{"id":96249,"date":"2026-10-12T22:19:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T03:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/?p=96249"},"modified":"2026-10-13T08:21:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T13:21:17","slug":"chef-alon-shaya-shares-the-stories-resilience-and-recipes-of-world-war-ii-survivors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/chef-alon-shaya-shares-the-stories-resilience-and-recipes-of-world-war-ii-survivors\/","title":{"rendered":"Chef Alon Shaya shares the stories, resilience and recipes of World War II survivors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By RACHEL RINGLER<\/p>\n<p>(JTA) \u2013 In 2015, while visiting Israel\u2019s Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, James Beard Award-winning chef Alon Shaya came face-to-face with a World War II artifact that moved him deeply.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_96251\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Alon_Shaya.png\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-96251\" class=\"wp-image-96251 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Alon_Shaya-300x209.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"209\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Alon_Shaya-300x209.png 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Alon_Shaya-1024x713.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Alon_Shaya-768x535.png 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Alon_Shaya.png 1165w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/209;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-96251\" class=\"wp-image-96251 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Alon_Shaya-300x209.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"209\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Alon_Shaya-300x209.png 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Alon_Shaya-1024x713.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Alon_Shaya-768x535.png 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Alon_Shaya.png 1165w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-96251\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">New Orleans chef Alon Shaya of Saba, whose latest book is &#8220;Memories of a Good Meal,&#8221; inspired by a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. (Photo by Beau Ciolino)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>It was a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yadvashem.org\/education\/educational-materials\/artifacts\/yeudit-taube.html\">red cloth triangle<\/a> \u2014 cut from a Nazi flag \u2014 embroidered with the names of a few dozen female prisoners at the Ravensbr\u00fcck concentration camp.<\/p>\n<p>In a place where they were starving to death, he learned these women had formed a clandestine \u201cfood\u201d club. Together, they talked about recipes, their Friday night Shabbat candlesticks and cherished memories of home.<\/p>\n<p>That red cloth was \u201c100% the catalyst,\u201d Shaya said, for his deep interest in food as \u201can agent of survival, defiance and bringing people together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now, 11 years after that defining moment in Jerusalem, Shaya\u2019s second book, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.harpercollins.com\/products\/memories-of-a-good-meal-alon-shayajune-hersh\">Memories of a Good Meal: Recipes of Resilience Inspired by Stories of World War II Survival<\/a>,\u201d is being published on Oct. 6. Co-authored with food historian June Hersh, the book gathers accounts from survivors and heroes of World War II, illustrating the outsized role that food \u2014 and the memory of it \u2014 played in human survival. While featuring 80 recipes, it functions as much as a history book as a cookbook.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe recipes are there to support the stories,\u201d Shaya said. \u201cIt\u2019s not the other way around.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Shaya and Hersh tell the stories of 10 distinct groups impacted by the war, including Jewish partisans, hidden children, Navajo code talkers, persecuted homosexuals, Japanese Americans, and Austrian and German Jews who built new lives in the Dominican Republic.<\/p>\n<p>Alongside these narratives, the authors included family recipes preserved across generations. Where none survived or existed, Shaya crafted recipes using ingredients available to the book\u2019s subjects during the war.<\/p>\n<p>The opening chapter highlights a story particularly close to Shaya\u2019s heart. In 2019, during a visit to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., Shaya was shown a tattered, 100-year-old, <a href=\"https:\/\/ushmm.org\/food-family\">handwritten recipe collection from the Fenves family of Yugoslavia<\/a>. Saved during the war by the family\u2019s cook, Maris, the Hungarian-language notebook was eventually donated to the museum by survivor Steven Fenves.<\/p>\n<p>Determined to bring those dishes back to life, Shaya worked with Fenves to translate the recipes, filling in missing elements like precise steps, exact measurements and oven temperatures.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_96253\" style=\"width: 2170px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/red-strip-Nazi.avif\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-96253\" class=\"wp-image-96253 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/red-strip-Nazi.avif\" alt=\"\" width=\"2160\" height=\"1201\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-96253\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A strip of cloth left over from a Nazi flag was embroidered with the names of women prisoners at the Ravensbr\u00fcck concentration camp who shared memories of the foods they cooked and enjoyed. The artifact inspired Alon Shaya to write about food, memory and survival. (Yad Vashem Artifacts Collection\/Gift of Yehudit [Aufrichtig] Taube, Israel)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cI really became a part of their family,\u201d said Shaya, whose collaboration on what became known as the <a href=\"https:\/\/pomhospitality.com\/rescued-recipes\">Rescued Recipes<\/a> project has raised nearly $1 million for the Holocaust Museum to digitize historical documents and artifacts. \u201cThe family wouldn\u2019t be here if Steven and his sister didn\u2019t survive Auschwitz,\u201d said Shaya.<\/p>\n<p>Featured recipes from this chapter reflect the Hungarian culinary traditions of Fenves\u2019s hometown of Subotica, including k\u00f6r\u00f6z\u00f6tt (a spiced cheese spread) and authentic Hungarian goulash.<\/p>\n<p>Other chapters explore how people sustained themselves despite meager resources. In the profile of Polish Jewish partisan Shalom Yoran \u2014 who subsisted largely on potatoes while hiding in the woods \u2014 Shaya developed recipes centered on the staple tuber, including Polish herring and potato salad, potato dinner rolls and potato, and pine nut doughnuts with blackberry caramel.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShalom\u2019s wife, Varda, shared his story with us,\u201d Shaya explained. \u201cThe partisans lived in a hole in the ground in the Polish forest through winters that reached minus-20 degrees, and they did that for four years. Potatoes were a huge part of their survival.