Jewish cuisine refers to the worldwide cooking traditions of the Jewish people. During its evolution over the course of many centuries, it has been shaped by Jewish dietary laws (kashrut), Jewish festivals and holidays, and traditions centred around Shabbat. Jewish cuisine is influenced by the economics, agriculture, and culinary traditions of the many countries where Jewish communities have settled and varies widely throughout the entire world.
Farfel is small pellet- or flake-shaped pasta used in Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine. It is made from a Jewish egg noodle dough and is frequently toasted before being cooked. It can be served in soups or as a side dish. In the United States, it can also be found pre-packaged as egg barley.
Matzah balls or matzo balls are Ashkenazi Jewish soup morsels made from a mixture of matzah meal, beaten eggs, water, and a fat, such as oil, margarine, or chicken fat. Known as knaidel in Yiddish, they resemble a matzah meal version of knödel, bread dumplings popular throughout Central European and East European cuisine.
Rugelach is a filled baked confection originating in the Jewish communities of Poland. It is also a popular treat among Jews in the diaspora.
Kichel is a slightly sweet cracker or cookie in Jewish cuisine. Made from eggs, flour, and sugar, the dough is rolled out flat and cut into bow-tie shapes.
Sephardic Jewish cuisine, belonging to the Sephardic Jews—descendants of the Jewish population of the Iberian Peninsula until their expulsion in 1492—encompassing traditional dishes developed as they resettled in the Ottoman Empire, North Africa, and the Mediterranean, including Jewish communities in Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, and Syria, as well as the Sephardic community in the Land of Israel. It may also refer to the culinary traditions of the Western Sephardim, who settled in Holland, England, and from these places elsewhere. The cuisine of Jerusalem, in particular, is considered predominantly Sephardic.
Eileen Yin-Fei Lo was a chef. She authored eleven cookbooks on Chinese cuisine.
Mofletta is a Maghrebi Jewish pancake traditionally eaten during the Mimouna celebration, the day after Passover.
Keftes, also known as Keftikes in Sephardic cuisine, are croquettes, pancakes, patties, or fritters, usually made with vegetables, and other ingredients. Sephardic keftes are not the same as the non-Jewish kofta which are meatballs. Keftes might not contain meat, as opposed to the kofta which do contain meat.
Judith Jones was an American writer and editor, best known for having rescued The Diary of Anne Frank from the reject pile. Jones also championed Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. She retired as senior editor and vice president at Alfred A. Knopf in 2011 and fully retired in 2013 after more than 60 years at the company.
Gilbert Stanley Marks was an American food writer and historian noted for his reference and cookbooks on the subject of Jewish food. He was the founding editor of Kosher Gourmet magazine. He moved to Israel and became a citizen in 2012 and died of lung cancer on December 5, 2014, at the hospice at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem.
Paula Wolfert is an American author of nine books on cooking and the winner of numerous cookbook awards including what is arguably the top honor given in the food world: The James Beard Foundation Medal For Lifetime Achievement. A specialist in Mediterranean food, she has written extensively on Moroccan cuisine including two books, one of them a 2012 James Beard Award winner. She also wrote The Cooking of South-West France, and books about the cuisine of the Eastern Mediterranean, slow Mediterranean cooking and Mediterranean clay pot cooking.
Ethel Greenwald Hofman is a widely syndicated Jewish American food and travel columnist, author and culinary consultant. She is a recognized authority on international Jewish foods and culture, with special emphasis on Israel and the United Kingdom.
Michael Solomonov is an Israeli chef known for his restaurants in Center City, Philadelphia. His first restaurant Zahav, founded in 2008, has received national recognition including the James Beard Foundation "Outstanding Restaurant" in 2019. Solomonov was also awarded Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic in 2011, Cookbook of the Year in 2016, and Outstanding Chef in 2017 from the James Beard Foundation. In 2021, The New York Times named his restaurant Laser Wolf as one of "the 50 places in America we're most excited about right now."
Patricia Jinich is a Mexican chef, TV personality, cookbook author, educator, and food writer. She is best known for her James Beard Award-winning and Emmy-nominated public television series Pati's Mexican Table. Her first cookbook, also titled Pati's Mexican Table, was published in March 2013, her second cookbook, Mexican Today, was published in April 2016, and her third cookbook, Treasures of the Mexican Table, was published in November 2021.
Moshe Basson is an Israeli chef, restaurateur, and food folklorist. An early proponent of the Slow Food movement in Israel, he is the owner and head chef of The Eucalyptus restaurant in Jerusalem. He specializes in traditional regional cuisine, biblical ingredients, and the use of wild plants and herbs that he gathers himself on foraging expeditions in the Jerusalem hills. He is a member of the Israeli-Palestinian group Chefs for Peace and a two-time winner of the international Couscous Fest in Italy.
Melissa Clark is an American food writer, cookbook author and New York Times columnist. She is the author of over 40 cookbooks and has received multiple awards from the James Beard Foundation and IACP for her work. Clark is a regular guest on television series such as Today show, Rachael Ray and Iron Chef America and on radio programmes such as The Splendid Table on NPR and The Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC.
Brisket is a popular Ashkenazi Jewish dish of braised beef brisket, served hot and traditionally accompanied by potato or other non-dairy kugel, latkes, and often preceded by matzo ball soup. It is commonly served for Jewish holidays such as Hanukkah, Passover, Rosh Hashanah, and Shabbat. It is commonly found in Jewish communities worldwide, though it is most commonly associated with Jews in the United States, where it has been considered the most important and iconic Jewish main course since the early 20th century.
Kosher.com is a food and lifestyle media company featuring kosher recipes, videos, and articles on their website and social media accounts. Launched in December 2016, Kosher.com has grown to over 11,000 recipes and over 1,000 videos as of 2023. The website is a platform for a collection of recipes that are reprinted from cookbooks, kosher food magazine archives, and original recipes from direct contributors, making it the most diverse collection of kosher-only recipes. The site is especially known for its Jewish holiday recipe collections, especially its robust section of Passover recipes which meet the halachic criteria of kosher for Passover food, and includes other holidays like Rosh Hashanah and Hanukkah as well.
Pain petri is a braided bread of Moroccan Jewish origin, that is traditionally baked for Shabbat, the Jewish sabbath, as well as Rosh Hashanah and other Holidays, and is popular among the Moroccan Jewish community of Morocco, France, and Israel.
