by S. N. Besser
David Mintz was always looking for good taste. Working in New York's Catskills, the young entrepreneur once placed an unusual ad in the local paper: "Grandmothers Wanted." Several responded, "I cook at home anyway, so why not for you?" As the women prepared their sp
ecialties on two stove burners in the back of the store, Mintz learned secret
recipes from knishes to kasha. His business grew until he opened another store in Monticello, and then a respectable restaurant in NYC.
All along, Mintz had been trying to find a milk substitute for tasty sauces and desserts without violating the Kosher laws that prohibit mixing meat and dairy. "My customers would call out to me: "Hey Mintz, where's the blintz?" After reading about tofu in a health magazine, Mintz felt he had struck gold. "I couldn't wait. I ran right down and bought myself some tofu."
Mintz experimented with the cheese-like substance after hours in his Third Avenue deli, working to cultivate the bland-tasting oriental staple. "When I first mentioned tofu, they thought I spoke a foreign language." The Chinese used tofu ("meat without the bones") for 2,000 years, but the food experts said that to mak
e a good-tasting tofu dessert was impossible.
Mintz persisted. "I cooked up a sour cream from the tofu and used it in a beef stroganoff. It was delicious, but I didn't stop there. I proceeded to rugelach," he says, smacking his lips. Next door to Mintz was a cheese company. "I made a tofu cheese and invited over their president. He thought my 'cheese' was great." Mintz smiles. "He didn't believe me when I told him it was tofu."
After nine long years when his enthusiasm dipped to an all time low, David Mintz finally discovered THE magic blend of silky smooth tofu, flavors and fruits and named it "Tofutti." The creative genius then sold his restaurant and turned to the laboratory to expand on his creation. "People said Mintz is bananas, but I said bananas is a good flavor and that's what you'll get," he recalls. "In 1980, I discovered the right balance of texture and flavor, and sold my first 5-gallon batch to a Manhattan health food store. When I got back to Brooklyn, the owner had left an urgent message on my answering machine "Fast, Bring More, Fast!"
Tofutti became an instant hit. "Everyone in the Big Apple - at Bloomingdales, Macy's, Gimbel's and Zabar's was buying it. And when I say "everyone" I mean "everyone"- celebs, fatties, skinnies. We soon had three ice cream factories pumping out 50,000 gallons of Tofutti a week."
Mintz is still at it. Dressed in a white lab coat, his pinned yarmulke hangs on for dear life off a mop of hair and bushy gray sideburns. Company products sit patiently on the shelves, while on the table are "meatless" meatballs in tomato sauce, eggless spinach omelettes, soy beef lo mein with vegetables, brownies, carrot cake, cream cheese and Love Drops, a cookie-style ice cream-like dessert. His holiday specialties include "Mintzes Blintzes" and Tofu latkes for Chanukah!
Toffutti tastes as good as real ice cre
am, and is lower in fat, -only 32 calories an ounce. His latest production is a sugarless ice cream pop named "Hip, Hip, Hooray!" Even longtime Pizza aficionados devour his Pareve non dairy Pizza. Toffutti now boasts a full line of over 100 s
oy-based products, including blintzes, pizza, cookies and sliced cheese. It is available at over 100 pushcarts in Manhattan, and in supermarkets in 49 states (except North Dakota).
Tofutti is an important health food, vital to the over 55 age group susceptible to osteoporosis that drains calcium from the bones. Victims, especially women, face height loss and risk of fractures. Consuming calcium is crucial, but 30 million Americans who are lactose intolerant and cannot digest milk, the prime source of calcium. "I now get letters from elderly people who bless me." Last November, the FDA approved a claim that soy protein, as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, may reduce heart disease.
Serving the kosher and health food markets, Tofutti is a popular item in 24 foreign countries besides the US and Canada. Last year, two Lubavitch 'Shluchim' emissaries were travelling 
through Vietnam, subsisting on kosher canned foods they brought along from the states. Going into a store, they were overjoyed to find Toffuti!
The $20 million company has been named one of America's fastest growing small companies by Fortune Small Business magazine, and AC Nielsen reports that Tofutti Cuties are the leading ice-cream sandwiches.
Has the taste of triumph changed David Mintz? He's still the same humble, hardworking guy who refuses to take credit for his successes. He thanks G‑d for all he has achieved, fulfilling the Lubavitcher Rebbe's blessings that he keep improving and expanding. "May you become so successful, that you'll have difficulty keeping up with your accounts," the Rebbe said.
Back in the hard, lean years when things didn't go easy, the Rebbe constantly encouraged him to have faith,. "Sometimes the Rebbe even advised me on some technical stuff." David Mintz visited the Lubavitcher Rebbe often, to learn and to seek his advice and blessing. Inspired by the Rebbe's encouragement, he would confidently proceed into a company board meeting and make the right decisions.
His board members would argue with him, but would come bac
k a year later wondering, "Mintz, how did you have the vision and foresight back then to do the right thing?"
"I used to go back and thank the Rebbe for his helpful blessings, but the Rebbe said to me: "Don't thank me. When you contribute to charity, I'm like a partner in your business."
Mintz has framed the Rebbe's instruction to "Think positive, and it will be positive," and had it engraved on a gold plaque that he keeps on his desk.
The Rebbe prompted him to give Tzedaka, saying that the support of charitable projects serves as the vessel to contain the divine blessings.
Mintz is very proud of the state-of-the-
art pristine spring Mikvah he has helped build in his neighborhood. He sometimes 'test markets' his products at the Shabbat Kiddush, sharing his treats and concoctions with fellow worshippers in the Synagogue where he serves as president.
Mintz has been interviewed on "Good Morning, America," by Regis Philbin and on the Merv Griffin Show. The popular "Why didn't I think of that?" show in California had him scheduled for a Saturday filming, but the Sabbath observant Mintz refused. They said: "too bad, you're out."
A week later, however, the producers called him back, saying they wanted him on the show so much, that they rescheduled all their filming to a Sunday.
