Betty (Pucker) Kalikow, age 95 and a lifelong resident of Kansas City who was once dubbed “an institution in the Kansas City Jewish Community,” died Dec. 6, 2021.
Prominently featured in the Kansas City Jewish Archives Museum, Kalikow and the company she established, Betty Kalikow Catering Company, were intimately involved in generations of Kansas City area family celebrations from the 1960s to 1990s. Betty Kalikow was the author of two popular Jewish cookbooks, Mom’s Best Recipes: 151 Jewish-American Dishes (1958) and Grandma’s Kosher Recipes (1961) (BeKay Publishing Co.). Her retirement was featured in the food section of the Kansas City Star on September 10, 2003.
Her cooking career began in 1960 when she started the company that catered thousands of bar/bat mitzvahs, weddings and other family celebrations. In 1999, she retired from catering, but continued to work, cooking for the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City’s Heritage Center.
The daughter of Samuel and Idella Pucker, she married the late Al Kalikow in 1946. She leaves a son, Harvey Kalikow; two daughters, Nancy Kalikow Maxwell and Barbara Kalikow-Schwartz; daughter-in-law Monica Trinca; sons-in-law the late Rodney J. Maxwell and Howard Schwartz; three grandchildren: Amanda Maxwell Moore, Sydney Schwartz, and Meleeya Schwartz, and two great-grandchildren, twins Russell and Dean Moore. She was also honorary grandmother to Nichalia and Lauren Schwartz.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be sent in her name to the Wylie Hospitality and Culinary Academy, Johnson County Community College Foundation, 12345 College Boulevard, Box 25, Overland Park, Kan. 66210.
