Welcome to the archives of the Great Big Jewish Food Fest, a 10-day festival by and for people who love Jewish food. Below you’ll find archives of many of our festival sessions, in chronological order as they took place in the festival.
You can see the full schedule here. And recipes here. And Anytime Content here.
The State of the Deli Hosted by David Sax
Presenters: David Sax, Jeffrey Yoskowitz (Gefilteria), Ziggy Gruber (Kenny & Ziggy’s), Sonya Sanford (Beetroot), Evan Bloom (Wise Sons), Niki Russ Federman (Russ & Daughters), Dan Raskin (Manny’s Deli)// Co-Presented with Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan
The small business entrepreneurs who run Jewish delis and appetizing shops across America are facing an unprecedented challenge, fighting to keep their carving knives out and smokers on. Soul of an Entrepreneur and Save the Deli author David Sax discusses the business of delis and the inspiring people behind the beloved institutions with Gefilteria co-founder Jeffrey Yoskowitz. Then join as David zooms cross country from the West Coast to the East to check on how delis (and appetizing shops) are faring. We’ll pop in at new school deli Beetroot in Portland, Oregon, the classic Kenny & Ziggy’s in Houston, Wise Sons in San Francisco, Manny's in Chicago, and Russ & Daughters on the Lower East Side of New York City.
What We Talk About When We Study Jewish Food with Dr. Rachel B. Gross and Dr. Jordan Rosenblum
Definitions of "Jewish food" have changed dramatically over time and around the world. Jewish cuisine has developed in times of scarcity as well as times of abundance, and the boundaries of Jewish food have highlighted issues of class, gender, and privilege. In this conversation, Dr. Rachel B. Gross and Dr. Jordan Rosenblum will discuss what "Jewish food" means in the age of social distancing, drawing on a wide range of primary sources, from rabbinic debates to manufacturers' advertisements.
Virtual Book Talk: Soviet-Jewish Cuisine with chef Bonnie Morales and author Boris Fishman and Gabriella Gershenson
If there's something that Soviet cuisine and the literature surrounding it has taught the world, it's how to celebrate in grand style in times of bleakness and uncertainty. Join food journalist Gabriella Gershenson in conversation with cookbook author Bonnie Morales, chef-owner of the restaurant Kachka in Portland, Oregon, and Boris Fishman, author of the lavishly food-focused memoir Savage Feast, for a discussion of vodka, salty snacks, and the Soviet Jewish appetite as a writer's muse.
The Connection Between Food and Climate Change with Hazon, the Jewish Lab for Sustainability
Join Hazon staff Becky O’ Brien, director of Food and Climate, and Isaiah Rothstein, Rabbi-in-residence, for song, learning, self-reflection and dynamic discussion around Shmita, Shabbat, Kashrut, and the food choices we make as they relate to mitigating climate change in the 21st century. Leave with a deepened awareness of your individual power and clarity around the steps you can take to connect your heart to your plate.
Millennials, Food, and Engagement: Implications and Opportunities from New Research
New research on Jewish millennial engagement shows the profound importance of food for nostalgia, social gathering and Jewish connection. This session is designed for Jewish professionals and leaders, but open to anyone who is interested in this research. Rella Kaplowitz, Senior Program Officer for Evaluation and Learning at the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation will share insights from the recently completed research on Jewish millennials, and the strong food-related themes that emerged.Panelists include Rabbi Ruth Abusch-Magder is the Director of Education for Be'chol Lashon, Aliza Kline, CEO of OneTable, and Naama Haviv, Director of Community Engagement for MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger.
Shavuot in the Sephardic Kitchen: Bread of the Seven Heavens
Join chef and scholar Dr. Hélène Jawhara-Piñer, for a cooking demonstration of her own twist on Sephardic Shavuot bread with herbs and cheese. She will explore the Jewish symbolism imbued in the shape and flavors of the bread and their connection to the upcoming holiday.Presented by the American Sephardi Federation. Recipe can be found here.
The Great Big Shabbat Cook-Along Hosted by Gail Simmons, with Michael Solomonov, Adeena Sussman and Einat Admony
Join celebrity chefs Michael Solomonov of Zahav, Einat Admony of Balaboosta, and hit cookbook author Adeena Sussman as they show you how how to prepare a special Shabbat dinner in their homes. Gather the ingredients and get your knives out, you’ll be cooking along with them. Check out the recipes below.Speakers: Gail Simmons, Adeena Sussman, Michael Solomonov, Einat Admony. Recipes can be found here.
Food x Identity: Michael Twitty in Conversation
Join acclaimed author Michael Twitty (The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South) as he explores where food and identity intersect and diverge in their work and lives. Cookbook author and podcaster Julia Turshen (Now & Again: Go-To Recipes, Inspired Menus + Endless Ideas for Reinventing Leftovers) will be in conversation with him. Presented by Museum of Food and Drink.
