Mr. Food: Anyone Can Do It (But Not Like He Could). He’s SO GOOD

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Someone once said that the secret to good food is loving the food you’re making or the person you’re making it for.

Art Ginsburg, The Mr. Food Cookbook (1990), Page xii.

It’s a safe bet to assume that you thought Art Ginsburg, you know him as Mr. Food, was a local. He’d pop up, beaming, like a go-get-’em food cheerleader in a puffy white chef hat, ready to share a tip and meal idea before the local news or pigskin preview. My cookbook collection wouldn’t be the same without him.

Mr. Food’s 90-minute segments showed uncomplicated, completed dishes and offered savvy tips for home cooks. Although 90-seconds sounds easy, breezy, and simple, you have less time to make your point while ensuring each segment felt familiar, yet entertaining. Sound tricky? You bet’cha.

Just ask a friend of mine tasked with writing 90-word blurbs about 100 hotels. How do you say the same thing in a new way each time? Whatever the magic involved, Art Ginsburg mastered the fine art of remaining appealing and enthusiastic while sharing his simple meal, dessert, or snack ideas — garnering four million views each segment.

Table of Contents

• Who was Art Ginsburg, otherwise known as Mr. Food?
• When Did Mr. Food First Appear on TV?
• Where Did Mr. Food’s Catchphrase Come From?
• How Did Mr. Food’s Popularity Grow?
• Whatever Happened to Mr. Food?
• Mr. Food Cookbooks: The Big List
  • Mr. Food Test Kitchen Cookbooks
• Related Resources

Who was Art Ginsburg, otherwise known as Mr. Food?

CHEF JAMES: If you were stranded on a desert island for a year surviving on coconuts and seaweed, what would be the first meal you would like to eat after you were rescued?

MR. FOOD: A sandwich of thick-cut homegrown tomatoes on country-style bread with romaine lettuce, mayo and a sprinkle of salt and pepper.

James T. Ehler, INTERVIEW WITH ‘MR. FOOD’, ART GINSBURG, Food Reference, September 2006, Accessed September 6, 2024.

Art Ginsburg was born in Troy, New York. Art’s father was a butcher. As a kid, he learned about the family butcher business — and watched as his mother sometimes made do with little.

My mother and my sister were my inspirations. They were both great at making anything taste super. My mother had the ability to take whatever was in the cupboard (and sometimes that was very little) and make it into something substantial to put on the table.

My dad was a wholesale butcher who bartered with the local farmers, so Mom was expert at taking whatever Dad brought home and using every bit of it! If it was cauliflower, we’d have it for the next 2 weeks — every which way! The last of them would get peeled, cleaned and pickled — so nothing went to waste!

Those were the days when my dad and I brought back the cattle and had to process it ourselves. Spending all that time in the country taught me a lot about seasons, crops, and cattle.

I learned every part of the animals — you know, what was best for what purpose, etc. Those early experiences have stayed with me.

James T. Ehler, INTERVIEW WITH ‘MR. FOOD’, ART GINSBURG, Food Reference, September 2006, Accessed September 6, 2024.

Perhaps that explains why so many of the mentions referencing Mr. Food include viewer’s memories of when he carved a Thanksgiving turkey. Art devoted part of the book, “From My Kitchen to Yours” to the place he called “home” as a kid.

If you want to read Art’s personal stories, or want to relive Troy, New York’s restaurant memories, that’s the Mr. Food cookbook for you.

His most recent book, “From My Kitchen to Yours,” should certainly be a bestseller in Troy because the first section is devoted to “Growing Up in Troy.”

It’s spiced with well-known area names such as Jack’s hamburger stand in Albia, Gallagher’s Fish Fry in Watervliet and Charlie’s Hot Dogs on Congress Street in Troy.

He also tells of his football escapades at Troy High School and of driving with his dad for two hours through the countryside to buy meat and poultry “on the hoof” at such places as “Mr. Hayner’s farm.”

. . .

In writing the book, Ginsburg has a clever way of using descriptions of local experiences as an introduction to his recipes.

