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On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Annie Kantor, owner of Modern Metal, about decorating with entertaining in mind. The key is to create a beautiful space that exudes warmth and encourages conversation..
“I don't really have doors on the whole main floor of our house because … I wanted to encourage socialization,” Kantor explains. “And we designed [the kitchen] in a way so that people could really gather, because everybody ends up in there anyway.”
She adds, “One of the first things I bought when we started our remodel was a [10-foot long] antique table … it embodies everything I want when I think of entertaining [with] a design element.”
You also want to add touches that reflect your personality; it’s what makes your house feel like a home.
For instance, on the wall of photos in Kantor’s foyer, she does not display the best, frame-worthy pictures; she selects the ones that highlight memories.
“One of the pictures is a photo of my [two] daughters’ feet, wearing these Roman sandals,” she says. “Our whole family knows, when we see it, it captured a moment on a family trip to Rome [where] my girls had a massive, three-day fight over Roman sandals.”
Annie Kantor talks about the origin of her love of entertaining and how redesigning her home led to her business: Modern Metal. She also shares ways to add personal touches to your home and gatherings, along with her friend Anne Schmitz’s kugel recipe, which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.
Learn more about Annie Kantor at ModMetalDesigns.com. For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.
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On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with chocolatier and chocolate educator Ruth Kennison of The Chocolate Project.
Honey represents a sweet Jewish New Year! Why not kick off the calendar year by indulging in chocolate. Just make sure it’s the good kind.
“When you're using really good chocolate, it just elevates everything,” explains Kennison, who turned a life-long love of chocolate into her fourth career.
“I thought I'd never had any artistic bone in my body; I was an organizer and a production assistant and all sorts of things,” she says. “And I realized, this form of art combines food, chocolate, and art.”
After her pastry certification and the decision to focus on chocolate, Kennison took a trip to Paris, which led to an origin trip to Mexico. There, Kennison met farmers, saw cacao trees and learned how chocolate was processed from bean to bar.
“Chocolate comes from a fruit [that] grows only 10 to 20 degrees above and below the equator … so it grows in West Africa, Asia, Central America, South America and Mexico,” she explains. “When you open it, [the] white stuff is fruit and it tastes like lychee, and then inside of it are the little cocoa beans that need to be fermented to be made into chocolate.”
The craft chocolate and bean-to-bar movement have made good chocolate more accessible than ever.
“Bean-to-bar makers [are] roasting the beans very low and slow, so you're getting the pure natural flavors of the bean, similar to wine,” she says. “And when that batch of cacao goes away, you'll never have that exact bar again.”
Once you have quality chocolate, there are plenty of things you can make. Kennison likes to use all parts of the cacao, which includes the cocoa nibs. For instance, Kennison loves vanilla soft serve ice cream with homemade caramel sauce, cocoa nibs, and sea salt. She also makes double chocolate chip cookies, and dark chocolate truffles, which you can adapt by adding different flavors.
“It can be a coffee chocolate truffle by steeping coffee in your cream,” she explains. “I just made a London fog truffle with Earl gray and vanilla.”
Ruth Kennison talks about her chocolate-centric career journey, the Jewish-chocolate connection, and the basics of the bean-to-bar movement. She also shares tips on how to identify quality chocolate, as well as some of her favorite chocolate recipes, including dark chocolate truffles, which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.
Go to Chocolate-project.com to learn more about Ruth Kennison and her in-person and virtual chocolate classes and events, including ones at The Gourmandise School in Santa Monica. Follow @ChocProject on Instagram and Facebook.
For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.
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Fehlende Folgen?
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On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, Debra Eckerling hosts a special Hanukkah panel with authors Eitan Bernath (“Eitan Eats the World”), Joan Nathan (“My Life in Recipes,” “A Sweet Year” and many others) and Beth Ricanati (“Braided: A Journey of A Thousand Challahs”).
Holidays are all about uniting friends, old and new. What better way to honor Hanukkah than to bring together three previous Taste Buds with Deb guests for a conversation about food and family traditions.