Family Kitchen: Creating Your Own Crazy Challah Creations with Shannon Sarna
Get ready to create the sweet or savory challah creations of your dreams. This class will showcase how to shape challah different ways, stuff it with cheese, top it with sprinkles and just about everything in between. Prep your dough ahead of time and get ingredients ready to add to your challah. The sky is the limit, but here are a few ideas of ingredients you could use for this session. Open your pantry and get creative! Pesto, mozzarella cheese, sprinkles, chocolate chips, Oreo crumbs, cookie crumbs, cheese doodles, sesame seeds, Nutella, peanut butter & jelly, chopped nuts, fresh herbs, even marshmallow fluff!
Jewish Learning: The Spirituality of Jewish Food with Rabbi Abigail Treu
Food is much more than a part of Jewish culture: it is also one of Judaism's most profound spiritual pathways. How do we turn the laws of Jewish food practices - keeping kosher, reciting blessings, washing hands - into something that touches our souls?
In the Kitchen: Get Your Table Instagram-Ready with Jake Cohen
Join food writer and Shabbat host extraordinaire Jake Cohen in his home as he styles his Shabbat table for a virtual Great Big Food Fest Shabbat dinner. He'll provide tips and tricks for how to present dishes, prepare a killer cheeseboard, and bake sumac brownie cookies, all while creating a welcoming
ShirLaLa's Shabbat Table
Join ShirLaLa and The Great Big Jewish Food Fest to set your table this Shabbat!All are invited for that special only-on-Shabbat feeling that comes from being together and sharing in this sweet tradition. Gather 'round for heart and soul-filled play from candles to kiddush.
Jewish Ritual: A Spicy (East Coast!) Havdalah with Lior Lev Sercarz and Michelle Citrin
Join master spice blender Lior Lev Sercarz as he walks us through how to make our own special besamim blend (spices for Havdalah) from our pantries and talks about the Jewish connection to spices. The spice workshop will be followed by a special Havdalah celebration led by Jewish musician, Michelle Citrin.
Jewish Ritual: A Spicy (West Coast!) Havdalah with Lior Lev Sercarz and Rabbi Keilah Lebell
Join master spice blender Lior Lev Sercarz as he walks us through how to make our own special besamim blend (spices for Havdalah) from our pantries and talks about the Jewish connection to spices. The spice workshop will be followed by a special Havdalah celebration led by Rabbi Keilah Lebell of IKAR in Los Angeles.
The Table: Stripped Down. Lessons from our Tradition on the Practice of Hospitality
In Temple times, the Shulchan -- a special table for preparing, serving, and sharing meals with Gd -- was central to Jewish worship. Today, the Shulchan remains at the center of the Tradition. In this session with Chef, Shochet, and Rabbinical Student Jonathan Posner, we will explore the prominence of the table in Jewish thought, and what our legacy as hospitality practitioners is or ought to be.
In the Kitchen: Mexican Brunch with Fany Gerson
Join beloved chef Fany Gerson as she teaches us all how to prepare a Mexican brunch of roasted tomato-harissa chilaquiles. She'll also talk about growing up in the Jewish community of Mexico City and how it informs the flavors of her cooking. Stay tuned for the recipe, so you can cook along with Fany.
The Shtetl Pantry of Your Dreams with The Gefilteria, Live Cooking Demo
No supermarket? No problem. Authors of The Gefilte Manifesto, Liz Alpern and Jeffrey Yoskowitz, will teach you to prepare your own Ashkenazi pantry staples from schmaltz to vinegar to farmers cheese. They'll also share some incredible and inspiring dishes you can make once your pantry is stocked. Bring your questions, comments and curiosity to this DIY deep dive. Co-presented with the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
FOODLES! – (Food Doodles) for Kids and Families
Join author/cartoonist Alan Silberberg for a hands-on demo of how to turn your favorite Jewish nosh into fun food doodles. Latkes. Matzah. Hamentaschen. Grab some paper and your favorite drawing stuff and follow along while Alan shows you how to make a goofy gefilte fish...and more!
Food Tech: Shaping The Future Of Plant Based Cooking
In a first of its kind event facilitated by ACT Innovation Hub and connecting the culinary and foodtech worlds, renowned Chef Asaf Granit will meet with food tech founders for a talk technology challenges and vision, and then he'll cook with the new tech plant-based products on camera. Granit will meet with Redefine Meat, a developer of 3D printed Alternative Meat, and Green Onyx, the producers of the nutrient-rich Khai-Nam vegetable superfood. Granit will cook some of his best-known dishes that have become synonymous with modern Israeli fine dining, including deconstructed kabab and Persian greens beef stew. With roots in Jerusalem’s street food, cooked at Redefine Meat’s R&D-kitchen, join Chef Granit as he unravels a mix of experimentation, ideation, and vision for a healthy sustainable future of food with each bite. With thanks to The ACT Hub for hosting this session. For The ACT Innovation Hub newsletter, sign up here.
