TALK OF THE TABLE
Voila! French Jewish Food Arrives!
 Joan Nathan, the queen of Jewish American and Israeli cookbooks, takes to the old continent in her new book, Quiches, Kugels and Couscous: My Search for Jewish Cooking in France. Nathan returns to the country where she spent several years of her youth and wends her way through cities and small villages, tasting treasured family recipes and collecting stories hitherto untold. Nathan talks with Moment’s Eileen Lavine about the little-known culinary world of French Jews.
Did Jews influence French cooking?
Through their travels, Jewish explorers, merchants and peddlers brought salted and dried fish, grains and spices to France. During the Inquisition, many Jews fled Spain to Bayonne in southwestern France, bringing with them coffee beans and a tradition for making chocolate. At first, chocolate was a liquid remedy for ailments, but it soon became a luxury food, and Jews were its prime producers and exporters. Jews also helped develop the process for making foie gras—force-feeding geese because they wanted the extra goose fat for their cooking, a process they may have learned in ancient Egypt and taken with them to Cana’an.
Is French Jewish cuisine different from other Jewish food?
France is the richest agricultural country in Europe and French cooking goes back thousands of years. Certainly by the 18th century, France was known for its outstanding cuisine. Jews have always adapted their cooking to the geography of their countries, and even today French Jews are faithful to the traditions of their region, as well as to their Jewish heritage. There are over 200 recipes of their dishes in the book.
What were some of the most interesting stories you came across?
I heard World War II stories that some people had never even told their children, about hiding out, escaping the Germans and fleeing from place to place. One of my cousins drove me to see the house where he had been hidden as a child. I interviewed a chef in Dijon named Dennis Ginsburg. When I asked him if he was Jewish, he said “yes and no.” He explained that he had not known he was Jewish until his father was on his deathbed and gave him pictures of tombstones with Juive [Jew]. For a long time in France, everything was hidden, but today, Jews of the World War II era are more open about what happened to them.
What surprised you in your research?
I was surprised by the richness and pervasiveness of Jewish culture and history in France. I had thought of my relatives as more French than Jewish, but I learned that even through expulsions and persecutions, Jews have lived in France continuously for centuries. You find so many towns all over France that still have a Jewish presence, even a synagogue and mikveh. You run across streets or entire parts of towns named for Jews, like Rue des Juifs, Ancienne Rue Hebraique or Quartier des Juifs. I saw mezuzahs in stone and in cemeteries all around. It is more dramatic to find these because many people don’t realize they are there. Some of these towns are being repopulated today by Jews from North Africa. About 250,000 Jews migrated from North Africa after World War II to France, mostly to Marseilles, which has the second-largest Jewish population after Paris.
Has North African Jewish cooking influenced French food?
Big time. With intermarriage between Ashkenazi and North African Jews, there is a growing adventurous spirit in eating. Sephardic Jews hold onto their holiday recipes, which are the last recipes to change within a new culture, so in mixed marriages, the Sephardic food wins.
Why call your book Quiches, Kugels and Couscous?
These three dishes represent the main strains of Jewish cooking in France: Quiche is a French tart, kugel is Alsatian and German and couscous is a grain popular in North Africa.
-Interview by Eileen Lavine
A Selection of the Best New Jewish Cookbooks
Jewish epicureans and armchair food anthropologists now have a plentitude of cookbooks to choose from, full of recipes, charming anecdotes and information about Jewish dietary laws and culinary history. “Talk of the Table” has selected a few recent releases that exemplify the diversity of Jewish cooking today.
Quick and Kosher: Meals in Minutes by Jamie Geller
Some friends called; they’re coming over and they’re hungry. Being the domestic kosher god/ess you are, you glance at the clock to see how much time you have to whip up something sumptuous. Jamie Geller designed this sequel to Quick and Kosher: Recipes From The Bride Who Knew Nothing for just such an emergency. The book is arranged by time: do you have 20 minutes, 40 minutes, or a full hour before dinner needs to be on the table? Those in a rush can turn out dishes such as Pan-Seared Tuna with Lemon, Capers and Olive Oil, while those with a leisurely hour can prepare recipes like Beef Bourguignon or a kosher take on the Muffuletta, a classic New Orleans sandwich. Male cooks, beware: Although Geller makes it clear she’s an “equal-opportunity cookbook writer,” she presumes that “daddy” cooks are likely to smother everything in garlic powder. Perhaps that’s to be expected from “The Bride Who Knew Nothing.”
Encyclopedia of Jewish Food by Gil Marks
A community’s soul is revealed in its culinary habits, believes Kosher Gourmet Magazine founder and James Beard award-winning cookbook author Gil Marks. In his 656-page Encyclopedia of Jewish Food, a comprehensive tome laid out as a reference book, he provides an alphabetical listing of Jewish foods alongside their geographic origins, alternative names, historical background and recipes. From Adafin, a Sephardic Sabbath stew that originated in Spain and spread through North Africa, to Zwetschgenkuchen, a central-European prune pastry that is a hybrid of cake and tart, the encyclopedia is as much a history lesson as a cookbook. Among the fun facts one learns in its pages: The first matzoh-dough rolling machine was invented in 1838, Coca-Cola was certified kosher in 1935 and of the 11 million consumers of kosher products in the United States today, only one million are Jewish (for more, see our review of Sue Fishkoff’s Kosher Nation here).
The Kosher Baker by Paula Shoyer
In her introductory “Ten Commandments of Kosher Baking,” Shoyer instructs that “All desserts shall be worth the calories and so delicious you’ll be content to eat only one piece.” Yet one glance at the delectable pastries she serves up in subsequent pages makes it clear that only the extremely strong-willed could resist a second helping. This guide to all things sweet covers a panoply of treats, including cookies, biscotti, bars, cakes, breads, muffins, tarts, pies, fruit soups, mousses, puddings and challahs. Because dessert often follows a meat dinner, the most important aspect of kosher baking resides in the ability to turn a dairy dish to pareve, for which Shoyer gives useful advice—such as substituting soy milk for milk in any recipe that does not call for cream to be whipped. In addition to standards such as Classic Challah and Babka, the book includes such titillating titles as Coffee Cardamom Shortbread, Salted Chocolate Caramel Tartlets and Cinnamon, Vanilla and Raspberry Macaroons.
Persian Food from the Non-Persian Bride by Reyna Simnegar
In the tradition of Jamie Geller, this bride (of Venezuelan origin) took an interest in Persian cooking out of concern for the gastronomic welfare of her Iranian American husband, a concern reinforced by his mother. Thankfully, the future mother-in-law gave Reyna a crash course in Persian cooking, which developed into a delightful book of Sephardic recipes. The book stays true to the roots of each dish, providing their names in beautiful Arabic, Farsi or Hebrew calligraphy alongside an English transliteration. Handy “tricks of the trade” on each page provide useful guidance for novices. In addition to alluring recipes like Shirazi Shabbat Stew, Libyan Butternut Squash Salad and Moroccan Salmon, the book also includes a Persian guide to Jewish holidays. The Purim section, which recalls the holiday story set in ancient Persia, gives readers the recipe for Persian halva, a sesame-based treat, and also provides a hamentashen recipe for Eastern European traditionalists.
—Niv Elis
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