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Food Writing

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Episode 103: Kugels and Collards: The Southern Jewish Table

Food can be a vehicle for telling stories, connecting with people, and understanding our history—including the uncomfortable parts. In this episode of Can We Talk?, Jen Richler heads to Charleston, South Carolina to learn about Southern Jewish history through the lens of food. Over a home-cooked meal, Jen talks with Rachel Gordin Barnett and Lyssa Kligman Harvey, co-authors of the new book Kugels & Collards: Stories of Food, Family, and Tradition in Jewish South Carolina. She also talks with Dale Rosengarten, a scholar of Southern Jewish history, and Kim Cliett Long, a scholar whose rich family story weaves together Jewish and African American identities.  

Laura Limonic Headshot

7 Questions For Laura Limonic

Sarah Groustra

JWA chats with Latina sociologist and author Laura Limonic.

Topics: Food Writing

Denise Khaitman Schorr

Project
Women Who Dared

Judith Rosenbaum interviewed Denise Khaitman Schorr on June 14, 2000, in Natick, Massachusetts for the Women Who Dared Oral History Project. Schorr talks about her childhood in Paris, experiencing growing antisemitism and the Nazi occupation, joining the resistance, working as a social worker after liberation, immigrating to the USA, and her ongoing efforts to share her story and educate others.

June Salander

Project
DAVAR: Vermont Jewish Women's History Project

Ann Zinn Buffum and Sandra Stillman Gartner interviewed June Salander on June 29, 2005, in Rutland, Vermont, as part of DAVAR’s Vermont Jewish Women’s Oral History Project. Salander recalls her immigration to the United States from Poland as a young girl, settling in Harlem, attending Hebrew School, and her active life as a Red Cross volunteer, Hebrew School teacher, real estate broker, and baker, culminating in her Bat Mitzvah at age 89.

Joan Nathan

Project
Washington D.C. Stories

Deborah Ross interviewed Joan Nathan on July 12, 2011, in Washington, DC, as part of the Washington D.C. Stories Oral History Project. Nathan reflects on the significance of food to Jewish life, as she recounts her career as a cookbook author, cultural historian, and food writer who combines recipes with stories to educate about Jewish life, tradition, and history.

Chef and restaurant owner Leah Cohen releases her cookbook, “Lemongrass & Lime”

September 29, 2020

Leah Cohen, a Jewish and Filipino American chef and restaurant owner, released her cookbook Lemongrass & Lime on September 29, 2020. Cohen is the owner and head chef at two critically acclaimed New York City restaurants, and also competed in season five of Top Chef.

First Episode of “Pati’s Mexican Table” Released

April 2, 2011

On April 2, 2011, Pati’s Mexican Table premiered on television. The national public television series features Mexican chef Pati Jinich sharing authentic Mexican cooking. Each season, Jinich explores a different region of Mexico, taking the viewer along on her culinary journey.

Photo of writer's grandmother as a child on left; grandmother and writer on right

My Jewish Grandma’s Christmas Pierogis

Marissa Wojcik

With each handcrafted pierogi, my grandma honors her husband's traditions while holding on to her strong Jewish identity. 

Savoy Curry Making Cholent

Love Your Crockpot? You Have Cholent to Thank for its Existence.

Savoy Curry

Without cholent, the crockpot might never have been invented.

Molly Yeh and Marissa Wojcik

How a Celebrity Chef Helped Me Connect with My Mixed Heritage

Marissa Wojcik

Celebrity chef Molly Yeh inspired me to share my Jewish fusion recipes with the world.

Sephardic Food

Sephardic food tells the story of the Iberian Jewish community from its roots in ancient Spain and Portugal through the community’s expulsion in 1492 and subsequent global diaspora. Sephardic women acted as the main interpreters and preservers of the community’s culinary repertoire.

Emily Axelrod’s homemade cheese bourekas

Reclaiming the Kitchen as a Jewish, Feminist Space

Emily Axelrod

Two of JWA's Rising Voices alumnae reclaim the kitchen through cooking traditional Jewish dishes.

Black and white cookies

Black and White: The Perfect Cookie

Justine Orlovsky-Schnitzler

Sure you've had black and white cookies, but have you made them?

Topics: Food Writing
Justine's Babka

Baking Babka, Taking in Tragedy

Justine Orlovsky-Schnitzler

My pocket buzzes again. “Did you not see the news?” I feel my entire body tense, my fingers shaking as I struggle to open Twitter. In a moment, I am inundated—11 dead, maybe more.

When I wake up, I decide to make a babka.

Sweet Pumpkin Coils

Recipe: Sweet Pumpkin Coils for Fall

Paola Gavin

Exclusively for JWA, Paola Gavin shares the perfect autumn recipe for sweet pumpkin coils from her cookbook, Hazana: Jewish Vegetarian Cooking.

Grandma Goldberg's Honey Cake

In Search of a Remembered Treat

Marilynn Brass

My sister, Sheila, and I had been searching for the recipe for the Honey Cake our mother, Dorothy, baked for us. Always the star of our Jewish holiday celebrations, the handwritten recipe had been lost, and no matter how many times we tried to substitute and translate other recipes for the Honey Cake, most of them fell short.

The Brass Sisters (Cropped)

Recipes for Life

Rachel King

Chatting with Marilynn and Sheila, it struck me how often the word “nurture” and “nourish” came up in our conversation. The Brass Sisters certainly recognize the importance of nurturing others, through food, compassion, and acquired wisdom. I myself felt nourished—by the delicious cake they served me and by their warm, funny stories.

Lisa's dog

A Conversation with Food Writer Lisa Yelsey

Bella Book

JWA’s food writer, Lisa Yelsey, has been cooking and writing for JWA for almost a year! In celebration of her delicious recipes, her dog, Cassie, and teaching us how to bake and watch TV, we asked Lisa how she got her start in food writing, how to update a traditional recipe for modern palates, and what she does when a recipe isn’t turning out quite right.

Topics: Food, Food Writing
King Solomon's Table, Book Cover

Joan Nathan on Food, Travel, and Tradition

Lisa Yelsey

At the Jewish Women’s Archive we believe that good food and good stories will always bring us together. When both the food and the stories are provided by a culinary Jewish superstar like Joan Nathan, forming these kinds of connections is easy.

Topics: Food Writing

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson’s numerous cookbooks and cooking shows have earned her the (often fraught) title of domestic goddess.
Pumpkin Spice Rugelach, Plated

Pumpkin Spice Rugelach

Lisa Yelsey

Hi Everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful Rosh Hashanah, a meaningful Yom Kippur, and an easy fast. And next in the annual fall marathon of Jewish holidays, I hope you have a great Sukkot. In honor of this holiday, filled with stuffed foods and fall vegetables, I’ve put together a recipe for pumpkin spice rugelach.

Topics: Food Writing, Sukkot

Jewish Diversity and Innovation: The View from the Kitchen

Discover how recipes can tell stories about Jewish history and its ever-changing rich cultural diversity.

Chloe Coscarelli

As the first vegan chef to win a TV cooking competition, Chloe Coscarelli has helped vegan food gain more widespread acceptance.

Gwyneth Paltrow

Known best for her Oscar-winning performance in the romantic comedy Shakespeare in Love, Gwyneth Paltrow has repeatedly sought out difficult roles playing unconventional women, including playing Sylvia Plath in 2003.

Alice B. Toklas Moves In Permanently with Gertrude Stein

September 9, 1910
Alice Babette Toklas heard distinct chiming when she met Gertrude Stein.

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