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What Bernie Madoff Eats for Dinner

It may take more than comfort food to soothe Bernard Madoff, who feds say ran the largest Ponzi scheme in history. But as long as Madoff — who was released on $10 milion bail last week — remains holed up in his Upper East Side penthouse, he might as well feast on warm leek and potato soup, Dover sole poached in vermouth, and cranberry linzertorte. His wife, Ruth, should have no trouble throwing these dishes together; they are among the recipes in a 1996 cookbook that she co-authored.

In “Great Chefs of America Cook Kosher: Over 175 Recipes From America’s Greatest Restaurants,” Ruth and her two co-authors reached out to the chefs of world-renowned restaurants, and asked them to provide kosher renditions of their favorite dishes. Proceeds from the cookbook went to the Jewish National Fund.

The book’s featured recipes, from the likes of such tony restaurants as L.A.’s Campanile and Philadelphia’s Le Bec Fin, sure beat prison meals and commissary snacks — and that is precisely what Bernie could be eating for the rest of his days, if convicted of securities fraud.

In a 1996 press release about the publication of “Great Chefs,” a cookbook co-author, Idee Schoenheimer, explained how Ruth tested the so-called healthy dishes and disqualified those made with cream: “Ruth was our conscience.”

Someone in the family should have one.

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