Eitan Bernath, Joan Nathan, and Beth Ricanati talk about what they love about Hanukkah and ways to lean into the light of Hanukkah this holiday season. They also share advice for entertaining, options for sufganiyot (fried donuts), and latke recipes and tricks.
Get Joan Nathan’s apple latke recipe, Eitan Bernath’s Brussel sprout latke recipe, and Beth Ricanati’s tips for making a latke board (a reimagined cheese board) at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.
Learn more at EitanBernath.com, JoanNathan.com and BethRicanatiMD.com.
For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.
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On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Yuliya Patsay, author of “Until the Last Pickle: A Memoir in 18 Recipes.”
A Soviet-born, San Francisco-raised storyteller, Patsay started this project as a collection of family recipes; it turned into a celebration of her past and a legacy for the future.
The first two recipes Patsay collected were her grandmother's blinchiki, which is crepes, and her dad's borscht, a popular Ukrainian soup with beets and cabbage and potatoes. She also asked them questions like, ‘Where did you learn to cook?’ ‘How did you first start making this?’ and ‘What's your favorite thing to cook?’
“As I did that, I realized I wanted to talk about my relationship to having grown up in the former Soviet Union and then immigrating to the United States, to San Francisco,” she explains.
This gigantic culture shock, particularly in terms of the food, also led to a greater appreciation of the foods she grew up with. There was a nostalgia of having certain foods at every holiday meal and family gathering. For instance, mashed potatoes and pickled herring were non-negotiable; they were always on the table.
One of her favorite, easy recipes is from her mother-in-law. It’s called sirniki, but is basically fried cheese.
“That's a hit in the house, especially with the kids,” she says. “[They are] these little very fragrant, delicious little balls of fried cheesy dough.”
Yuliya Patsay talks about her, her book’s, and its title’s origin stories, along with holiday traditions, family favorites, and the importance of hospitality. She also shares the recipe for sirniki, which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.
Subscribe to Yuliya Patsay’s Substack, Buckle Up Bubelah, and learn more about “Until the Last Pickle” at YuliyaPatsay.com.
For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.
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On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with David Chiu, communication manager at The Braid and producer of their new video series, “Tastes of Tradition.”
“One thing that we at The Braid notice is that food and storytelling, especially for us Jews, are inseparable,” Chiu explains. “Food is as much about the people you're sharing it with as the recipes themselves.”
In their snackable videos (they are about two-and-a-half minutes each), “Tastes of Tradition” invites the audience into the kitchens of five diverse Jewish families.
Featured in the series are Instagram chef Sivan Kobi (Sivan’s Kitchen) and her Iraqi Jewish mother, Yafa, who prepare kitchri, and Chinese-American celebrity chef and cookbook author Katie Chin and her teenage daughter Becca, an Asian American Jew, who make latkes with Asian-inspired dipping sauces.
Also, graphic novelist Emily Bowen Cohen, a Muscogee (Creek) Nation member, joins her son Maccabee and mother-in-law Beth to make fry bread for Hanukkah; award-winning comic and educator Joshua Silverstein, who is black and Jewish, and his 16-year-old stepson, Ami, make allergy-friendly hamantaschen for Purim; and Kimberly Dueñas, co-founder of Jewtina y Co, and her father Solomon, a crypto-Jew from El Salvador who kept his Jewish identity hidden for years due to the legacy of the Spanish Inquisition, prepare challah.
The series is on brand for The Braid, a vibrant cultural hub for connection, creativity, and stories that reflects the diversity of the Jewish experience. And food is frequently part of the mix.
“To me, the most powerful thing about food is that it's passed down,” Chiu explains. “Even if you don't pass down Shabbat traditions or other religious things, there's something that you take from your family related to food.”
Chiu, who is a Chinese American Jew, says he finds that also true on the Chinese side of his family. When he went off to college, Chiu wrote to his dad, asking him how to cook.
“He sent me all these recipes, which was hard for him because he's an immigrant and he never wrote anything down,” Chiu explains. “But his recipes became my way of connecting with him and his culture.”
David Chiu shares the origin story of “Tastes of Tradition,” the different ways The Braid integrates food into their offerings, and how he developed his love of cooking. He also shares Katie Chin’s recipe for double happiness latkes with Asian dipping sauces, which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.
Learn more about The Braid’s “Tastes of Tradition” video series at The-braid.org/tastes.
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On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with New York teen Steven Hoffen, founder of Growing Peace Inc. The organization installs hydroponic systems in communities in need, so that they can grow their own fresh produce.
“Growing Peace is really about trying to give back to the world, to my community, and trying to help it out and make the world a better place,” he says. “Whatever little I can do is going to be helpful.”
Hydroponics produces food efficiently and sustainably; plants receive nutrients through nutrient rich water, rather than through soil. It uses 80 to 90 percent less water, uses up less space and doesn't use pesticides or chemicals.
The wheels were set in motion in the summer of 2019. On a trip to Israel, Hoffen visited a non-profit organization, called Sindyanna of Galilee, where Arab and Jewish women work together to try to create peace within their communities through engaging activities. The following summer, Hoffen learned about Sindyanna’s hydroponics project and created a film, called “Growing Peace in the Middle East.” This led to him creating Growing Peace Inc.
“Learning about the way that Sindyanna was using hydroponics and growing produce to help people [is] what inspired me to think I could potentially do the same in my own community,” he says.
Hoffen has since installed seven hydroponic systems: one at a food pantry in Tel Aviv and the rest in the New York City area, including systems at Hope House in the Bronx, Edgecombe Residential Treatment Facility, and Queensboro Correctional Facility. Each tower yields a bounty of five to ten pounds of nutritious, organic produce every month. Hoffen volunteers each week at one or two of these communities.
“I do love getting on the ground and helping out to maintain the hydroponic systems, because getting that hands-on experience is what's really fun to me,” he says.
Hoffen shares what led to the launch of Growing Peace, his interest in sustainability, agriculture and food insecurity, and plans for the future. He also talks about his favorite Jewish foods, tips for giving or starting a philanthropy, and more.
“If you're not interested in pursuing something that's super large … try and help out other people who do have their own initiatives,” he says. “Or you can just do something more local, donate to your food pantry, give to charity, tzedakah, that sort of thing.”
He adds, “Whatever you can do and whatever you're capable of, if it seems like it's the right thing to do, it probably is.”
Learn more at GrowingPeaceInc.org and JewishJournal.com/podcasts. For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.
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On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Jessie-Sierra Ross, founder of Straight to the Hips, Baby, and author of “Seasons Around the Table: Effortless Entertaining with Floral Tablescapes & Seasonal Recipes.”
Ross took the leap from prima ballerina into the food and cooking world, after she retired from professional dance.
“I started cooking at my mother's side at six or seven years old, just fascinated by not only the chemistry of bringing food together and the sort of food is love aspect, but also just spending quality time with my family,” Ross explains. “That passion for food continued to grow with me, even if I couldn't always indulge: my daily staples were yogurts, oranges and bowls of chicken soup, but that didn't stop me from the occasional cocktail and slice of brie.”
Once Ross’ blog took off, she started doing food photography and styling, magazine articles and TV work. Her recently released cookbook, “Seasons Around the Table,” covers the four seasons, and melds garden, home decor, lifestyle and food and drink. The linchpin is entertaining: inviting people to the table and creating beautiful tablescapes for people to enjoy.
“There's nothing better than a little coffee, a little cake and a little kibitz,” she says. “We eat to remember, we eat to connect, we eat to nourish, we eat to love.”
Jessie-Sierra Ross talks about her backstory and how it led to “Seasons Around the Table,” along with tips for simplifying the entertaining processes, creating showstoppers, and bringing family history to the table. She also shares her recipe for apple and pear crumble, which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.
“It doesn't have to be a special occasion to make a special meal,” she says. “Focus on the flavors, focus on the food and obviously the guests.”
Learn more at StraightotheHipsBaby.com and follow @StraighttotheHipsBaby on Instagram and Jessie-Sierra The Last Bite on Substack.
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On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with chef Or Amsalam, a two-time James Beard Award semifinalist and founder of Lodge Bread Co., which has three locations in Los Angeles.
Amsalam, who served in the military before pursuing his culinary dreams at Le Cordon Bleu, says he has always been obsessed with bread.
“Bread has always been a staple in my household,” Amsalam says. “Growing up in an Israeli Moroccan family, we ate bread with virtually everything: we ate bread with rice, we ate bread with potatoes, [we ate] bread with bread.”
He continues, “Towards the end of my cooking career, I started doing some private cheffing and I just couldn't find the type of bread that I wanted, so I just started making bread.”
Just as good bread has the power to elevate a dish, the opposite is also true “If you're eating shakshuka, and the bread is no good, it just kind of dulls it all down,” he explains.
Or Amsalam shares his love of bread, bread making tips, and his thoughts on the value of failure. He also shares his shakshuka recipe, which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.
Learn more at LodgeBread.com and follow @LodgeBreadCo on Instagram. Lodge Bread has locations in Culver City and Woodland Hills; the Pico bakery and cafe closes November 17. The new location in Beverly Hills opens November 22.
* National Homemade Bread Day is November 17. For more on baking bread at home, Amsalam recommends “Tartine Bread” by Chad Robertson and “Josey Baker Bread.” *
For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.
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On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with author, food writer, and recipe writer Aaron Hamburger. His novels include “Faith for Beginners” and “Hotel Cuba;” which is based on his grandparents’ immigration story. Hamburger also developed the babka recipes for Lesléa Newman’s children’s book “The Babka Sisters.”
While food informs all of his genres, cooking has not always been his thing.
“I could barely boil water for a long period of my life,” Hamburger explains.
Around the time his first book, a short story collection called “The View from Stalin’s Head,” came out, Hamburger’s publicist went on vacation to cooking school. He liked that idea, and decided to attend the Institute for Culinary Education in New York.
Once bitten by the cooking bug, Hamburger started taking as many classes as he could, collecting cookbooks, and learning through trial and error. After a while, he decided to combine the two interests.
“Food's [even] been present in all of my fiction, just in different ways, often depending on the places or topics that I'm writing about,” Hamburger says.
Hamburger also believes that food writers, fiction and nonfiction, tend to over-write the food description.
“Fiction writers tend to … describe [food] in lofty, elevated terms, rather than just dealing with it frankly and head-on, like what kind of food is it and how it functions in this world," he explains.
So, if you're writing about food, either fiction or nonfiction, be direct, specific, and accurate.
Hamburger talks about the advantages of being a former non-cook; the impact of food in history, relationships, and conversations; and how to really examine food, especially when you plan to write about it. He also shares his love for baking - particularly seven-layer cake and cookies (“almost anything can be made into a cookie”) - along with his recipe for mojito cookies, which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.
Learn more about Aaron Hamburger and his books at AaronHamburger.com. For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.
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On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with actress Yael Grobglas. Grobglas, who played the series regular dual-roles of ‘Petra’ and ‘Anezka’ on “Jane the Virgin;” Hallmark Channel’s “Hanukkah on Rye;” and recently started an arc on the new “Matlock,” believes food is magical.
“It can heal you, it can make you happy, it can bring people together,” she says.
Grobglas was born in France and grew up in Israel, and loves the cuisines from both. Some of her happiest memories involve holidays and food.
“You all sit at the table together, you sing songs and you eat,” she explains. “And the kids run around under the table and between everybody's legs, [while] the parents try to keep some sort of adult conversation going.”
Grobglas, whose mother and father are wonderful cooks, was destined to love food. When she moved out on her own, Grobglas knew she had to learn how to cook, so she could continue to eat good food.
“Luckily I'm pretty creative,” she says. “I cannot follow a recipe to save my life [but] I have so many cookbooks … I'll look through them for inspiration. I feel like I'm making art.”
When asked how her training as an actor influenced her creativity in the kitchen, Grobglas said it made her trust herself, and the creative process, more.
“If you botch a take, it's fine; you do another one,” she explains. “You make mistakes, that's how you learn. It's okay, you get better.”
On “Matlock,” Grobglas plays a jury consultant aka human lie detector. She previously worked with “Matlock” showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman on “Jane the Virgin,” which Urman created. “It was incredible to work together again,” she says.
Yael Grobglas talks about her earliest food memories, how she creates in the kitchen, and the amazing craft (food) services on Matlock. She also shares the recipe for her mom's signature dish: lentil salad with apples and red onion, which you can get at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.
Follow @YaelGrobglas on Instagram and watch her arc on “Matlock” on CBS; her character arrives on episode three.
For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.
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On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with chef, cookbook author and dinner-party aficionado Jake Cohen. The author of “Jew-ish” and “I Could Nosh,” Cohen believes cooking should be easy, fun, and shared with others. That message comes out loud and clear in his new show, “Jake Makes It Easy” on the FYI channel.
“Going to the gym is difficult, but the hardest part is showing up, and I think it's the same thing when it comes to cooking,” Cohen explains. “The hardest part is deciding you're going to cook, and then from there, the rest is pretty easy.”
In each half hour episode of “Jake Makes it Easy,” Cohen provides a step-by-step process for creating a main course and dessert that go together. He also gives tips on the order of preparation, rounding out the meal with a salad or a side and how to turn it into a dinner party.
The show really exemplifies Cohen’s relationship with cooking, the importance of cooking with love, and the blessing of cooking for others.
“It's why I love baking bread or desserts or cakes, because these are things that feel like alchemy,” he explains. “You're taking something - and you're truly just making it from the wildest things that should not turn into the final product - and all of a sudden people are eating something that you made with love.”
Jake Cohen talks about what led to his love of cooking, the backstory behind “Jake Makes It Easy,” and how Fran Drescher inspires his contribution to the Jewish conversation. He also shares tips for making cooking easy and adding love to your meals, as well as his recipe for date brownies, which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.
“Jake Makes It Easy,” premiering on the FYI channel on October 28, is a part of A+E Networks partnership with Rachael Ray’s Free Food Studios. Follow @JakeCohen on Instagram and TikTok and find Jake Makes It Easy on the FYI channel, the FYI app and FYI.tv. #JakeMakesItEasy
For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.
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On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with children's book author, fiction writer and poet Lesléa Newman. Jewish comfort food showed up in one her first children's books, “Matzo Ball Moon,” and has been making appearances in her work ever since.
“[Food is] part of our every holiday, every Shabbat,” Newman, whose titles include “The Babka Sisters,” “A Sweet Passover” and “Hanukkah.” says. “It's important to … literally break bread; it's a way to show love [and[ nourish each other, literally and figuratively.”
While these books are fiction, they are rooted in Newman’s own experiences. Characters are based on family, such as her grandmother, who taught Newman how to cook many of her favorite Jewish comfort foods.
“My grandmother was from the old country, and she was a real balaboosta, which is someone who really runs the kitchen well’” Newman says. “She used to say [that] she could make a meal out of a potato and half an onion.”
Newman’s books guide the reader through this history of holidays, along with family traditions.
“It’s really important for kids to see themselves in books and … for kids to see families and kids, who are not like themselves, so they learn about the world,” she explains. “I hope … Jewish children will see themselves in these books and feel proud, excited and like they have a place to belong.”
Lesléa Newman talks about her food-centric children’s book, food poetry inspiration, and more. She also shares her poem about knishes, as well as her recipes for latkes and applesauce. Find the recipes at JewishJournal.com.
“Essen en gezunt,” Newman says. “Eat in good health!”
Learn more about Lesléa Newman - her books and poems - at LeselaNewman.com.
