December 05, 2021
By STEPHEN SILVER
(JTA) — Since its founding in 1890, the University of Chicago has been a hub of scholarship and rigorous debate on numerous contentious subjects, from economics to law to science. But since 1946, the school has also hosted a debate on another long-running disagreement: whether latkes or hamantaschen are the superior Jewish holiday food.
Participants in the debate, hosted by the university’s Hillel chapter, have over the...
September 17, 2021
By RACHEL ROMÁN
(JTA) — The 16th-century kabbalist Moshe Cordovero and the Jewish philosopher Nachmanides both compared the universe to the size of a mustard seed. The biblical commentator Rashi – who lived 100 miles from Dijon, France – believed that Abraham served tongue with mustard to the three angels who visit him in the 18th chapter of Genesis.
Long before there were Jewish delis, mustard apparently was important to...
September 01, 2021
By STACI PFEFFER
(JTA via Kveller) – Rachel Lipman cares deeply about preserving her Jewish family’s fifth-generation winemaking business, Loew Vineyards, but the 28-year-old is keeping an eye on the future, too. As one of the youngest winemakers in Maryland — if not the youngest — she’s pushing through boundaries in a traditionally male-dominated industry.
But that’s not all. Lipman is also educating customers about her family’s extraordinary legacy of...
July 02, 2021
By ALAN SMASON, Special to the CCJN
He may not be Peter Fonda or Dennis Hopper, but Steve Goode is advancing towards New Orleans on his motorcycle as part of his self-guided “Great American Deli Schlepp” tomorrow, Saturday, July 3 at 11:30 a.m. at Stein’s Deli, 2207 Magazine Street.
The Chicago area native is using the 16,000 mile motorcycle trek to 42 delicatessens across a variety of states to call...
February 25, 2021
(JTA) — The heartwarming story has been hard to miss: A law professor is shopping at his local grocery store when sees an elderly woman struggling to get her favorite jam from a high shelf. Why is it her favorite? “I am a Holocaust survivor,” she says. “During the war, the family that owns the company hid my family in Paris.”
Tens of thousands of people — at least — have shared the...
February 12, 2021
By ASMA ALI ZAIN
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (JTA) — Last year, Israel and the United Arab Emirates signed a treaty establishing diplomatic relations. But for more than a year earlier, diners in the UAE had already been finding their way to Jewish culture — via the home cooking of a South African expatriate.
Elli Kriel, a sociologist by training who moved here in 2013 when her husband was transferred...
February 11, 2021
By DANI KLEIN
(JTA) — Many industries were harmed in 2020, perhaps none as deeply as the hospitality sector. Nearly one in six U.S. restaurants had closed as of December, according to data from the National Restaurant Association.
Kosher establishments were not immune to the economic consequences of the pandemic: We saw iconic kosher restaurants permanently close this year, including Abigael’s in Manhattan, Casablanca in New Orleans, Wolf & Lamb...
January 16, 2020
(JTA) — Gladys Bourdain, who convinced an editor to publish the first article written by her chef son Anthony, has died.
Bourdain died in hospice on Friday in the Bronx, New York. She was 85.
She worked for nearly 25 years as a copy editor at the New York Times beginning in 1984, “developing a reputation as a strict grammarian on the culture and metropolitan desks,” according to an obituary...
November 07, 2019
NEW YORK (JTA) — Michael Solomonov, the award-winning Philadelphia restaurateur who was the first Israeli-born recipient of a James Beard Award, has joined the advisory council of an Israeli culinary school set to open in 2021.
Solomonov announced he was becoming the inaugural member of the school’s advisory council at a press conference in New York last week alongside Lior Lev Sercarz, an Israeli chef involved in the project.
Both...
September 27, 2019
By MOLLY YEH
This slow-cooked brisket is featured on season 4 of Molly Yeh’s Food Network show “Girl Meets Farm,” which captures her life on a sugar beet farm. Flavored with apple cider and maple syrup, it embraces Rosh Hashanah food traditions and, best of all, can be enjoyed at any time of day.
Serve with carrot hash with eggs and pesto for a decadent brunch, as seen on “Girl...