For instance, he tells about the times when he terrorized Troy High football opponents with his 225-pound torso and then going to an Italian restaurant to gorge himself with food to nourish that frame.

He would order lasagna, which took 20 minutes to cook, and, while waiting, he would devour a hot meatball sandwich and a pizza. That was his way of introducing readers to his recipe for Sicilian pizza.

John Scanlon, The Record, May 4, 2000, Updated July 22, 2021, Accessed September 6, 2024.

When Art grew up, he attended college for a bit, served in the Navy, and sold encyclopedias, artificial flowers and janitorial supplies, according to a 2012 New York Times article.

He enjoyed singing and performing — even cast as “Tevye” in “Fiddler on the Roof.” That gift of performance made TV a natural fit.

But we aren’t there yet.

Art married Ethel Ginsburg in 1955. They had three kids: Steve Ginsburg, Chuck Ginsburg, and Caryl Ginsburg Fantel. Unlike other television personalities, Art Ginsburg didn’t turn the camera on his home life. But, his family is mentioned in brief references or various parts of his many cookbooks, such as the acknowledgments or dedication. In the case of his daughter, she has also filled the role of cookbook editor.

Art’s life took a new direction when it was time for his son’s bar mitzvah. After the hired caterer at the bar mitzvah was drunk, Art stepped in. He apparently liked the task, because he began his own catering company, and business took off.

When Did Mr. Food First Appear on TV?

Art Ginsburg took to the TV studio in 1975. He filmed at the WRGB TV studio, channel 6, founded in 1928. WRGB is the oldest TV station in the world, according to the New York Heritage Digital Collection. The Schenectady station is credited with being the first to create a regular viewing schedule, newscast, news remote, and television drama.

It’s only fitting that Art was the first TV chef who pushed “anybody can do it” cooking techniques, according to a 2007 The Vindicator article. His food wasn’t fussy. It was quick-to-fix and sometimes turned to convenience foods to hasten the process.  

His recipes had 10 ingredients at most, and he shared uncountable timesaving tricks. His “anybody can do it” philosophy held that any home cooking is better than no home cooking.

The recipe for his recipes boiled down to this: “The less steps the better; the less ingredients the better.”

Douglas Martin, Art Ginsburg, TV Chef Who Didn’t Scoff at Cake Mix, Dies at 81, The New York Times, November 23, 2012, Accessed SEptember 8, 2024.

And what did you do if you wanted a recipe? To request a recipe, you sent a self-addressed, stamped envelope where? Right to Art, “here at the station.”

Art Ginsburg filmed his 230 yearly segments in his Fort Lauderdale test kitchen. His set-up included a series of 10 moveable countertops, each ingredient at the ready and every item clearly labeled with a sticky note for efficiency.

This way, according to The NY Times, he could swap out the countertops and film 20 segments within a two-day period.

“Art’s big thing was ‘Is it doable?’ ” [Howard] Rosenthal said in a 2013 interview. “We have 90 seconds to show something, and we have to give people enough information in that time for them to decide, ‘Hey, I can do this.'”

Where Did Mr. Food’s Catchphrase Come From?

Everyone who knew Mr. Food was familiar with his favorite phrase, “Ooh it’s so good!” That wasn’t the only phrase he used. He’d sprinkle in “Anybody can do it!” in the reassuring way he had. You felt like you could.

But of course, “Ooh it’s so good” was as much a part of Mr. Food as “How you doing?” from Friends and “That’s what she said!” from The Office. It’s even sound trademarked.

In 1995, “OOH IT’S SO GOOD!!®” became a registered sound mark with the US Patent Office.

Mr. Food is certainly in good company, since only a handful of sound marks have been deemed worthy of this distinction, including the theme song of the Harlem Globetrotters International, the roar of the MGM lion, the familiar chest-beating and call of Tarzan, and the NBC chimes that we hear before the evening news, to name a few. 

The Origin of “OOH IT’S SO GOOD!!”, Mr. Food Test Kitchen, Accessed September 9, 2024.

But where did Mr. Food’s saying, “Ooh it’s so good!” come from? How did that happen and who came up with that? It wasn’t the result of a large marketing department brainstorming session. No, it’s one of those little twists of fate.

