Modern Jewish Cuisine. Delicious Variations of Timeless Classics: A Source of Inspiration and Hearty Food

For each of us, food that creates comfort can mean something special, but it invariably evokes associations with smells, sounds, and memories related to being at home, in the kitchen. For my Jewish friends from Syria, it's jibneh with spinach for breakfast on a weekday, hot, freshly fried pancakes with leeks on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and kibbeh on Shabbat, that is, on Saturdays. For my Jewish friends from Israel, it's chocolate and hazelnut rolls for tea, shakshuka on weekdays, and stuffed peppers for dinner on Saturday. For my Jewish family from the USA, it's a piece of noodle kugel for breaking the fast after Yom Kippur, chicken soup with matzo balls and plenty of dill for Passover, as well as sweet-and-sour meatballs for no particular reason. Chef and TV host Pati Jinich once told me: «If a cuisine does not evolve, it disappears.» Jewish cuisine continues to change, being enriched with new dishes and reinventing itself - and it's so great that we live in a time when people enjoy eating, relish food, and talk about it. I have been working as an editor for The Nosher portal for 10 years and every day I strive to tell the story of the Jewish people through food - and I take this task seriously both at work and in this book. (Shannon Sarna)