Founded 2015
a world-wide philanthropic society of professional women leaders in the fields of food, fine beverage, and hospitality.
| Les Dames
d'Escoffier, Ann Arbor Founded 2015 |
|
|
Les Dames d'Escoffier
International is the only organization its
kind: a world-wide philanthropic society of professional women leaders in the fields of food, fine beverage, and hospitality. |
Chapter
Formation
History: pre-2015
Founders
Alma
Lach,
was a great Chicago Chef, holding the ‘Grande Diplôme’ of Le
Cordon Bleu
in
Paris
France
(awarded June 24, 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).
She was an early
member of the Chicago Chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier, a
cookbook author,
a
newspaper
Food
Editor, and a food consultant (among other things).
In
2006,
six years after the death of her husband, Donald F. Lach
(Bernadotte
Schmitt Professor of History, University of Chicago), Alma moved
to Ann Arbor,
while still retaining her large apartment in Chicago, to be near
her daughter,
Sandy Lach Arlinghaus. As she became accustomed to her new
apartment on the top
floor of Nature Cove Condominiums, she thought about what she
missed in
Chicago: both Les
Dames d’Escoffier and
the Quadrangle Club came to mind!
Replacing
the
Quadrangle Club membership was easy; she joined the Ann Arbor
City Club. One day
she said to Sandy, “let’s start an
Ann Arbor Chapter of Les Dames with the City Club as its home
base.” Shortly, 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. Alma already knew a
few folks around town
she
thought
might
be interested. So, she and Sandy brought our friend with whom we
had
frequently talked
about
culinary
matters, Donna 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.” Donna was equally enthusiastic! The die was cast; the
four of us were set to
move forward, as co-founders, of Les Dames d’Escoffier Ann
Arbor.
Sadly,
Alma
died suddenly in 2013 before she could see the work we all began
earlier
come to fruition. Further,
Ricky died in
2020 before she could see our chapter emerge from the doldrums
of the global
pandemic. Although
of course they are
both greatly missed, their influence lives on and their memories
are cherished.
Charter
Request
for Chapter Formation: 2015
Charter
Members: 2015
We
invited
a group that we hoped represented the diversity in interest that
was
present in our
community.
Ann
Arbor is (and was in 2015) heavily academic in its orientation—a
fine fit
with the educational interests of Les Dames d’Escoffier
International (LDEI).
It is (and was in 2015) also a town with heavy emphasis on
environmental
matters—another fine fit with elements, such as Green
Tables, of the
stated LDEI mission! These
were the
women whose names were submitted to LDEI in support of our
Charter
request. They
supplied credentials that
were evaluated directly by a panel of LDEI members. Subsequent LDEAA
members were not subject to
direct LDEI scrutiny (only to LDEAA Board approval). They are listed here
with only the briefest indications
of their full credential sets.
1.
Raquel
B. Agranoff, Retired Chef and Restaurant Co-Owner, C.C.P.
2.
Antoinette
Benjamin, CCP, Chef, Owner Food For All Seasons, Cooking School
and
Catering, 1998 International Catering Excellence
Award.
3.
Lizzie
Burt, R.N., I.A.C.P. Health Educator, M Healthy Community
Nutrition
Culinary School,
University
of
Michigan. Studied with Jacques Pepin and Simone Beck.
4.
Carol
Deinzer, B.A., Pastry Chef. Chef Educator, Professional Faculty,
and
Department Chair,
Culinary
Arts
& Hospitality Management, Washtenaw Community College
5.
Katherine
Farrell, B.A., M.B.A., Grand Diploma La Varenne Ecole de
Cuisine,
Paris. President and
Co-Founder
of
Katherine’s Catering and Special Events, Inc.
6.
Cecilia
Fileti, M.S., R.D., F.A.N.D., F.A.D.A. President and Owner, C.
P. Fileti
Associates, Inc., a
food
and
health communications and regulatory response firm.
7.
Lisa
Howard, B.A. Cookbook author, Cooking Instructor, Culinary
Speaker, and
Food Educator.
8.
Mercy
Kasle, B.A. Restaurant owner.
9.
Jan
Longone, B.A. Curator of American Culinary History at Special
Collections,
Hatcher Library,
University
of
Michigan (Ann Arbor)
10.
Alice
Boehnke Lyders, Pastry Chef, Farmer
11.
Mary
Ann Nisley, Marketing Specialist, Whole Foods
12.
Tierney
Orfgen, Ph.D. (Michigan State University), Grande Diplôme
(honors), Le
Cordon Bleu,
Paris.
Assistant
Professor, Eastern Michigan University, Hotel and Restaurant
Management
13.
Sharyl
Politi, B.S., Professional Faculty, Culinary Arts &
Hospitality
Management, Washtenaw
Community
College
14.
Ann
Schriber, B.A. Ann Arbor News, Food Writer; Cookbook author;
event
planner.
15.
Cindy
Straub, Ph.D., Events and Volunteer Manager, University Musical
Society,
University of
Michigan
(Ann
Arbor).
16.
Sandy
Lach Arlinghaus, Ph.D. Adjunct Professor, School of Natural
Resources and
Environment,
University
of
Michigan (Ann Arbor). President, Arlinghaus Enterprises, L.L.C.
Expertise
in
specialized
large-scale
event planning sporadically over 40 years.
17.
Donna
K. Tope, M.S., J.D. Attorney and Owner, Cambridge Legal
Services. As
owner of Pen in
Hand,
I
was a professional event planner for ten years. I grow food. I
was a recipe
tester for a
published
cookbook.
On
September 14, 2015,
LDEI issued approval for a new Chapter, Les Dames
d’Escoffier Ann Arbor.
|
Co-Founders: Ann
Arbor Chapter of LDEI (written by Sandra Lach Arlinghaus)
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. |