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For Sarah Pelz, executive editor at Harvest, the book\u2019s publisher and the granddaughter of a partisan, the concept of the book resonated deeply, especially in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks inside Israel. \u201cThe throughline here is the power of food and memory \u2014 the power of food to bring us together at a table, and to remind us who we are and where we come from,\u201d she said in an interview.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlon\u2019s message is powerful and necessary right now,\u201d she continued. \u201cHe hopes that people will read this book, will cook from it, and that it will bring people together at the table, people of diverse backgrounds, people of diverse perspectives, that it will not just help to enlighten readers, to history and to what happened, but also help bring people together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In gathering these accounts across the globe, Shaya and Hersh faced a race against time, as most interviewees were well into their 90s or older. <a href=\"https:\/\/share.google\/gN8rDsrv2ztIhOpcO\">John Kinsel, one of the last living Navajo code talkers<\/a>, was 107 years old when the authors visited him on the Navajo Nation reservation. His chapter details the vital role Native American Marines played by using their complex language to transmit secret Allied messages in the Pacific theater. The book features recipes inspired by Navajo traditions, including blue corn mush and stuffed pumpkin with stewed lamb.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_96254\" style=\"width: 2170px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/cookbook-page.avif\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-96254\" class=\"wp-image-96254 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/cookbook-page.avif\" alt=\"\" width=\"2160\" height=\"1201\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-96254\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A recipe from \u201cMemories of a Good Meal\u201d was inspired by German Jewish refugees who found a home in the Dominican Republic. (Harvest Books)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Throughout the project, Shaya couldn\u2019t help but draw parallels between past atrocities and modern struggles.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the lessons that struck home the most for me is that people will persecute you for what you believe in and gather together and create laws to persecute you,\u201d he said. \u201cWe saw it in what happened with immigration in the 1940s, and we see it with what\u2019s happening in America today.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He was also struck by the role of propaganda, promulgated then by Joseph Goebbels, Hitler\u2019s chief propagandist, and today by bad actors on social media, in spreading hate and disinformation.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the stories, like the meal prepared by nuns in a convent for a group of persecuted homosexual prisoners, seem almost cinematic in nature.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have definitely thought about turning these stories into a miniseries or a movie,\u201d said Shaya. \u201cNobody has shown interest in it yet, but it is something that I think the more ways these stories can be shared, the better.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_96252\" style=\"width: 243px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Memories_Good_Meal.png\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-96252\" class=\"wp-image-96252 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Memories_Good_Meal-233x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"233\" height=\"300\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Memories_Good_Meal-233x300.png 233w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Memories_Good_Meal-795x1024.png 795w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Memories_Good_Meal-768x990.png 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Memories_Good_Meal.png 928w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 233px) 100vw, 233px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 233px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 233\/300;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-96252\" class=\"wp-image-96252 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Memories_Good_Meal-233x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"233\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Memories_Good_Meal-233x300.png 233w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Memories_Good_Meal-795x1024.png 795w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Memories_Good_Meal-768x990.png 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Memories_Good_Meal.png 928w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 233px) 100vw, 233px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-96252\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">In &#8220;Memories of a Good Meal,&#8221; Alon Shaya explores the role of food and memory in stories of survival during World War II. (Harvest Books; Beau Ciolino)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Born in Israel and raised in Philadelphia, Shaya has become one of the country\u2019s leading interpreters of Israeli and Middle Eastern cooking, with a distinctly Southern sensibility. His 2018 cookbook, \u201cShaya: An Odyssey of Food, My Journey Back to Israel,\u201d blends memoir with recipes.<\/p>\n<p>Shaya was committed to the latest book despite huge demands on his time. The chef and his wife, Emily, have two children, aged five and two. His Pomegranate Hospitality operates three restaurants, Saba and Safta\u2019s Table in New Orleans, where he lives, and Safta in Denver. (Saba means grandfather and Safta means grandmother in Hebrew.) He is also involved in a variety of philanthropic work.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe work I put into this book fills my heart and makes me feel good, like I\u2019m doing something that builds me up and can have an impact,\u201d said Shaya.<\/p>\n<p>Shaya views the book as an educational tool.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis book might engage a 13-year-old who really loves the chocolate cake recipe,\u201d Shaya reflected. \u201cIf he or she hears the history behind that chocolate cake and delves into the history behind it, they learn that Austrian and German Jews took refuge in the Dominican Republic and wanted to keep their culinary traditions alive and need to use the local resources. That\u2019s how a traditional Sacher torte-inspired tres leches cake came to be. Or a plantain latke, or matzo ball soup with avocado, lime and yucca.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf those stories can come together and have that kind of impact on one 13-year-old in the world,\u201d he added, \u201cI will feel complete.\u201d<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Chef%20Alon%20Shaya%20shares%20the%20stories%2C%20resilience%20and%20recipes%20of%20World%20War%20II%20survivors\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":96251,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7138],"tags":[15431,8790,15429,1525,15430],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96249"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96249"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96276,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96249\/revisions\/96276"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}