Linny with her dancing cookie (Terry) at the 2007 Mitzvah Mania Trade Show

      
April 19th, 2005
Linny had the extreme pleasure of meeting with Wolfgang Puck at the opening of his new restaurant in Cherry Creek, Denver, Colorado. She found him to be charming and warm. His love of people and food is contagious. He enjoyed receiving Linny’s Cookies.

This was a banner year for Linny. She was honored by carrying the Olympic Torch for the 2002 Winter Olympics. She was also able to realize another life-long dream of meeting Julia Child. After sampling Linny's cookies, Julia smiled and said, "They're perfect, absolutely perfect!"

Marty Meitus, Food Editor, Rocky Mountain News
July 31, 2002

My friend Linny Pretekin always wanted to carry the Olympic torch, and she was selected. And she always wanted to meet Julia Child, and she did in February.

Linny, who bakes and sells chocolate chip cookies, has a sister in California who knew somebody who was able to set up tea for Linny, her sister and Child at her retirement community.

Despite the obvious connection to cooking, she wanted to meet Child "because she was innovative, revolutionary and she's a woman who made inroads into a market held predominantly by men," she says.

"She changed the look of how we cook today. She really brought gourmet cooking and French cooking to the American public, to people who wouldn't have had these opportunities.

"Plus, she had a great sense of humor with what she did; she made it fun."

Their visit lived up to her expectations. "She was wonderful, she was gracious, she was funny," Linny says.

"I thought that it would be more like we would sit there and ask her questions, but she asked about our life. She asked about my cookie business, if we had kids, about the Olympics. It was just like having tea with a friend."

At one point, Linny went into Child's kitchen to look for a plate. "I'm opening cabinets and I realize, 'Omigosh, I'm looking in Julia Child's kitchen cabinets.' "

Instead of the standard kitchen appliances you'd expect to find in a retirement home, Child has a high-end Gaggenau stove.

When both your dreams have come true, it's time to rethink what comes next. But for now, Linny is too busy enjoying the moment, which includes cherishing the following: "She signed all my Julia Child cookbooks, 'To Linny, bon appetit.' "