In 1963, Malcolm Steiner—better known as Grandpa—took on a new passion: cooking and baking. By then, he was already a painter, an avid orchid grower (an “orchidist”), and a dedicated volunteer at Long Island Jewish Hospital, where he personally delivered his orchids to patients’ rooms. In his “spare” time, he also ran Steiner Plastics, which later became Universal Sign Company—a business originally founded by his mother, Cyrille Steiner.
It didn’t take long for Grandpa Malcolm to become a master of the kitchen. If he wasn’t tending to his greenhouse, he was likely in the kitchen, wearing his apron and trailing a dishtowel from his back pocket. Tall, bald, and lean, he was a man who loved butter—and wasn’t shy about it. If something didn’t taste quite right, he had one go-to fix: “Just add butter.”
He worked alongside my father at Universal Sign Corporation until he passed away at the age of 90. A man of few words, Grandpa left behind a legacy rich in flavor and family. My brother and I carry countless memories of his best recipes. Thankfully, he took my mom—his daughter-in-law Nanci—under his wing and passed along everything he knew.
Delicious, gluten-free goods for the masses
Nanci Steiner—born in NYC, raised in Port Washington—was diagnosed with Celiac disease over 40 years ago, back when gluten-free options were basically cardboard in disguise. Determined to bake something worth eating, she launched a decades-long mission to create the ultimate gluten-free all-purpose flour. And let’s just say: many cakes didn’t survive the journey. Her kitchen was a battlefield, her mixer a weapon, and every store-bought flour blend was put through the wringer.
Her goal? Simple: to bake something so good, so outrageously moist and delicious, that no one—no one—would suspect it was gluten-free.
By 2010, my brother Jeffrey and I knew she was close to cracking the code. So we jumped the gun (as children do) and built the brand: Steiner’s Coffee Cake of New York—now Steiner’s Baking Co. Nanci, ever the realist, tried to keep our feet on the ground: “You know, I might not get this right…”
Spoiler alert: she did. In May of 2016—on the cusp of her 70th birthday—Nanci nailed it. The recipe was flawless. The flour blend was ready - we hid it in grandpa Malcolm's German sour cream coffee cakes - and the company she never imagined launching?
Oh, it was "on like Donkey-Kong."