Tea Time: Celebrating Claudia Roden’s Culinary Legacy with Leah Koenig
May 25, 2020If you have ever tried your hand at baking challah, or don’t consider a dish complete without a generous drizzle of tahini, you likely have Claudia Roden to thank. For nearly 60 years, Roden's work as an author, recipe developer, and vivid storyteller has shined a light on lesser known culinary corners, including with her watershed cookbook, The Book of Jewish Food. Her work celebrates the global nature of Jewish cuisine, setting the stage for the next generation of writers, chefs, and home cooks. Join Claudia and cookbook author Leah Koenig for an intimate teatime conversation that explores Claudia's incomparable influence on Jewish culinary scholarship and cooking today.
Cocktails with a Conscience
Co-Presented with Repair the WorldThe hunger epidemic has changed in the face of the current global pandemic and communities and organizations are being forced to adapt. Come with a cocktail of your choice as Repair the World moderates a conversation among leaders who are creatively adapting to meet the growing need.
Restaurants and Chefs During COVID-19
The hospitality industry is reeling in the face of the pandemic, but chefs and restauranteurs have hardly been waiting things out quietly. Join us for a check-in with industry leaders as they share their journeys over the past few weeks of feeding the most needy, supporting their staffs, and knocking on the doors of Capitol Hill. Recognizing the severe impact of the COVID-19 national disaster on the industry, the James Beard Foundation established the Food and Beverage Industry Relief Fund in late March to help secure swift economic relief for small, independently owned restaurants. After dispensing over $4.7 million to fund recipients, the organization is now shifting its focus to its Open for Good initiative. Through Open for Good, the Foundation is creating new programs to help the industry survive, rebuild, and thrive. Join Mitchell Davis from the James Beard Foundation alongside Michael Shemtov (restauranteur), Grace Ramirez (Chef) and Naama Shefi (Jewish Food Society) for this meaningful discussion.
In the Kitchen: A Very Roman Holiday with Leah Koenig
Rome is home to one of Europe's oldest and most delicious Jewish cuisines. Shaped by centuries of hardship and tightly-bound community, la cucina Ebraica Romana (the Roman Jewish kitchen) is defined by its elegant approach to vegetables, saucy braised meats, love of small and briny fishes, and masterclass level of skill for frying foods in olive oil. Join celebrated cookbook author Leah Koenig (The Jewish Cookbook; Modern Jewish Cooking) for an online cooking class highlighting some of Rome's best dishes. Recipes are here.
The Dairy Restaurant with Ben Katchor, Lara Rabinovitch, and Eddy Portnoy
In the new graphic novel The Dairy Restaurant, author and illustrator Ben Katchor retells the history of where we choose to eat—a history that starts with the first man who was allowed to enter a walled garden and encouraged by the garden’s owner to enjoy its fruits. He examines the biblical milk-and-meat taboo, the first vegetarian practices, and the invention of the restaurant. Through text and drawings, Katchor illuminates the historical confluence of events and ideas that led to the development of a “milekhdike (dairy) personality” and the proliferation of dairy restaurants in America, and he recollects his own experiences in many of these iconic restaurants just before they disappeared. Join us for a conversation with Ben Katchor and writer and specialist in food culture and immigrant history Lara Rabinovitch, led by Eddy Portnoy, YIVO’s Academic Advisor and Director of Exhibitions and author of Bad Rabbi and Other Strange but True Stories from the Yiddish Press. This is event is co-presented with the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.
Virtual Cookbook Tour: Perusing an Extraordinary Cookbook Collection w/ Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett and Darra Goldstein
Join scholars Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett and Darra Goldstein as they wax poetic about cookbook during a voyeuristic look at their prized cookbook collections. Barbara has been collecting out of print treasures and books from overseas for decades. The two will pore over a few choice selections from Barbara's impressive collection and Darra will share a few of her own favorites from her special collection, as well. This event is co-produced with The Jewish Book Council. Barbara and Darra’s Bibliography. Here’s the recipe for Ethel Hofman’s matzo plum pudding.
Kashrut, Social Distancing and Its Discontents with Rabbi Menachem Creditor
May 27, 2020The biblical command to "not cook a kid in its mother's milk" has, over the centuries, expanded into a complex system of Kashrut policies that have been described in countless ways, some good, some not-so-good. But what, in the end, is the purpose of Kashrut? Is it about Jews staying separate from the rest of the world? Is it about mindful food practice? As mealtime has become more physically isolated, might the realities of social distancing help us re-translate an ancient and complicated historical tradition into modern spiritual-social terms? All texts will be available in English, and beginners are welcome! With UJA-Federation NY scholar-in-Residence Rabbi Menachem Creditor.
Jewish Cooking in America Past and Present with Joan Nathan and Ruth Reichl
More than 25 years after its release, Joan Nathan’s cookbook Jewish Cooking in America remains an icon and a foundation for many Jewish cooks and authors. Since its release, much in the Jewish kitchen has changed — but not everything. Join Joan and acclaimed author and former Gourmet editor Ruth Reichl for a lively discussion about Jewish cooking in America both yesterday and today.