Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Life

What Bernie Madoff Eats for Dinner

It may take more than comfort food to soothe Bernard Madoff, who feds say ran the largest Ponzi scheme in history. But as long as Madoff — who was released on $10 milion bail last week — remains holed up in his Upper East Side penthouse, he might as well feast on warm leek and potato soup, Dover sole poached in vermouth, and cranberry linzertorte. His wife, Ruth, should have no trouble throwing these dishes together; they are among the recipes in a 1996 cookbook that she co-authored.

In “Great Chefs of America Cook Kosher: Over 175 Recipes From America’s Greatest Restaurants,” Ruth and her two co-authors reached out to the chefs of world-renowned restaurants, and asked them to provide kosher renditions of their favorite dishes. Proceeds from the cookbook went to the Jewish National Fund.

The book’s featured recipes, from the likes of such tony restaurants as L.A.’s Campanile and Philadelphia’s Le Bec Fin, sure beat prison meals and commissary snacks — and that is precisely what Bernie could be eating for the rest of his days, if convicted of securities fraud.

In a 1996 press release about the publication of “Great Chefs,” a cookbook co-author, Idee Schoenheimer, explained how Ruth tested the so-called healthy dishes and disqualified those made with cream: “Ruth was our conscience.”

Someone in the family should have one.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.