurs,
Association des Anysetiers
du Roy, and
so forth).Our Chicago Chapter
Mentor, Toria Emas, notes:
Alma
was in the
first group of
new
members.
15 charter
members
were inducted
on May 23,
1982 at
L’Escargot
and the second
induction (18
members) was
held at
Maxim’s on
November 1,
1982 which
happened to be
my
birthday.
Alma and I
were in the
second
induction.
Each of the
charter
members was
asked to
invite one or
two women to
join in
fall.
[Click here
for a link to
Chicago
Chapter
History as
recounted on
the Chicago
Chapter
website]
Alma
wore a number of different
hats, as a culinary
multi-tasker ahead of her
time: a cookbook author, a
newspaper Food Editor, a
food consultant, and a
professional food
photographer (among other
things).Alma died suddenly
in 2013 at the age of 99;
she was skillful with a
computer and continued to
work until the day she
died.Her unfinished
works as well as all of
her career documentation
are housed in the Alma
Lach Special Collection of
the Joseph Regenstein
Library of the University
of Chicago.A project that she
and I had been working on
together, during the final
years of her life, was to
create a Chapter of Les
Dames d’Escoffier in Ann
Arbor, Michigan.
Much of Mom’s adult
life had been spent in
Chicago.In 2007, several
years after the death of
my father (in 2000), my
husband Bill Arlinghaus
and I persuaded her to get
a ‘second’ home (of
totally independent
living) in Ann Arbor,
Michigan, about 5 minutes
away from us.She believed when
she embarked on her trip
to Ann Arbor on a lovely
autumn day in late
September of 2007 that she
would be in Ann Arbor only
a short time before she
returned to Chicago and
she could have done so at
any time (she drove her
own car until she died).However, when she
arrived in Ann Arbor and
saw her new Nature Cove
Condominium apartment for
the first time—she loved
it—the beautiful view and
the well-arranged interior
suited her tastes very
well.She never left; she
lived in Ann Arbor for six
years. She also made
many new friends,
especially Bob and Bea
Kahn, while she continued
to embrace her many
friends from Chicago and
elsewhere in her heart.
In about 2010, Mom
decided that she would
like to join the Ann
Arbor City Club in
order to play poker in
their downstairs bar; she
also wanted me and Bill to
join, too.Soon we were all
members and Mom loved
going there to play poker,
drink Scotch, and eat
appetizers brought right
to the circular poker
table.She and I were the
only two women in the
game.Some of the men
loved coming to try to
beat her…but generally
they left shaking their
heads.She made them happy
by buying them an
occasional drink!Shortly after we
all joined, the City Club
Newsletter, The Beacon, did a feature
story on us as a
mother-daughter pair,
including a prominent
mention of our project in
working together to try to
build a Chapter of Les
Dames d’Escoffier in Ann
Arbor.
As she became
accustomed to the City
Club, Alma thought about
founding the new Ann Arbor
Chapter of Les Dames with
a base at the City Club.She already knew a
few folks around town she
thought might be
interested.So, she and I
brought our friend with
whom we had frequently
talked about culinary
matters, Donna K. Tope
M.S., J.D., into our
serious discussions about
this idea.It wasn’t long
before I wanted to include
my neighbor and friend,
Chef Ricky Agranoff,
partner and co-owner of
the Moveable Feast, for
many years Ann Arbor’s
premier fine dining
establishment.Alma had met Ricky
on several occasions and
told me “that girl knows
food.”If you knew Alma at
all, you would know that
that comment represented
very high praise!Ricky introduced us
to her long-time friend
and advisor, Patricia
Pooley (her business
partner at the Moveable
Feast)—several years ago,
we enjoyed some pleasant
conversation about the Ann
Arbor food/wine scene.In subsequent
discussions, Donna and I
discovered that Ricky had
thought earlier about
founding a Chapter of Les
Dames here in Ann Arbor,
an effort of the late
1990s that somehow did not
come to fruition.Naturally, it
seemed a fine idea to pool
our efforts and
creativity.
The result of this
four-way collaboration
produced the Ann Arbor
Chapter of LDEI: Four
original co-founders of
the Ann Arbor Chapter of
Les Dames d’Escoffier:Alma Lach, Sandra
Lach Arlinghaus, Donna K.
Tope, and Raquel B.
Agranoff.
Copyright
2015--present, Les Dames
d' Escoffier Ann Arbor.
Image
credits: Floral
images, Alma S. Lach,
copyright 1998, and
Sandra Lach
Arlinghaus. Burgundy/green
LDE logo created by
Alma Lach for the
Chicago Chapter (of
which she was an
original first-year
member) and used here
with their
permission. LDEI
logo used here, in
both original and
modified form, with
LDEI permission.
Photo of
the Ann Arbor City
Club reprinted here
with permission of the
copyright holder.
Globe image,
Google Earth (TM).