Uncovering the Forgotten History of Jewish Gastronomy in America

gastronomy

Article reserved for subscribers

Through an intimate and memorial quest, culinary author Annabelle Schachmes offers, in her latest book, a gourmet inventory of Jewish gastronomy, preserved by the cultural diversity of the American metropolis.

There are recipe books that don’t say much other than current culinary trends or the desires of the time – cook quickly, eat healthy, avoid wasting, drink less alcohol… And there are books like the one that Annabelle Schachmes is about to publish on October 11, which remind us that cooking is fundamentally a cultural act. The inattentive reader could only see in his work (1) a compilation of recipes from New York’s Jewish delis and food stalls, but that would be to miss the memorial quest, which we can sense implicitly, of the culinary journalist and author. “I realized, while working on my other books, that the history of Jewish cuisine, particularly Ashkenazi, had somewhat disappeared in Europe,” she explains to us, illustrating her point with an anecdote: a One day, in a Polish bakery, Annabelle Schachmes noticed a challah, this traditional Shabbat brioche bread, and asked the saleswoman if she offered other Jewish breads or pastries. The shopkeeper’s incredulous response: “But, ma’am, challah is Polish, absolutely not Jewish!”

“Forgetting history”

“When I was a child, my grandfather told me “Be careful all your life not to forget history”, I think that this sentence built the adult that I am,” she continues. These days, the

2023-09-23 09:08:00
#York #Jewish #traditions #plate