Sheila Lukins, entrepreneur, writer shook culinary world

Ms. Lukins, who also operated a pioneering gourmet takeout shop, died Sunday at her home in New York, Parade magazine said. She was diagnosed with brain cancer three months ago.

Ms. Lukins’s “The Silver Palate’’ is one of the top 10 best-selling cookbooks of all time. She wrote it with her business partner, Julee Rosso, in 1979, two years after they opened one of the nation’s first gourmet takeout shops, Silver Palate Restaurant, in New York.

The food entrepreneurs benefited from perfect timing. Takeout food was beginning to boom in the late 1970s as a growing work force of women realized they needed shortcuts in the kitchen.

“From tiny little shops like the Silver Palate, people started realizing they didn’t have the time but still wanted it handmade and delicious,’’ said Mary Sue Milliken, co-chef and co-owner of the Border Grill and Cuidad restaurants in Los Angeles. “Look what’s happened - now you walk into every grocery store and they have this ‘grab and go’ thing, which all spawned from these shops.’’

“The Silver Palate’’ cookbook was praised for simplifying and reinterpreting “highfalutin home cooking.’’ Also, it benefited from a new and growing appreciation in the United States for ethnic cuisine.

“Just about anyone who threw a party in the ‘80s turned to a ‘Silver Palate’ cookbook. It guaranteed a party that everybody talked about,’’ said Nancy Silverton, a Los Angeles chef who owns Pizzeria Mozza and Osteria Mozza.

At Parade magazine, Ms. Lukins succeeded Julia Child as food editor in 1986 and wrote the “Simply Delicious’’ column for 23 years. Her Parade recipes were “always really, really basic but inspirational,’’ geared toward getting people into the kitchen, Milliken said.

Born in 1942 in Philadelphia, Sheila Gail Block grew up in Westport, Conn., and was reared by her mother, a former dental hygienist, and her stepfather, a manufacturer.

After graduating in 1970 with a bachelor’s degree in art education from New York University, she moved to London with her husband, Richard Lukins, who ran a security business.

Bored, she enrolled in cooking classes at Le Cordon Bleu culinary institute but later emphasized that she “took the dilettante course rather than the diploma course.’’

When she returned to New York in 1972, she was raising two daughters in the Dakota Apartments when a bachelor neighbor called in a panic over a dinner party he had planned. She offered to cook for him, which led her to open a catering company.

One client whom she impressed was Rosso, an ad executive who hired her to cater a media function. The future partners sat behind a screen and talked about how hard it was to shop and cook after working all day.

Their customers were interested in good food but lacked the time to produce it. “In my neighborhood, the supermarkets closed at 5, because women were home during the day - and if they weren’t, their maids were,’’ Rosso said.

The Silver Palate opened in 1977 on New York’s Upper West Side, when few Americans had heard of raspberry vinegar or ratatouille. “Entertaining’’ was still a wifely responsibility, and cooking as a hobby was just becoming popular among educated women such as Ms. Lukins.

In 1979, Patricia Wells, writing in The New York Times, called it a “tiny food shop with big ideas,’’ referring to its handmade zucchini pickles and blueberry preserves, made from local produce whenever possible.

Ms. Lukins experimented by serving Greek mezes, Moroccan chicken pies, and gazpacho at a time when only French-style standards like duck a l’orange were considered elegant enough for entertaining.

By 1985, the Silver Palate had grown into an estimated $10 million-a-year business. It included a full-service catering operation and prepackaged high-quality convenience foods. At one point, they had more than 120 products in 1,500 stores.

In 1985, the partners sold a controlling business in the company but stayed on until 1988. By then their friendship was strained.

In addition to their first cookbook, the pair co-wrote three more, including one pegged to seasonal celebrations, “The Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook’’ (1984), which won a James Beard Award.

Ms. Lukins wrote several more cookbooks on her own, including “Sheila Lukins All Around the World Cookbook,’’ inspired by her travels to 33 countries. The book’s 1994 release was complicated by a cerebral hemorrhage. Forced to relearn such basic skills as walking and reading, she continued to travel with the help of an assistant or her husband.

Ms. Lukins leaves two daughters, Annabel Lukins Stelling and Molly Burke; two grandchildren; a sister, Elaine Yanell, and a brother, Harvey Block.

Material from The New York Times was used in this obituary.