Have you ever heard the song “You Gotta Get a Gimmick” from the musical “Gypsy?” Well, hearing it made Mr. Food decide he, too, needed to have a gimmick for his show. But how did he come up with it?

When Mr. Food first started out, he was featured on a morning talk show in Albany, New York. After he’d prepare his recipe each day, he and the host, Mimi Scott, would always taste it on-air.

Mr. Food thought the segments were missing something by just ending this way, so one day he finished with a big “OOH IT’S SO GOOD!!”

It just came out! It wasn’t planned. No fancy PR company came up with it … it just happened.

After finishing a few more shows like that, Mr. Food happened to be walking down the street one day and, out of nowhere, someone pointed at him and said, “Hey! It’s the ‘OOH IT’S SO GOOD!!’ guy!”

When it kept happening, Art knew he had found something. From then on, it became his signature tagline — a “gimmick” that has become woven into the fabric of Mr. Food.

The Origin of “OOH IT’S SO GOOD!!”, Mr. Food Test Kitchen, Accessed September 9, 2024.

Remember, this man had a butchering and catering background. He knew his stuff. He wasn’t like so many of today’s celeb chefs that you figure only snagged their show because of someone they knew.

As I flipped through the multiple Mr. Food titles I own, I was struck by the relevance of his tips. Mr. Food was pushing cheese boards before they were a “thing” in his book, “Help, Mr. Food! Company’s Coming!” (1995, page 1).

When asked about his favorite kitchen gadgets, Art had good advice about that, too.

He said, “The most important tool in anybody’s kitchen – in mine, certainly – is the spice rack. Good knives are right up there too, and they don’t have to be expensive ones either!” in a 2006 interview with Chef James T. Ehler of Food Reference.

How Did Mr. Food’s Popularity Grow?

“I could have been called Mr. Cucumber the rest of my life,” Ginsburg joked. “Or Mr. Pot and Pan. Mr. Food is better.”

Suzette Laboy, Celebrity TV chef coming to Eastwood Expo Center this weekend Mr. Food, February 16, 2011, Accessed September 6, 2024.

By 1980, Mr. Food had branched out, reaching nine local stations, and soon hit TVs nationwide in 1982, after syndication by CBS Television Distribution, according to the Mr. Food Test Kitchen timeline. The show’s reach kept on growing.

William & Morrow Publishing signed on Art in 1989 and released “The Mr. Food Cookbook: Ooh It’s So Good!!” in 1990. By 1993, the QVC shopping network caught wind of Mr. Food, selling a whopping 8,000 copies of two of Art’s “Quick ‘n’ Easy” cookbooks in minutes, shared the Mr. Food Test Kitchen website.

It seemed everyone, everywhere was tuning in. The Mr. Food vignettes hit their highest number in 2007, broadcasting through 168 stations across the country.

The Mr. Food segment took to the road, sometimes filming in destinations, such as during the Navy’s Fleet Week in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He filmed his segments for Mr. Food aboard the USS Porter, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer.

“As a former Navy man, I am proud to be invited aboard the USS Porter as part of our continued efforts to honor everyone serving in the military, and their families, whenever possible. I look forward to meeting and having the opportunity to thank the sailors in person for all that they do to protect us,” said Ginsburg.

The shows being taped aboard the Porter will feature a traditional Navy recipe for Baking Powder Biscuits that has a history dating back to the late 1800s.

Also to be covered will be the Good Egg Breakfast that’s being hosted on the ship by a group of America’s egg farmers as part of the national Good Egg Project.

Mr. Food Television Segments Salute the Military, Mr. Food Test Kitchen, May 1, 2010, Accessed September 9, 2024.

Times changed, as they do. At the show’s lowest point, numbering roughly 100 stations, the can-do cooking show continued, eventually jumping back up to 125 cities in 2011, according to The Associated Press.

While I’m sure the dip in stations was a blow, Mr. Food professed a desire to maintain his locally-known status, and not being forced to navigate the sort of fame surrounding other food personalities. Although Art could be over-the-top, he wasn’t like the “celebrity chefs” who later hit the TV networks.

