She served Pope John Paul II, Queen Elizabeth II, Billy Graham, several U.S. presidents, celebrities, and giants of business and industry.
Rosemary Kowalski, who founded a renowned catering company that has served thousands of people, including Pope John Paul II, Queen Elizabeth II, Billy Graham , several U.S. presidents, celebrities, and giants of business and industry for more than 75 years, died today.
She was 100. As she neared the century mark, Kowalski was honored by her many friends with multiple birthday parties. She and her family spent her 100th birthday, Sept. 27, in Las Vegas. Earlier this month, the Texas Cavaliers announced that the indefatigable Kowalski was to be the grand marshal for the 2025 Texas Cavaliers River Parade. Kowalski often joked that a good margarita of the highest quality tequila and served in a martini glass was the secret to a long life. “It will take you till you’re 98,” she said. Kowalski, whose company, the RK Group, was founded in 1946, had no formal — or informal — training in preparing food for large numbers of people. She didn’t apprentice under a famous chef or take cooking classes. Her knowledge of food preparation was zero. Indeed, she didn’t even like to cook. Her two children, Mary and Greg, ate at the family-owned Uncle Ben’s Bar B-Q or at the Abdo Grocery Store next door when they were growing up. When she decided to move into The Towers on Park Lane, a senior living community of high-rise luxury apartments in Alamo Heights, Kowalski told the contractor there was no need for a kitchen. She relented after the contractor convinced her she had to have one if she ever wanted to sell the apartment. Friends say the kitchen looked brand new because she never used anything, except for the microwave. The oven and drawers were used to stash her jewelry, friends said. While Uncle Ben’s sustained her family, it was a side business that evolved into the RK Group — today one of the premier catering companies in Texas.In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the company left its offices across from Sunset Station and moved into new headquarters at the Red Berry Estate on Gembler Road east of the Frost Bank Center. The RK Group remodeled the French Chateau-style mansion built in 1951 by the late Virgil E. “Red” Berry, a former state legislator who held an illegal gambling operation there. At the time of her death, Kowalski was chairman emeritus of the RK Group. Her son Greg Kowalski, who took over in 1989 and is president and CEO, diversified the company. Today, the RK Group includes several divisions that handle everything for events large and small, black tie or not, from food, flowers, decor, tents and other temporary structures, event design and PR and print materials. It is, as the company often touts in advertisements, “a one-stop service for all of life’s most cherished occasions.” The company also includes a sandwich factory, emergency management support and mobile kitchens. Many of the employees, which include entire families, have been with the company for decades. Kowalski attributed her company’s success to attitude. “Attitude is everything and you need to like people no matter who they are and treat them all the same,” she said. ‘‘'Say please, thank you’ and be kind to everyone.” Each year, the company donates food to the annual Raul Jimenez Thanksgiving Dinner, the H-E-B Feast of Sharing and to other organizations, including Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Antonio. Kowalski’s favorite VIP was Pope John Paul II. The caterer and Bishop Mike Boulette had 18 months to prepare for the pope’s 1987 visit to San Antonio. All the menus had to be approved by the Vatican. One that won easy approval was the pope’s request for a “Big American breakfast,” noted the RK Group’s 2019 fall newsletter. Kowalski’s plan was to serve John Paul fancy meals but Archbishop Patrick Flores was having none of it. He vetoed that plan and insisted the caterer stick to simple fare. One of the meals served to the pope and his entourage included a typical American menu that included roast beef, mashed potatoes, green beans and apple pie, she recalled years later. But a simple request by the pope nearly derailed Kowalski’s program of carefully planned meals for the pontiff’s stay in the Alamo City. His desire for a night time snack — an apple — put Kowalski into a tizzy. For one, she didn’t have any fruit. Also, it was impossible to send for an apple or to go out and fetch one. Security imposed by the Vatican meant that Kowalski and her staff had to stay sequestered at Assumption Seminary where John Paul also was staying. She finally found a small Red Delicious apple in the faculty kitchen at the seminary, polished it with her apron and sent it to the pope. As the pope was getting to leave, he shook the hands of people in the seminary, including Kowalski, and in perfect English said, “Thank you for your hospitality and God bless you.” “I don’t think my feet touched the ground for a