Today I’m chatting with Aaron Israel and Sawako Okochi, the owners of Shalom Japan –– a Japanese-Jewish fusion restaurant in Brooklyn.

Truth be told, I’ve been waiting for this conversation for a long time because it's thanks to Shalom Japan that I got this idea of Yiddishland and the fact that Jewish cuisine is evolving on its own terms for, it seems, the first time in history. I was lucky enough to visit back in May of 2021 to slurp up my own bowl of matzo ball ramen and that’s when it all just clicked.

But enough of my memories. Let’s get to Aaron and Sawako! I started our chat by asking Aaron about some of his earliest Jewish food memories.

Today I’m chatting with Leah Koenig, the much-celebrated cookbook author of a whopping SEVEN cookbooks, including Modern Jewish Cooking and The Jewish Cookbook. It’s like how there’s THE Ohio State University. Leah wrote THE Jewish Cookbook. We talk a little bit about that and I mention how instrumental that book was in moving me along my own Jewish cooking journey.

But the focus of our chat is on her latest cookbook, Portico: Cooking and Feasting in Rome's Jewish Kitchen. It's a captivating cookbook, deep-diving into the two-thousand-plus-year-old world of Roman-Jewish cooking with more than 100 recipes. I also get her thoughts on the evolution of Jewish cooking, particularly her own.

Show Notes

Sign up for The Forward's online event, How Today’s Chefs are Reimagining Yiddish Cooking.

Today I’m chatting with Rebecca King aka The Bad Jew. Rebecca specializes in porkstrami, which she sells out of her very unkosher deli in Los Angeles when she’s not busy traveling the globe cooking at private events.

I’ve been wanting to chat with Rebecca pretty much since I came up with the idea of Yiddishland. To me, she is the embodiment of what I think is so unique about this moment in Jewish food. That is, she’s someone who cares about her Jewishness and she’s going to express it however she damn well pleases.

Today I’m chatting with Benedetta Guetta, whose name is arguably the most fun to pronounce in Jewish cooking, but it’s also plastered across Cooking alla Giudia: A Celebration of the Jewish Food of Italy. She’s also the owner of Café Lovi in Santa Monica where she's serving up a slew of signature challah sandwiches amongst other noshables.

Before we get to our chat, allow me to throw out a shameless plug for an upcoming Forward event where I’ll be chatting alongside Rukhl Schaechter, editor of the Forverts, food scholar and chef Eve Jochnowitz, as well as folklore and food scholar Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett. The online event is called “What did our great-grandparents eat for breakfast? Exploring the food traditions of our East European Jewish heritage.” And that’ll stream live on Monday, August 7th at noon EST.

Now onwards to Benedetta! We first spoke some time ago for a story and recipe I was working on about caponata. But for this conversation, I asked Benedetta if she could start off by painting us a picture of Jewish life in Italy.

Today I’m chatting with the one and only, the matriarch of Jewish-American cooking––Joan Nathan. That’s right, Joan-freaking-Nathan!

What can I say about Joan Nathan that you don’t already know if you’re listening to this thing? She’s the James Beard award-winning author of 11 cookbooks, most recently King Solomon's Table: A Culinary Exploration of Jewish Cooking from Around the World. Next year you can get her memoir-in-recipes appropriately titled Joan Nathan: A Life In Search Of Recipes.

Before we get to our chat, I mentioned last time that I started uploading videos from my recent trip to Israel. If you missed it, you can catch up with my video on Tel Aviv featuring a food tour through the Carmel Market with Delicious Israel. Since then, I’ve uploaded my visit to Jerusalem including a tour of the Machane Yehuda Market with Jewish culinary historian Joel Haber. And this Sunday, I’ll upload another video on my visit across Checkpoint 300 into Palestine. Head to YouTube.com/JoeBaur and subscribe so you don’t miss anything.

Now onwards to Joan Nathan. We spoke for a story and recipe I was working on about kishkes. I’ll leave a link to that below in case you’re interested. But besides kishkes, we talked about her impressions of how Jewish cuisine has evolved throughout her career, the dishes she ate growing up, and where she sees Jewish food heading next.

Kishke: Unraveling the Gut-Deep Culinary Traditions of Ashkenazi Jews

Today I’m chatting with June Hersh, the author of, amongst other things, Recipes Remembered: A Celebration of Survival, Still Here: Inspiration from Survivors and Liberators of the Holocaust, and most recently, Iconic New York Jewish Food, a History and Guide with Recipes.

June's gravlax recipe in BBC Travel

Today I’m chatting with Jeremy Salamon, the owner of Agi’s Counter in Crown Heights, a high-end Jewish & Eastern European-inspired restaurant inspired by his grandmother, the eponymous Agi. You can find him on Instagram at @jeremycooks as well as at @agiscounter where you’ll get no shortage of photographic culinary temptations that are, to be honest, a tad torturous for someone like me who tragically lives too far away to just pop over the restaurant for a nosh.

YouTube Videos mentioned

Exploring My Jewish Roots In Sighet, Romania

The Surprising Jewish Roots of Sicilian Cuisine

Chremslach Passover Pancakes

Kasha Varnishkes

Haluski

Today I’m chatting with Shannon Sarna, certified pizza bagel and creator of The Nosher, arguably the preeminent Jewish food website with everything from recipes to the surprising Jewish history behind just about everything: fish and chips, Baileys, Mickey D’s, you name it. Who am I kidding? If you’re listening to this, you know what The Nosher is. Shannon is also the author of two cookbooks: Modern Jewish Baker and last year’s Modern Jewish Comfort Food.

Today I’m chatting with Katianna Hong, who co-founded Yangban Society with her husband, John. Yangban is a Korean-American deli in LA’s arts district with a bissele heymishe touch as a nod to Katianna’s grandmother.

We talk about her earliest food influences, growing up in upstate New York, and when she started blending Korean and Jewish flavors. But first, I ask her to share the origin story behind the deli.

As mentioned on the show

How 3 Midwest Kitchens Are Adapting—And Expanding— Modern Jewish Cuisine

Yiddishe Ribbenes (grilled Jewish ribs)

The Sicilian Jewish Legacy Dish You Need To Try

The chefs reclaiming Lithuania's cuisine

Jewish Deli Scallion Pancake Rolls, Mapo Tofu Shakshuka, Red Bean Babka, Matcha Cream Sufganiyot, Za'atar Lox Onigiri, Taiwanese Brisket, and the list goes on. Today I’m chatting with Jamie Wei, who you might know as the Asian-Jewish recipe developer ChopsticksMeetFork on Instagram. We talk about her first experiences with Jewish food and how she started blending Taiwanese flavors with Ashkenazi dishes.