“Let me tell you something. I was always the neighborhood guy. I was always the hometown guy in all of the stations I’m on, everybody thinks I’m there, because we keep up with exactly what they want,” Art Ginsburg said in a 2010 AP TV spot.

“Ginsburg was a champion of the common household cook, without the flash and high-end pretensions of so many TV chefs today,” wrote Patrick Kevin Day in a 2012 Los Angeles Times article. Art meant it — and said it again in another Associated Press interview:

“They’re on the Food Network. They’re getting a lot of national publicity. And they’re getting big money,” he [Art Ginsburg] said of fellow food celebrities during a 2010 interview with The Associated Press.

“I was always the hometown guy. I don’t want to be the super celebrity. When you need bodyguards, that’s not my deal.”

“He’s nationally recognized but locally-embraced. Everybody thinks he’s local. So that trust and feeling of connecting with him, he’s like everyone’s favorite uncle,” said Howard Rosenthal, the vice president of Ginsburg Enterprises Inc., in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in a 2011 Associated Press article.

But don’t let that fool you.

Art Ginsburg was a prolific author, with 52 books to his name (and more published under the “Mr. Food Test Kitchen” brand), sold some eight million copies, and put his name behind a slew of related ventures.

From appearing on the QVC Shopping channel to branded housewares, Art Ginsburg may not be Martha Stewart, but he had his hand in several ventures.

“National television celebrity Mr. Food will be on hand all three days of the Mahoning Valley Home and Garden Show from Friday through Sunday at the Eastwood Expo Center in Niles,” the 2007 The Vindicator shared (and again in 2011).

This regular guy participated in his community and in the areas his show aired. St. Patrick’s Day meant a jaunt to Chicago, where Mr. Food joined the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade, as seen above. Wherever he went, fun was sure to follow.

Whatever Happened to Mr. Food?

“Art Ginsburg was a warm, gregarious man who knew food is more about love and sharing than a fancy ingredient list,” said Rachael Ray, who Ginsburg invited on air long before she was a huge celebrity.

“He was a supportive and loyal friend and I’ll miss his smile and warm hugs. This Thanksgiving I’m thankful I knew him.”

J.M. HIRSCH, Mr. Food dies this morning after battle with pancreatic cancer, The Associated Press, November 21, 2012, Accessed September 9, 2024.

Arthur Ginsburg, or “Mr. Food,” died November 21, 2012 at his home in Weston, Florida due to his second bout with pancreatic cancer. He was 81. Art’s services were held Friday, November 23, 9:30 AM at B’nai Aviv Synagogue in Hollywood, Florida. He is buried at Levitt-Weinstein at Beth David, also in Hollywood, Florida.

Art left behind Ethel (Stillman), his wife of 57 years; his sons Steve and Chuck; his daughter, Caryl Ginsburg Fantel; and six grandchildren.

At the time of Art’s death, his website garnered 1.7 monthly unique views (or first-time visitors to the website) and he appeared on 125 local TV stations, according to The New York Times 2012 obituary.

Art had already taken a step back, letting Howard Rosenthal, Mr. Food’s former creative director, play the part of host — because who could replace Mr. Food? No one.

“Look, if you’ve seen Art as Mr. Food you know that no one is going to replace that, so I don’t try,” Rosenthal said. “I’m Howard. I introduce myself as ‘Howard from the Mr. Food Test Kitchen.’ To carry on for someone as charismatic as Art, I need to be me, not him.”

Don Cazentre, The new face of TV’s ‘Mr. Food’ may look familiar: He’s a native of Central New York, The Post Standard Syracuse, November 5, 2013, Accessed Spetmeber 6, 2024.

No, Howard doesn’t use the tagline, “Ooh, it’s so good” in the same way as Art.

Howard and Art go way back. Howard went to SUNY Cobleskill with Art’s daughter, Caryl. Art’s TV career was just beginning. Meanwhile, Rosenthal got into catering and running a restaurant.

