Food for Thought: A Seat at the Table: A Journey into Jewish Food

Lox Slicing Demo from A Seat at the Table: A Journey into Jewish Food

A Seat at the Table: A Journey into Jewish Food is a vast survey of Ashkenazi (Poland and Eastern Europe) foodways with over 100 hours of online content including demos, cooking lessons, interviews with cooks and more which the publisher is offering at no charge during the pandemic.

Although there is a sequential organization, the topics are so wide-ranging that you could productively dip your toe into any topic that strikes your fancy and be entertained and educated. “Jewish Identity + Food” is presented by Michael Twitty, an African-American chef and food historian who is also Jewish, and discusses the role traditional foods play in Jewish culture in different parts of the world; this is followed by a lox-slicing demo from Josh Russ Tupper of Russ & Daughters. There are also explorations of food-related artifacts, like an ancient price list from a Polish deli.

And, of course, recipes! Typically there will be a video discussion of a dish—like knishes, kuchen, kugl or gefilte fish, followed by a link to the recipe itself. If you want to dig deeper, you’ll find topics on cookbooks and gender, Jews and vegetarianism, cookbooks in the 19^th century Jewish home and—if you are not thoroughly intimidated at this point—how to write your own Jewish cookbook. Browsing the sections reminds me of shopping at Powell’s gargantuan bookstore (sadly now closed by the pandemic) in Portland: you never know what you will come up with but you know it will be fascinating.

A Seat at the Table: A Journey into Jewish Food is one in a series of online courses sponsored by YIYO Institute for Jewish Research. Enrolling is a bit cumbersome because you have to set up an account, but then it will be easier to enroll in other courses (which aren’t free but are very inexpensive) if you like. Check it out!