Schmaltz: Jewish Food Past, Present, and Futures

Lecture and Cooking Demonstration Admission: $20 YIVO members & students: $15

Join us for an evening celebrating Ashkenazi culinary traditions. Best-selling author Michael Wex will discuss his book Rhapsody in Schmaltz and reflect on why the serious study of Jewish food has been a blind spot in the study of Eastern European Jewry. He will then be joined by Liz Alpern and Jeffrey Yoskowitz of The Gefilteria, and co-authors of The Gefilte Manifesto cookbook, who will present a live cooking demonstration while discussing their work in contemporary Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine. A light reception featuring Jewish food favorites will follow the event.

About the Participants

Author of Born to Kvetch, columnist, bon vivant and raconteur, Michael Wex has been called “a Yiddish national treasure.” Born to Kvetch, the bestselling book ever written about Yiddish, was hailed by The New York Times as “wise, witty and altogether wonderful.” A native of Lethbridge, Alberta, Wex has worked in virtually every area of contemporary Yiddish. Some of his songs have been recorded by such klezmer bands as Sukke, The Flying Bulgars, and 2007 Grammy winners, The Klezmatics. Wex's teaching and lecture activities—a unique combination of learning, stand-up comedy and probing investigation into the nature of Yiddish and Yiddishkayt—have taken him from Toronto to Budapest, and to many points in between. His approach is so unique and appealing that his annual series of classes at Klezkamp (a yearly Yiddish cultural event in upstate New York) has been renamed Wexology—and not at Wex's instigation. The only complaint ever heard is that people are enjoying themselves so much that they forget to take notes.

The Gefilteria is a new kind of food venture launched in 2012 with the mission of reimagining eastern European Jewish cuisine, adapting classic dishes to the values and tastes of a new generation.

We’re the people with the chutzpah to believe that Old World Jewish foods can be beautiful, inspiring and delicious. We produce limited runs of our signature artisanal gefilte fish in the spring and the fall. While we don’t have a storefront, we’re regularly cooking a wide range of Jewish foods from the Ashkenazi – central and eastern European Jewish – culinary tradition, for unique dining events. Along the way, we’re looking to inspire others to reimagine and rediscover this incredible cuisine in their home kitchens.

Jeffrey Yoskowitz is the co-founder of The Gefilteria and co-author of The Gefilte Manifesto: New Recipes for Old World Jewish Foods. Jeffrey speaks to audiences around the world as an entrepreneur, a writer, a cook and a pickler. His writings on food and culture appear in major publications, such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Forward, among others. In 2014, he was invited as a guest chef at the James Beard House kitchen and was named to both Forbes Magazine’s 30 under 30 list for Food and Wine and the Forward 50. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Liz Alpern is the co-founder of The Gefilteria and co-author of The Gefilte Manifesto: New Recipes for Old World Jewish Foods. Her career in food is driven by her passion for bringing people together. Based in Brooklyn, Liz travels around the globe as a cook, recipe tester, educator and entrepreneur. Alpern holds an MBA from Baruch College and is a faculty member in the Culinary Entrepreneurship Program at the International Culinary Center in NYC. She been featured in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list for food and wine and was named one of the Forward 50 for 2016.