Shirlee S. Rice, a homemaker and artist known for her culinary skills, died of lung disease Feb. 21 at her Pikesville home. She was 95.
Born Shirley Siegel in Baltimore and raised on Chauncey Avenue in Reservoir Hill, she was a Western High School graduate who earned a degree at the Maryland Institute College of Art and studied piano at the Peabody Conservatory of Music.
Her father, Milton Siegel, was a partner in the Siegel Rothschild and Gans Bros. umbrella-making firm in downtown Baltimore.
As a young woman, she accompanied her parents to the old Millers Brothers Restaurant, which she later said remained a favorite — and one of her cooking inspirations. Mrs. Rice, who alternated spellings for her first name, also credited the old Marconi's and a Howard Street restaurant called Maxim's, the Chesapeake and Hasslinger's. Her favorite Baltimore confectioner was Fiske's on Park Avenue, she said in one of her numerous newspaper interviews.
"Mother was a natural beauty and quite glamorous. She had an eye for talent and a flair for design," said her daughter, Lorrie R. Pugatch of Baltimore. "She was a fabulous entertainer and known for her spectacular dinner parties, where guests were treated to beautifully presented gourmet food. She did all her own cooking."
Her daughter said she made up her recipes or adapted them from other sources. Mrs. Rice also studied at the American Cordon Bleu School of Cooking.
"She bought sides of beef from Bullock's of Westminster, ordered Smithfield hams in North Carolina," her daughter said. "She patronized ethnic stores in search of unusual foods and ingredients. My father had to buy an electric meat slicer and a torch to flambe her desserts."
In a 1974 Sun Magazine article, she outlined some of her favorite dishes: jellied consume cooked with vodka, crabmeat-stuffed rockfish and vegetables julienne. During snowfall, she would take fresh snow, add her own chocolate sauce and make snowballs, which she then placed in a freezer.
In a 2006 Sun interview, she also claimed a role in a popular Prime Rib appetizer, Greenberg potato skins, a dish named for a Baltimore wholesale children's clothing salesman who was a guest of Mrs. Rice.
"Teddy Greenberg was a man-about-town who ate out every night and was a frequent guest at our home," Mrs. Rice said. "He liked the potato skins I served after being inspired by an offhand comment from James Beard."
Mrs. Rice recalled that about 40 years ago, she had been attending cooking seminars sponsored by the Walters Art Museum. She took notes and listened to the sessions given by Mr. Beard, Julia Child and Jacques Pepin, among others.
One of Mr. Beard's dishes was a complicated confection called Potatoes Lord Byron that involved parmesan cheese, cream and the scooped-out insides of baked potatoes.
"In an offhand remark, Beard said you could also use the skins, too — cut them with scissors, add salt, pepper and dot them with butter and bake in a hot oven until crisp," she said. She remembered that her mother told her that potato skins are a good source of nutrition.
Shortly after the lesson, Mrs. Rice made the skins and served them as an appetizer with sour cream. They caught on, and one night, Teddy Greenberg enjoyed them, she said. He later asked that the dish be duplicated at the Prime Rib, where they have achieved a life of their own.
"I still love cooking because it's creative and artistic," she said.
Mrs. Rice was also a co-owner of a hand-painted tray business, Shirley and Malls, located on Linden Avenue.
Her Greenspring Avenue home, built in the early 1950s, was designed by Baltimore architect Alexander Smith Cochran. In a 1968 Sun article, she described it as "old modern." She said she decorated it with furnishings by Charles Eames and George Nelson. She also hired the German-born landscape architect Wolfgang Oehme to design the home's grounds.
"She was a fabulous person, a bit of an Auntie Mame. She was artsy, avante garde and an amazing chef and cook," said her daughter-in-law, Audrey Gann of Baltimore. "In her personality, she was always up."
Her husband of many years, Bertram Rice, a home furnishings buyer for the Hecht Co., died in 1992. She was divorced from her first husband, George S. Salabes Sr.
Funeral services are private.
In addition to her daughter, survivors include a sister, Dorothy S. Deutsch of Palm Coast, Fla.; four grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. A son, George S. Salabes Jr., died in 2008.