About Gizi

My friend Walter and his sister Margaret are first generation Americans. Their parents moved to New York from Budapest on April 19, 1939. - with a short foray in London, where they were married, in between. They were absolutely gorgeous. Walter, Sr., was 6 feet 3 inches tall and better looking than Errol Flynn. Giselle, nicknamed Gizi, was 5 foot 2, blond and beautiful - as pretty as any World War II pinup. She had been educated in a Swiss boarding school and was more exotic-looking than the suburban Westchester housewives who surrounded her. She kept a Victory Garden, worked outside the home, designed and crafted beautiful needlepoint,

Needlepoint Designed and Executed by Gizi Needlepoint Detail

and founded Modern Knitting magazine.

Margaret on the Cover of Modern Knitting Magazine wearing a Gizi Design Photo 

She was also a fantastic cook. I didn't meet Gizi until she was in her eighties, but I was lucky enough to spend two weekends upstate with her learning how to cook some of her family's favorite dishes. Together we made her chicken paprikas, which has more tomatoes in it than any recipe I have seen elsewhere, her goulash, a dish made with yellow summer squash and sour cream, and what the called nockerli and what most everyone else calls spaetzle.