A Madoff Cookbook Has a Secret, Too

Wearing plain aprons and standing in front of a dishwasher, Ruth Madoff and her friend look like two homemakers ready for serious work in the kitchen.

But like so much to do with the Madoff family, all is not as it appears in the photo.

The picture comes from a 1996 cookbook called “The Great Chefs of America Cook Kosher: Over 175 Recipes From America’s Greatest Restaurants.” Mrs. Madoff and her friend, as co-authors, wrote in the book of a high-minded mission: exposing kosher palates to new sensations by collecting dishes from famous restaurant chefs that could be prepared in keeping with Jewish dietary restrictions.

For all the book’s talk of wanting to serve the interests of a “strictly Kosher” crowd, The Daily Mail in London recently reported that Ruth’s husband, Bernard, was quite fond of pork sausages, taboo under any definition of kosher cooking.

Karen MacNeil, a food and wine expert who was given the title of editor of the project, beneath the two executive editors — Mrs. Madoff and her friend Idee Schoenheimer — disclosed in an interview with The New York Times that she was paid to write the cookbook in its entirety. She said Mrs. Madoff “was interested in having her name on something that would allow for some sort of fun.”

“My understanding was that she entertained a lot in New York and kind of wanted to test some recipes just as a social thing to do with friends,” said Ms. MacNeil, a wine and food consultant in Saint Helena, Calif. “But in point of fact, I wrote the entire book.”

more at

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/business/15cook.html