Returning to Syracuse, Rosenthal turned to catering. His company, Yankel & Co. (named more or less after his middle name of Jay), did weddings, bar mitzvahs, graduation parties, and more. Yankel catered some of the big early events at the former Carousel Center Skydeck.

In the mid-1980s, Rosenthal also ran a restaurant in Fayetteville called Taste of Broadway, which introduced Central New Yorkers to foods like blintzes and went through 55 barrels of pickles each year.

Yankel, by then located in the back of DeWitt’s Nottingham Plaza, was successful, but Rosenthal was ready to branch out. He had stayed in touch with Ginsburg, who was also becoming more successful with the TV spots, appearances on the QVC shopping channel, and a line of cookbooks.

While still running Yankel, Rosenthal worked on some of the early books, including the Mr. Food Cookie Book and one called Mr. Food’s Old World Cooking. Around that time, Ginsburg began planning to leave Albany and set up a new headquarters and studio in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Don Cazentre, The new face of TV’s ‘Mr. Food’ may look familiar: He’s a native of Central New York, The Post Standard Syracuse, November 5, 2013, Accessed Spetmeber 6, 2024.

Although Howard’s catering business took off, when he reconnected with Art, he joined the Ginsburg’s in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the site of Mr. Food headquarters with a television studio, test kitchen, production studio, and publishing office.

Art’s wife, Ethel, and two of his kids are listed as team members on the Mr. Food Test Kitchen website.

Ethel, or “Mrs. Food,” has the title of Wardrobe and Makeup. Steve is the Executive Producer and Chief Executive Officer of Ginsburg Enterprises, Inc., the Mr. Food parent company. Caryl serves as Director of Publishing and Communications, and edits Mr. Food cookbooks, Mr. Food TV recipes, and the website, according to the Mr. Food production team about page.

I use the present tense for these positions based on the production page on the official Mr. Food website. I don’t know if these job positions are still true at the time of my writing (September 2024). I know that in 2018, there was the 24th Annual Mr. Food Luncheon at Salvatore’s Italian Gardens in Depew, New York. Guests received lunch and a cookbook, according to Variety: The Children’s Charity.

Then I found this:

Mr. Food wasn’t exciting, like Emeril, or charismatic like Mario, or a brilliant teacher, like Alton Brown; he was just a former butcher in an apron and puffy hat. In one way, though, there was a continuity between him and the subsequent wave of TV food personalities.

His audience, like theirs, and really, like all TV audiences, watched him because they liked him, not because they necessarily wanted to make his recipes, which were after all available in every cookbook.

Like his contemporaries Bob Ross, the afroed “happy trees” painter, or Jack Horkheimer, the squat, effervescent “Star Hustler,” who gave astronomy tips to fellow star gazers, it was all about the messenger, not the message.

(How many Bob Ross viewers actually tried to follow his painting lessons?)

And, as with Ross and Horkheimer, it’s Mr. Food’s regular presence that I think I will miss the most. Yes, there was a good laugh to be had, half-mocking and half-nostalgic, at his comically unimaginative stage name and the utter rankness of his worst recipes.

But long after we had had our joke, we kept watching, kept including him in our lives, 90 second at a time. Yes, he was corny, and yes, his cooking was backward and crude even by the standards of the time. But he was Art Ginsburg, ex-butcher, good guy, and he worked hard at what he did.

He wasn’t a show business “everyman;” he was an actual everyman.

I met him once, at a big foodie event, where he was wandering around on the margins of the celebrity-chef area, forgotten in his own time, even with his hat on. But he was happy, and proud, and still eager to talk about food with unfeigned enthusiasm.

He was, after all, Mr. Food, and he deserves to be mourned, even if he never did make the big time.

Josh Ozersky (@OzerskyTV), The Last of the Non-Telegenic TV Chefs, Time, November 28, 2012, Accessed September 8, 2024.

The article above has bothered me for days. I know plenty of people who remember Mr. Food — and it’s 2024. Yes, I asked around.

Sure, Mr. Food used canned and packaged convenience foods (even cake mix, which I don’t do, not when homemade cake is so incredible). My canned soup usage is limited to a handful of recipes. Although I’d never swoon over instant potatoes, it’s the way many people of all ages cook. Art believed home cooking mattered, in whatever form it took.

