Two geniuses. on one side, Jonathan Rotenberg, co-founder of The Boston Computer Society, the world’s largest organization of personal computer users. Of the other, nothing more and nothing less than Steve Jobs, the brain behind Manzana. A dinner made them coincide, obsessed with the same goal.
A report published on the website of applesphere remember this magnificent anecdote between these two advances in the technology industry. “You can’t have any meat. I will make you an exact list of the type of food we want to serve. You cannot get out of this menu and each change we have to discuss personally”Rotenberg told Odette Berry, a star chef in Boston in the 1980s.
Dinner should not have a wrong dish. “Who is coming? President?”Berry asked, surprised by Jonathan Rotenberg’s response: “No. Steve Jobs”.
At the time, Rotenberg was an 18-year-old, but he had a computer-advance mind and co-founded the Boston Computer Society. Also to convince people, like Bob Washburn, a regional sales manager who worked at an up-and-coming computer company called Apple Computer Inc., to help him meet the bosses.
Rotenberg wanted Jobs and Wozniak at an event
Rotenberg intended for Apple’s two founders, including Steve Wozniak, to speak at his brand-focused tech event, called “Applefest.”. Rotenberg organized everything at the age of 18, but that was not just anything: it was the first Apple-specific computer fair.
The attendance of the two visible heads of Apple was not the only great presence of the event. There was also the technology editor of the Wall Street Journal, Dick Schaffer; Inc. Magazine founder Bernie Goldhirsh and Boston Globe technology reporter. However, the one Rotenberg had studied in detail was his childhood idol, Steve Jobs. It could be said that she had organized everything to meet him.
Chef Odette and this boy had put together an exquisitely elegant and innovative seven-course dinner. An absolutely vegetarian menu specially designed for Jobs in a restaurant that even changed its name from Another Season to Lala Roth, now closed.
This dinner allowed Rotenberg, first, to meet Steve Jobs, his idol. But also understand one of his secrets.
The secret of Steve Jobs that nobody knew
While many think the apple was Jobs’ favorite fruit, which is why some say he named Apple that, his true favorite fruit was the strawberry. “We heard you like strawberries…”Rotenberg told his honoree, who smiled when he saw the delicacy.
After dinner, the guests went to the house of Rotenberg’s parents in Beacon Hill, to have some liqueurs and some biscotti, a classic after-dinner sweet. But really, young Jonathan’s plan was to find a moment to talk to Steve Jobs alone about the future of Applefest..
After talking, Jobs gave him a gold pen with the Apple logo and took him by the shoulder: “Could you call my assistant next week? I want you to fly to California so we can sit down and talk about this.”.
Three years later, in 1984, Jonathan Rotenberg not only knew his idol, but watched the Macintosh make its first public appearance to the world at the Boston Computer History Society, with a bursting Steve Jobs and a proud Rotenberg. One presented a revolutionary product, the other witnessed its launch at an event organized by himself. They both won.