Joan's Kosher Kitchen
Lectures
Classes
My cooking profession continually brings inquiries from friends, family and students on how to create a family Simcha and what foods to serve. People want traditional menus, i.e. Jewish foods imbued with special symbolism. Family food customs often reside only in a parent or grandparent’s childhood memory and many Jews missed them entirely. Callers request old recipes, like their grandparents. Sometimes my search is successful, like a poppy seed candy recipe recently.
A Jewish renascence is underway. People from every type of family composition are in adult education, thirsty for the pragmatic aspects of customs and ceremonials to help in the acts of living Jewishly. In a successful innovative class, I taught the cooking customs of Shabbat with a professor at the Siegal College of Jewish Studies. Rabbis and teachers urge greater personal freedom to celebrate Jewish life and imply a greater mistake would be to do nothing, rather than worry about perfection. Converts to Judaism are growing daily - usually the Jewish partner knows as little as the partner who was not a born Jew. My recipe booklets are appropriate for adults in conversion or adult education classes as well as on the shelf of the young Jewish homemaker. When working on my Master’s degree in Judaic Culture I began an exploration of the history and religious rationale inherent in Simchas and various current options in both ritual and food customs. I created “Jewish Kitchen Culture” a series of kosher cooking classes, on traditional Jewish foods to students of all ages. The kitchen is a friendly, easy place to chat. It was apparent that many felt ‘tradition’ deficient! Parents and grandparents, their growing families were approaching a new generation of Simchas. Like our own married children, they too asked, “where is it written?”
Successive classes and groups persist. We discuss Jewish laws to understand which rituals comprise the basis of Simchas and which observances are customs and therefore personal options. People inquire how to enter the circle of life-cycle celebrations and how to grasp their own level of comprehension and comfort. Unanimously, they feel that “the ancient advice is still valid; the very act of doing a Mitzvah may lead one to know the heart of the matter”.
Party-planners and caterers frequently confronted more with religious procedures and kosher food questions call for advice. During the recent Passover holiday, two local supermarkets called me for food consultation. I get calls to find old family recipes as well as requests to publish family recipes.
As food writer for The Cleveland Jewish News, my recipes are well known. Recently, I had the lead Passover article and recipes in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The Forward has published my recipes. Frequently, I give lecture/demos at local synagogues and organizations where I meet numerous people eager for advice; they inquire if I have a book. I self-published Passover Cookery five years ago; it sold out quickly and requests continue.
A Jewish renascence is underway. People from every type of family composition are in adult education, thirsty for the pragmatic aspects of customs and ceremonials to help in the acts of living Jewishly. In a successful innovative class, I taught the cooking customs of Shabbat with a professor at the Siegal College of Jewish Studies. Rabbis and teachers urge greater personal freedom to celebrate Jewish life and imply a greater mistake would be to do nothing, rather than worry about perfection. Converts to Judaism are growing daily - usually the Jewish partner knows as little as the partner who was not a born Jew. My recipe booklets are appropriate for adults in conversion or adult education classes as well as on the shelf of the young Jewish homemaker. When working on my Master’s degree in Judaic Culture I began an exploration of the history and religious rationale inherent in Simchas and various current options in both ritual and food customs. I created “Jewish Kitchen Culture” a series of kosher cooking classes, on traditional Jewish foods to students of all ages. The kitchen is a friendly, easy place to chat. It was apparent that many felt ‘tradition’ deficient! Parents and grandparents, their growing families were approaching a new generation of Simchas. Like our own married children, they too asked, “where is it written?”
Successive classes and groups persist. We discuss Jewish laws to understand which rituals comprise the basis of Simchas and which observances are customs and therefore personal options. People inquire how to enter the circle of life-cycle celebrations and how to grasp their own level of comprehension and comfort. Unanimously, they feel that “the ancient advice is still valid; the very act of doing a Mitzvah may lead one to know the heart of the matter”.
Party-planners and caterers frequently confronted more with religious procedures and kosher food questions call for advice. During the recent Passover holiday, two local supermarkets called me for food consultation. I get calls to find old family recipes as well as requests to publish family recipes.
As food writer for The Cleveland Jewish News, my recipes are well known. Recently, I had the lead Passover article and recipes in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The Forward has published my recipes. Frequently, I give lecture/demos at local synagogues and organizations where I meet numerous people eager for advice; they inquire if I have a book. I self-published Passover Cookery five years ago; it sold out quickly and requests continue.
Lectures
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Cooking Demonstrations
Cooking Demonstrations
Joan frequently co-lectures with Rabbi Moshe Berger of The Siegal College of Jewish Studies.
