It all began with broccoli salad and a signature sauce.
That, along with roast turkey and dressing, was the appetizer that launched a business for Donna Eick 26 years ago and made her into what she calls a “creative foodie.”
Since then, her culinary magic with salads and homemade soups – none of which have written recipes, she claims – helped make her a catering legend in Niagara County where legions of fans agree: “I like Eick.”
“Neither my Italian grandmother or my mother ever wrote any recipes down. I go by taste. You can’t measure when you’re cooking in volume. You just have to know when it’s right,” Eick says.
She also can, she says, unlock the secrets of a recipe simply by tasting it. Like a musician who can listen to a song and play it perfectly without even knowing how to read music, Eick says she can sample a dish at a restaurant and then make it in her kitchen as good or better than the original.
You can read the rest of the article here, which features a look at her new restaurant in Lockport and offers an answer to the question, "will Donna ever write a cookbook?":
http://buffalo.bizjournals.com/buffalo/stories/2009/12/14/smallb2.html
