Famed Michigan restaurateur Dorothy Zehnder passed away Sunday. She was 101 years young, and she died surrounded by family in Frankenmuth.
It is amazing to consider Zehnder spent 85 years making a small restaurant selling chicken dinners into one of Michigan’s most important tourist destinations.
Zehnder was born just miles from Frankenmuth. She and her husband William Zehnder, best known as “Tiny,” opened their Bavarian Inn restaurant in 1950.
Dorothy came up with the recipes for Zehnder’s famous Frankenmuth chicken dinners and preferred to stay in the background.
Her granddaughter Amy Zehnder-Grossi shared memories on Monday (July 10).
“She was just quite a lady,” said Zehnder-Grossi.
Zehnder-Grossi recalled how tender a teacher her grandmother was.
“She would come alongside you and never tell you what to do, but she would show you, and if it wasn’t right, she would say, ‘Let’s try this again,’ and she would explain it again but right by your side watching making sure you were doing it right in such a kind and caring way,” Zehnder-Grossi said.
Yet Dorothy had high expectations and ensured her grandkids and the thousands of employees she trained followed her recipes and methods to the letter.
Tiny greatly expanded the operation to include the Bavarian Inn Lodge, Frankenmuth River Place Shops, and much more.
“She would say, OK, ‘We’ll just keep cooking and making chicken dinners,’ and she went along with it,” Zehnder-Grossi said. “She was a great partner to him.”
Though she slowed in later years after dealing with cancer, the family says Dorothy still drove herself to work six days a week until she turned 100.
“We want to live out that legacy and do whatever we can to continue the tradition in Frankenmuth and at the Bavarian Inn, and we’re just so happy for her that she is in heaven.”
We don’t know the specifics of the funeral arrangements, as the family is working on those plans. But we know she will have her services at the St. Lorenz Lutheran Church in Frankenmuth and be buried next to her husband, Tiny, in the St. Lorenz Cemetery.
In her spare time, Dorothy wrote four cookbooks and opened and helped run the William and Dorothy Zehnder family foundation.
She is also a 2020 inductee into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame.