Meet the chefs showcasing the diversity that exists within Jewish cuisine
Over deviled eggs, latkes, bagels, and roe, Naama Shefi—wearing her lucky carp brooch—is expounding on the diversity that exists within Jewish cuisine. We’re at the historic Russ & Daughters cafe on Manhattan’s Lower East Side sharing quintessential New York City-centric Jewish foods—but as Shefi knows better than anyone, the diaspora is sprawling and multicultural, so the definition of “Jewish food” encompasses something much broader than gefilte fish and matzah ball soup.
She explains that even in Israel, the varied geography and agricultural traditions contribute to a unique dining experience. “People think about Israel as a desert, but it is actually made up of many micro climates,” she says. “It’s a tiny place, smaller than New Jersey, but it has green mountains, a beautiful coast, lush valleys—and also a desert.
It’s an endeavor to catalog as many Jewish recipes and culinary traditions as possible, and an attempt to capture the true diversity and breadth of Jewish food culture. Asif recently published its first issue, celebrating one year of Asif:Asif, which means “harvest” in Hebrew, also translates its work into Arabic, and centers Palestinian and Arab food stories that are often overlooked.
To be proudly Israeli is complicated for obvious political reasons, but, Shefi says, “I do feel that from different circumstances and influences, the result is that, in this country, the food culture is something extremely diverse and extremely exciting.” Asif exists to research those influences, “and to know them and to honor them, and to just give them space,” she says—something more difficult to accomplish than one might think, because “with food media, there is no gray.
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