One of Taste's most popular long-standing features was "Requests." Starting in 1971, Taste staffers tracked down and published readers' favorite restaurant recipes. Several thousand recipes, constituting an encyclopedia of Minnesota dining-out names, eventually made their way into the column during its 30-year existence. Restaurateurs sometimes declined to share their recipes, however. For example, on May 17, 1978, Reiko Weston, owner of the elegant Fuji Ya in downtown Minneapolis, gave a polite "No" when asked to reveal her restaurant's salad dressing formula. "I prefer to keep it a 'house secret,' " she wrote.
Still, many restaurateurs and chefs were willing to open up their kitchen files. In that same issue, the column's recipes included croissants from Ovens of Brittany in Madison, Wis., raised apple pancakes from the Pannekoeken Huis chain and lemon bars from the Char Ket in Buffalo Lake, Minn. (Find the recipes at www.startribune.com/tabletalk.)
Another query originated from a name that would later become familiar to WCCO Radio listeners: food maven Sue Zelickson. "Could you get the recipe for the cracker pie served Thursday noons at the IDS Minnesota Alumni club?" she asked. "It's so-o-o good."
Done.
RICK NELSON