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On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Ilan Stavans and Margaret Boyle, authors of “Sabor Judío: The Jewish Mexican Cookbook.”
“The book is a celebration of Jewish Mexican identity, but it also is a celebration of all diaspora identity and how people connect with culture and movement through food,” says Boyle, director of Latin American, Caribbean and Latinx Studies at Bowdoin College and associate professor of Romance Languages and Literatures.
Featuring 100 personal recipes, enjoyed by Mexican Jews around the world, “Sabor Judío” shares the vibrant history of Jewish immigration to Mexico from 1492 to the present. Organized by meal, and including dishes made for Shabbat, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Passover, Hanukkah, Shavuot and other holidays, it connects the past to the present and the future.
“It's really a book about how different generations have migrated with food from one region of the world to another,” Stavans explains. Originally from Mexico, Stavans is Lewis-Sebring Professor of Humanities and Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College and the publisher of Restless Books.
“The extraordinary story of immigration is that it is never static … and food is [a] wonderful opportunity to understand those changes,” he says.
The authors spent a decade gathering recipes and personal narratives from Jewish Mexican households. The result: the ultimate comfort food cultural combination.
“Put the [food of the Jewish and Mexican] cultures together, [and] there's so much warmth, you might never stop eating,” Boyle says.
Stavans and Boyle talk about how they met, the evolution of the project, and how they hope people will use their cookbook. They also share food memories, some of their favorite meals, their combined recipe for brisket tacos - which you can find at JewishJournal.com - and more.
Learn more about “Sabor Judio,” Ilan Stavans at RestlessBooks.org and Margaret Boyle on the Bowdoin College website.
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On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Ken Albala, author of Opulent Nosh: A Cookbook for Audacious Appetites and other books about food.
A professor of history at the University of the Pacific, Albala’s other books span from Eating Right in the Renaissance to The Great Gelatin Revival: Savory Aspics, Jiggly Shots, and Outrageous Desserts. He has written historical cookbooks; books on fine dining, banqueting, and individual ingredients; and more. Albala is currently working on an atlas of fermentation, as well as one on carving spoons, which is something he taught himself to do.
Opulent Nosh, which includes more than 100 recipes that transform simple dishes into memorable feasts, actually began as a breakfast book.
“I love breakfast because it's the one meal I get to cook whatever I want,” Albala explains. “And, if I make something that doesn't taste good, it doesn't matter; I'll eat it the next day.”
Albala sent the breakfast version to a half dozen agents, who called breakfast "passe." He considered going the self-publishing route, but that didn’t work out either. In the end, Albala replaced the word "breakfast" with "nosh," made a few other changes, and had success getting it out into the world.
“One of the messages I've been trying to promote in most of my books is that cooking is inherently fun, that everyone should do it, as often as they can,” Albala says. “It's one of those fundamental things about humanity that gives us pleasure, like making music or dancing or running around in circles, whatever you do to make you happy.”
Albala, whose mother's side is Ashkenazi and father's is Sephardic, talks about his background and how it led to his deep dive into food. He also shares Opulent Nosh’s origin story, examples of his unique cooking style, and his recipe for Matzo Brei, which you can find at JewishJournal.com.
Learn more about Opulent Nosh, follow @KenAlbala on Instagram and find his food groups on Facebook.
For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.
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On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with food and lifestyle writer Ariel Kanter, whose Substack is called Rel's Recs, and who fell in love with food by accident.
Growing up as a ballerina, food was not part of Kanter’s lifestyle. Then in high school, she discovered the original Japanese version of “Iron Chef” on the Food Network. Kanter loved the experimentation and all of the wild ingredients. Mostly, though, it was the warmth, something Kanter was missing in ballet.
“The ballet studio is beautiful, but I always felt like it was cold, whereas in the kitchen, there is warmth, fulfillment, experimentation,” Kanter explains. “I think that's why I love cooking so much now, and writing about it.”
