Our Story
In 1963 Malcolm Steiner (AKA Grandpa) set out to conquer another hobby – cooking & baking. At that time he was already a painter, an Orchidist (person who raises orchids), a volunteer at Long Island Jewish Hospital – delivering said orchids to patients rooms, and in his spare time, ran Steiner Plastics which became Universal Sign Company, founded by his mother, Cyrille Steiner.
Grandpa Malcolm quickly became a commander of the kitchen. If he wasn’t in his greenhouse, he was walking around the kitchen in his apron with a dishtowel hanging out of his back pocket. He was tall, bald, skinny and loved butter. If it didn’t taste right, he was famous for saying, “just add butter. “He worked alongside my father at Universal Sign Corporation until his passing at 90 years of age. He was a man of very few words. Nonetheless my brother and I have a treasure trove of memories filled with his very best recipes. Fortunately, he took his daughter in-law Nanci (AKA mom) under his wing and taught her everything he knew.
Delicious, gluten-free goods for the masses
Nanci Steiner (born in NYC, raised in Port Washington) was diagnosed a Celiac over 30 years ago. Over the past 3 decades she worked tirelessly to develop a gluten-free all-purpose flour that baked for the masses. Many a cake met their demise in her kitchen. She has tested every product on the market. Her one goal was to bake something so good, so delicious, so perfectly moist the unsuspecting consumer would never know it was gluten free. In 2010 Jeffrey (AKA my brother) and I realized she was very close. We went ahead and developed the brand, Steiner’s Coffee Cake of New York not Steiner’s Baking Co.. All the while Nanci would try to dampen our excitement, “you know I may not get this right….”
She did – in May of 2016 Nanci nailed it. On the precipice of her 70th year she was ready to launch her company.
