GABAY, ELIAS
King of Knishes
Elias
Gabay, former president of a major knish bakery and designer of machinery to
make knishes, died Wednesday in Miami Beach. He was 82. Gabay was president of
Gabila and Sons of Brooklyn until 1966, and served as a consultant to the firm
after his retirement. The Company produced more than I million knishes a day -
about half sold t h r o u g h delicatessens and the rest frozen for nationwide
distribution. Knishes are a mixture of potato and spices with a light brown
crust and are eaten hot. Gabay a “Yugoslav” immigrant opened a restaurant in
1921, but soon went into the wholesale knish business. He invented a machine to
make knishes in 1932. Gabaj is found in great numbers throughout Croatia.