week,” she said in a recording for the San Antonio Library Foundation. Among European royalty served by the caterer were Spain’s King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofia at a gala dinner at the McNay Art Museum. Decades later, the caterer served the Spanish royal couple’s son, King Felipe VI, and Queen Letizia at an invitation-only dinner at the Pearl Stable. Kowalski started in the food business in 1946, when she and her husband, former World War II Army Air Corps pilot Henry “Hank'' Kowalski bought Uncle Ben’s Bar B-Q on North Zarzamora Street. The purchase price — $9,500 — took almost all of the $10,000 that Kowalski, who flew C-47 military transports in the China-Burma-India Theater, received as “mustering money” upon his discharge. The diner, in a modest, boxy building near St. Mary’s University, sold plain but hardy food, sodas and 25 brands of beer. “I didn’t know how to boil water, but we served plenty of barbecue and lots of beer for 25 cents a bottle,” she recalled of those early days. Open from 11 a.m. until 2 a.m., some days all they took in was $40, she said. Their first foray into catering came about when a regular at the diner asked if they could cater a festival at St. Peter Prince of the Apostles Catholic Church off Broadway. In an oft-told story, she agreed but is said to have asked, “What is catering?” That small catering job led to a separate business, Uncle Ben’s Catering Service, that provided food for private parties, civic clubs, weddings, businesses and events at the convention center. Some of the food deliveries were done in a beat-up Buick that she later sold for $35, Kowalski said. She credited her company’s success to the people of Alamo Heights who hired her. “We got training from the 09ers who helped us to learn how to serve properly,” she said in reference to the Alamo Heights residents who are called 09ers because of the city’s zip code — 78209. The first large party catered by Kowalski was for Dolph and Janey Briscoe in Uvalde in 1964. About 15,000 people showed up for the opening of the remodeled First State Bank of Uvalde. As her company’s fame grew, Kowalski took on larger assignments, including the opening of North Star Mall in 1960, and a luncheon in 1986 at La Villita Assembly Hall for Great Britain’s Prince Charles and 1,000 guests. The San Antonio native even taught Hans Kremer, the German-born chef at Winfield House, official residence of the U.S. ambassador in London, how to prepare Mexican food. Kremer was the chef during the time San Antonian Henry E. Catto Jr. was ambassador. Armed with 17 suitcases filled with food not likely to be found in London, she boarded the Concorde in New York. “The kitchen’s culinary horizons broadened when Rosemary Kowalski, a talented and successful caterer from San Antonio, came over at her own expense as our house guest and added Mexican food to Hans’s repertoire” wrote Catto in his memoir, “Ambassadors at Sea: The High and Low Adventures of a Diplomat.” Catto, who lived in San Antonio, served as U.S. ambassador to the Court of St. James from 1989-1991. He died in 2011 at the age of 81. In 1968, the Kowalski company, by then known as Rosemary’s Catering, became the official caterer for HemisFair '68, San Antonio’s World’s Fair. During its six-month run, the company provided food for 105 of the 112 pavilions at the fair. “HemisFair changed our company,” said Kowalski, who several years earlier shut down Uncle Ben’s. In 1981, the catering company, which was spread out in several buildings around the city, moved to a six-acre site near downtown on the East Side.Eight years later, she stepped down and her son Greg Kowalski, who spent 12 years catering on movie sets across the United States, took over what became known as the RK Group. Greg Kowalski began to diversify even more with the founding of Circa DM, a “specialized destination management company,” and Flair Floral, which provides floral designs, according to the company’s web site. In the 1990s, the company expanded beyond San Antonio and into Austin, where it ran the Capitol Grill and Story of Texas Café, and providing catering services for the University of Texas Etter-Harbin Alumni Center. The RK Group’s expansion continued outside Texas when an office in Phoenix was established in 2008. It was followed by the opening of offices in Houston and in Austin. Four years after HemisFair, Rosemary’s Catering won the exclusive catering contract for the Henry B. González Convention Center. The RK Catering Group has held the contract for all catering and food services at the convention center since 1972. As of February 2023, the privately-held caterer remained the sole “exclusive catering and concession provider” according to the convention center website. Rosemary Hughes Kowalski was born on Sept. 27, 1924, in San Antonio. Her mother Virginia was a homemaker; her father William Hughes worked in the office of the Piggly Wiggly Grocery company. An only child, she attended Blessed Sacrament Academy and in 1941, graduated from Incarnate Word High School. She held several jobs after high school, including at Joske’s, the famous department store near Alamo Plaza. It closed in 1987. She and Henry Kowalski met at a dance at the Gunter Hotel during World War II. He was stationed in San Antonio undergoing pilot training. He later served in the Army Air Corps flying in the China-Burma-India Theater. She was 20 and he was 28 when they married in May 1945 at St. Florian Roman Catholic Church in his hometown, Hamtramck, Michigan, just outside Detroit. After nearly 30 years of marriage, the couple divorced in 1974. He died a few years after the divorce. Kowalski won many plaudits for her accomplishments. In 2004, she was inducted into the Texas Business Hall of Fame, one of the few women to be so honored. Other honors include being named San Antonio Entrepreneur of the Year in 1988, being inducted into the Junior Achievement Business Hall of Fame a decade later and into the San Antonio Women’s Hall of Fame in 1985. She told SA Woman magazine that her most significant professional accomplishment was being named a Grande Dame of Les Dames d’Escoffier International. She and another caterer, Abigail Kirsch of New York, were named Grande Dames in 2003. Every two years, the organization named after French chef Auguste Escoffier gives a lifetime achievement award and honorary title to a woman for her “extraordinary contributions in the fields of food, beverage and hospitality.' “I am so proud of that,' she told the magazine in 2010. 'I am the only Grande Dame in the state of Texas. I explain to people that Julia Child was also a Grande Dame.' In 2022, another Texan, artisanal cheesemaker Paula Lambert of Dallas also was recognized as a Grande Dame. Kowalski was one of 10 women who founded the San Antonio chapter of Les Dames in 1995. She was a past president of the chapter.She was known for her unstinting support for other business owners. JoAnn Boone, who took over the troubled Yanaguana river cruise company in 2002, said Kowalski was the first to offer encouragement. “I knew who she was but didn’t know her personally,' Boone said. 'I so appreciated her reaching out to me and offering her support. She gave me the confidence to think outside the box.' Boone re-named the boat tour company Rio San Antonio Cruises and operated it until 2017. Kowalski had other civic interests, among them the Japan America Society of San Antonio, which she served as president. She made two trips to Kumamoto, San Antonio’s sister city in Japan. She was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2017 by St. Mary’s University. She served on the university’s board of trustees from 2005-2007 and 1990-1992. She donated her company and personal papers to the UTSA Libraries Special Collections. In addition to her son Greg, she is survived by a daughter, Mary; and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Services are pending.
Uncle Ben's Catering Service Rio San Antonio Cruises Texas Cavaliers Frost Bank Center Army Air Corps COVID Blessed Sacrament Academy Vatican St. Peter Prince San Antonio Library Foundation Archdiocese Of San Antonio Henry B. González Convention Center Apostles Catholic Church Grande Dames First State Bank Of Uvalde Mcnay Art Museum RK Catering Group San Antonio Women's Hall Of Fame Buick Piggly Wiggly Grocery Incarnate Word High School Catholic Charities Joske Les Dames D'escoffier International Japan America Society UTSA Libraries Special Collections Story Of Texas Café University Of Texas Etter-Harbin Alumni Center Court Of St. James Rosemary Hughes Kowalski John Paul II Elizabeth II Uncle Ben Henry ``Hank'' Kowalski Henry E. Catto Jr. Hans Kremer Virgil E. ``Red'' Berry Joann Boone Greg Kowalski Billy Graham Mary Patrick Flores Abigail Kirsch Letizia Mike Boulette William Hughes Auguste Escoffier Paula Lambert Juan Carlos I Grande Dame Prince Charles God Felipe VI Janey Briscoe Dolph SA Woman Rosemary's Catering Julia Child Boone Hans San Antonio U.S. Abdo Grocery Store Winfield House Las Vegas The Towers On Park Lane French Alamo Heights Austin Texas.In Sunset Station Kumamoto China-Burma-India Theater Red Berry Estate Gembler Road Chateau New York St. Mary's University Alamo City La Villita Assembly Hall Mexican London Uvalde English European Spain Sofia Pearl Stable North Zarzamora Street Grande Dame Texas Business Hall Of Fame Junior Achievement Business Hall Of Fame Broadway Great Britain North Star Mall German Virginia St. Florian Roman Catholic Church Grande Dame Alamo Plaza Gunter Hotel Michigan Hamtramck Detroit Japan Dallas Hemisfair Houston Capitol Grill Phoenix Assumption Seminary Texas Cavaliers River Parade World War II Raul Jimenez Thanksgiving Dinner Hemisfair '68 World's Fair Bar B-Q Flair Floral C-47 H-E-B Feast Of Sharing Yanaguana East Side.Eight Circa DM Concorde San Antonio Entrepreneur Of The Year Les Dames The High And Low Adventures
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