After college at NYU, and working in an editorial department, Kanter attended the Institute of Culinary Education. Armed with a background in food science and food preparation, she dove deep into writing about food. She has written for “The New York Times,” “Vanity Fair,” “InStyle,” “Serious Eats,” and more.
There were not a lot of food moments in Kanter’s youth. However, there was one exception: the Kanter family meringues.
“We had a family recipe passed down on my mother's side,” she explains. “These were the cookie that we made for every birthday, every Jewish holiday.”
Meringues are magical, fluffy and fun. Get the recipe at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.
“That sense of whimsy has never really gone away for me,” she says.
Ariel Kanter talks about her two childhood food memories, her career journey and food philosophy, and the love of cooking and baking she shares with her niece and nephew, and more.
Subscribe to Ariel Kanter’s Substack, Rel's Recs and follow @arielkanter on Instagram. For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.
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On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Jeffrey Eisner, founder of Pressure Luck Cooking and the bestselling author of the “Step-by-Step Instant Pot” series of cookbooks. “Pastabilities,” is his fifth and first non-Instant Pot-centric cookbook.
Filled with his signature user-friendly style of instruction – and chapters that include farm and garden, soups, salads, stir frys, one-pot dishes and more – “Pastabilities” is a comfort-food palooza.
“A big bowl of pasta on the couch [is] one of my favorite things,” Eisner says.
While Eisner has always loved to cook–something he learned from his Grandma Lil–it wasn’t until the Instant Pot started becoming popular in the mid-2010s that he decided to try something new. His previous career as a video producer kept him behind the camera. Eisner filmed himself making mac and cheese in the Instant Pot and put it on YouTube just for fun. He had no expectations; he just wanted to see if people would find it when they did a search.
“Everyone started seeing my video and then I very quickly got a following,” Eisner explains. “The next thing I knew it was just building, like a pressure cooker, and I started getting television appearances, then I got a cookbook deal and it became my career.”
Eisner believes cooking should make you feel accomplished. And anybody can do it!
“All it takes is to follow a recipe and prep your ingredients ahead of time,” he says. “If you read [the recipe] properly and do everything [it says], you're going to have an unbelievable meal in your hands.”
Jeffrey Eisner shares his career evolution, his amazing Instant Pot timing, and his love of pasta. He also talks about some of his favorite recipes, his user-friendly style of cooking, and his recipe for Kasha Varnishkes, which you can get at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.
Learn more at PressureLuckCooking.com and follow @PressureLuck on YouTube, and @PresuureLuckCooking on Facebook and Instagram.
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On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Jeffrey Kollinger, of Spice of Life Catering in Dallas. He’s a celebrated chef, kosher caterer, and CEO with more than three decades of experience.
Whereas kosher food sometimes gets a bad rap–you can’t mix milk with meat, you need separate kitchens, you can only eat fish with scales–Kollinger believes kosher can be gourmet, delicious and fun.
“There’s so many distinctive flavors now that you could use that probably weren't available 10, 12 years ago,” he says. “There's truffle oils [and] all kinds of different spices.”
You can put a fancy sauce on pretty much anything. For instance, you can do fish with a beurre blanc and fancy vegetables.
To uplevel your kosher cooking, Chef Kollinger said to stop thinking of it as kosher. It’s just regular food. After all, an aioli, a demi glace or a sauce made from a rich stock can be done in the kosher world because you can use them in both dairy and meat.
“I think a lot of people [let] the heckscher (kosher certification) throw them off,” he says. “What you need to do is seek out ingredients that match or come close to what you're trying to [create] and play around with the dish.”
Chef Kollinger talks about his love of food and cooking, along with his personal connection to kosher catering. He also shares tons of kosher cooking tips and his recipe for Macadamia Nut Crusted Chilean Sea Bass, Basmati “Confetti,” Cippolini Onions and Carrots and Lemon Beurre Blanc, which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.
Learn more at TheSpiceofLifeCatering.com.
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On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Dr. Beth Ricanati, author of “Braided: A Journey of a Thousand Challahs.”