Even Bon Appetit shares “the best” instant noodle brands (January 2024) and prepared meal kits (August 2024).

To be fair, many celebrity chefs have their fair share of bad dishes. Remember when Nigella Lawson Made the Worst Salad in the World? As a home cook, I know I have my less than memorable moments.

Mr. Food may be gone, but musings and memories from his life highlight the home cooks he left behind. If the success of a TV food-centered host is measured by the number of turkeys confidently carved, dirty dishes in the sink, and positive food memories made, then Mr. Food deserves a chef’s hat made of gold and our thanks.

That feels pretty “big time” to me.

Back when Twitter was Twitter, fans posted well wishes for Mr. Food’s family and friends, while leaving sentimental tweets using the hashtag #RIPMrFood. Other fans left comments on Legacy, as viewed below. Comments have been edited for grammar and clarity in the interest of space (and the Oxford comma).

I always had a dog eared page turn to your sausage and gravy, it is my comfort food.
– Anonymous, November 21, 2012.

OH, ITS SO GOOD, became urban slang in his hometown of Troy, NY. He was a really grand man and he and his show will be greatly missed from the airways. R.I.P. Art.
– Merle Farnham, November 21, 2012.

I worked with him in 2000/2001. When that camera came on he WAS “Mr. Food.”

Off camera, Art was a wonderful, funny man. He told the best jokes and knew where to get the best Thai food in every town. At my office one day after shooting some video, he was signing a book for me, when we saw a couple of fire trucks pull up outside. . . .

It turned out to be some Coral Springs Firefighters doing hydrant inspections in the area. They of course recognized Art and began chatting about cooking at the firehouse.

He asked them to wait for a moment, we then walked to his car, grabbed a box of cookbooks from the trunk, and he proceeded to sign one for each of them. He then shook each of their hands and thanked them for what they do. . . .
– Mrs. Jay Michaels, Delray Beach, November 21, 2012.

I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Food and have my picture taken with him a few years ago at the IDDBA [International Dairy Deli Bakery Association].

I commented that at the time, my young grand-daughter had seen him on TV and thought he and I were the same person, to which Mr. Food laughingly replied, “Oh no, I’m much better looking!” . . .
– Mike Buhrmann, November 21, 2012.

I first worked with Mr. Food while I was a TV director for WAST-TV in Albany, many, many moons ago — that was before he was seen all over the country.

He had a little 15-minute cooking show that aired once a week. From there he would become the Mr. Food we all know today. He was a funny, down-to-earth kind of guy who everyone loved. He will be missed.
– Rocky – Colonie NY, Paul A. Secor Jr., November 21, 2012.

. . . Art catered our wedding back in 1982 when Mr. Food was a local item. We hadn’t seen Mr. Food, only heard that Art was a great caterer. And he was. People still talk about the food from our wedding! . . .
– Hope and Jory, November 22, 2012.

. . . I enjoyed watching him and his recipes were always great. I am just getting ready to make his sausage stuffing recipe that was on TV last week. . . .
– Jim Larkin, November 22, 2012.

. . . . The thing I remember him and his television segments for most, is teaching me how to carve a Thanksgiving turkey. After watching that segment and having the courage to attempt my first bird, and succeeding, I have been assigned the task for decades. Thank you, Art. RIP
– Cheryl Tully Stoll, November 22, 2012.

I had the pleasure of meeting Art at the UM cancer facility in Deerfield. He and I were both in the waiting room. . . . I recognized him right away, and we talked.

What a great man. He was carrying one of his cook books, and he asked if I would like it. “Only if it is autographed, I said.”

I came home with the autographed book, which I love, and proceeded to call my sisters to tell them of the wonderful personality I had just met. My Justin Bieber. . . .
– Dianne Behar, November 22, 2012.

