things i learned from paul rand: 9 – picky-eater
Perhaps as particular as he was with design aesthetics, Paul Rand was also a notoriously picky eater. For example, he was known to eat plain boiled pasta with no sauce, protein, or vegetable when he went to stay at Brissago, Switzerland to to teach every summer. (I’m sure to the dismay of the Ferrari family, who owned and ran the hotel we all stayed at. They cooked delicious Italian food for us daily.)
Daily Lunch
Back in Connecticut, his kind and wonderful wife Marion made him pretty much the same thing every day, just the way he liked it. It was few pieces of corned beef (from Gold’s Delicatessen in Westport) on toasted rye, with mustard.
Some days, it would be briskets (also from Gold’s) instead of corned beef. It was basically a routine of alternating between these two choices. (But there might have been occasional pastrami in there, too.)
Sides
These sandwiches were accompanied by a side of Lipton’s chicken soup, and a cup of Folger’s decaf coffee.
Utensils
There’s a photo of a set of utensils in his last book, “From Lascaux to Brooklyn,” on page 172. These were the utensils he used daily at his home. I recall Paul and I slurping on Lipton’s chicken noodle soup with that short spoon, since the Rands were nice and also fed me lunch since I was there daily. (Yes, I also ate the same lunch everyday!) That short knife was used to spread the mustard.
My guess is that it was a combination of his Orthodox Jewish background, his health conditions (he had elevated blood sugar level at the time), and his tendency to be very specific and particular about things, that made him an incredibly picky eater. He did fortunately also enjoy a menu at a nearby Japanese restaurant, we were able to enjoy nice dinner together on a couple of occasions there.