More than 15 years ago, Ricanati started baking challah on Fridays as a self-care ritual. Now, she gives challah workshops–both in person and digitally–around the country to people of all faiths, and speaks about the teachings in her book.
“When you're mixing flour and sugar and watching the yeast bubble, you can't be doing anything else,” Ricanati explains. “I wasn't worrying about my patients, I wasn't worrying about my kids.”
Ricanati says the experience was utterly transformative. Before she knew it, she rearranged her schedule, so she could continue her Friday challah practice. A board-certified internist, Dr. Ricanati now sees patients at the Venice Family Clinic in Los Angeles.
“Particularly since October 7, it has been so meaningful, so resonant, to be able to build community [around] this beautiful ancient ritual,” she says. “When you're standing next to someone and your hands are literally in a bowl of dough, you can really come together and talk.”
Ricanati talks about her challah origin story, the impact of baking challah, and so much more. She also shares her challah recipe, which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.
Learn more at BethRicanatiMD.com and follow @BethRicanatiMD on Instagram. For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.
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On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with chef/restaurateur Daniel Shemtob, The Lime Truck, TLT, and Hatch Yakitori. The all-star winner of Food Network's "The Great Food Truck Race," Shemtob is also co-founder of Snibbs, the world’s most comfortable non-slip shoe.
About two weeks before opening Hatch, Shemtob had a nasty fall in the kitchen.
“I herniated and slipped my L5 and L4 disc, which is pretty much the lowest part of your vertebrae,” Shemtob explains. “I'm 23, 24 years old, and I'm watching someone else open my line, which, as a chef, is a very difficult thing to do.”
Shemtob went down a rabbit hole of wondering, ‘Why isn't anyone making good footwear? Why isn't there anything that actually speaks to the worker, to the chef?’
As a result, he partnered with renowned orthopedic surgeon Jason Snibbe and entrepreneur Haik Zadoyan, his high school best friend. Snibbs footwear was born!
Outstanding service sets a restaurant apart, and that is something that has translated well to Snibbs.
“Because we're hospitality people … whenever customers need something, we go above and beyond,” he explains.
While there are nuances, whether you are developing a recipe or a great pair of shoes, you start with a product and then you reiterate, perfect, test and reiterate again.
“My two loves have always been food and fashion and now I get to exercise both muscles,” Shemtob says. “I'm just having a lot of fun doing it. “
Daniel Shemtob shares his career journey from soup to Snibbs. He also talks about his love of food, his first cooking memory–hence, the matzo pizza, Food TV, Food on TV (“The Bear”), and the joy of entertaining.
Learn more at Snibbs.co and Danielshemtob.com and follow @snibbsfootwear on @daniel.shemtob Instagram. For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.
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On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Daphne Subar, founder of Subarzsweets. Subar launched her company–a unique online bakery and gifting service–in 2016, after practicing law for 26 years.
“I love to bake, I love to cook and I would always be experimenting in the kitchen,” Subar explains. “It was really my [three] daughters who encouraged me–almost challenged me–to leave the practice of law and launch a bakery.”
The business offers one signature treat in a variety of flavors and sizes. Subarz combines the sweetness and fun of a cookie with the crunch of mandel bread, which is often described as Jewish biscotti.
“We have chocolate almond, peanut butter, matcha, lavender, all sorts of really fun flavors,” Subar says.
While Subar feels like the mandel bread component is a bit of a tribute to her heritage, her baking experiments were a result of her oldest daughter’s severe food allergies; she wanted her daughter to have something she could eat. Not only did Subar succeed, she created a treat everyone in her family loves … and embarked on a fun and fulfilling entrepreneurial adventure.
Subar talks about her career change, cooking experiments, and more. She also shares her brisket recipe, which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts. Even though Subar is a vegetarian, she still makes brisket four times a year, usually for Jewish holidays and celebrations. It’s everyone in her family’s favorite.
Learn more at Subarzsweets.com and follow @Subarz on Instagram.
Get Rabbi Jo David’s vegan brisket recipe mentioned in the ep.
For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.
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