I am going to miss Art tremendously! He was my friend, my mentor, my confidant. He did so much for the annual Variety Kids Telethon for 19 years. I was so honored to be able to work with him, know I’m, and love him. . . . He was a great man. He was SO GOOD. . . .
– Steve Podosek, Variety Kids Telethon Executive Producer, Buffalo, New York, November 22, 2012.

I dedicated the carving of the turkey yesterday to Mr. Food because whenever he was on television around Thanksgiving to carve the bird, my grandmother and aunt would call me and say he is on WEWS Channel 5.
– Wm. Mark Rapp, November 23, 2012.

I received one of Mr. Food’s recipes in November 1989 for “Apple Butterscotch Bread”. A longtime neighbor moved away, and when they visited, their young son, Ricky, would stay with us for a night. I had to have the bread made and available or Ricky was very disappointed! His recipe has fond memories for us and I still make it. . . .
– Laurie Martin, November 23, 2012.

. . . I had the pleasure of working with him for about 5 years at WRGB-TV in Schenectady, N.Y. Art loved what he did, he was always in a good mood and never had a bad word to say about anyone. He was truly a pleasure to work with and he was a great teacher who helped a lot of people over the years.
– Rob Ambrosino, November 23, 2012.

My heartfelt sympathy to all of you. I have Arthur’s first cook book signed that he gave me on 11/24/90. Will miss him so much. We sang in the Temple Beth El’s choir together. He catered my son, Brian’s, Bar Mitzvah. Will never forget him also our “Tevye.”
– Audrey Sebelowitz Hoffman from Albany, NY formerly from Troy, NY., November 24, 2012.

I remember Art driving my grandfather home from synagogue. Grandpa was blind and the gesture was so appreciated by the entire family. . . .
– Barbara Stern-Fischer, November 24, 2012.

As a young housewife watching your segments on WMAZ Channel 13 for great can-do recipes, I just wanted to thank you for giving us all who watched you a grateful gratitude for showing us all how to cook marvelous meals at home and for entertaining our friends. . . .
– Sheila Nix November 25, 2012.

Mr. Food helped my wife and I many times with preparing meals for friends and family with out going broke doing it! Whenever and no matter what we were doing we stopped just to listen to what idea he had for a hot summer night or a cold winter afternoon. We knew that as soon as we could try it, it would be Oh so good. . .
– Mark Tarver, November 26, 2012.

. . . Many knew him as Mr. Food, but we knew him and loved him as the dynamic “Tevya” some 40 years ago in Triune Musical Company’s production of “Fiddler On The Roof.” Arthur LIVED the part and all his fellow actors felt like we were all part of his family — a feeling that has never left us and never will. . . .
– “Chavyla and The Russian,” Toni & Steven Mapes, November 28, 2012.

He shall be missed. I learned sooo very much from him, as I am a senior who was never taught to cook as a girl. He was my saving grace in cooking.
– Anonymous, December 4, 2012.

I had the pleasure of meeting Art several times. We aired his segment at KLTV in Tyler, Texas in the 1980’s and he made some appearances with us. He was a wonderful man with a great sense of funny.
– Scott Finley April 2, 2013.

Art was a great guy and a great personality, as well as a great cook, and a fantastic husband. He and Ethel were so much fun to be with. . . .
– Chick Coletta, May 30, 2020.

Arthur “Food” Ginsburg, Legacy.com, Accessed September 6, 2024.

Mr. Food Cookbooks: The Big List

CHEF JAMES: What are your favorite cooking gadgets?

MR. FOOD: The most important tool in anybody’s kitchen – in mine, certainly – is the spice rack. Good knives are right up there too, and they don’t have to be expensive ones either!

James T. Ehler, INTERVIEW WITH ‘MR. FOOD’, ART GINSBURG, Food Reference, September 2006, Accessed September 6, 2024.

Mr. Food published his first cookbook in 1986 with the “Mr. Food Cookbook: Ooh It’s So Good!!” He was not a one hit wonder. Other books followed, over 50 of them, as you’ll see below.

The Mr. Food Test Kitchen published the last Mr. Food title in 2017 with “Mr. Food Test Kitchen “The Ultimate 30 Minutes or Less Cookbook: More than 130 Mouthwatering Recipes.“