Adeena Sussman on her new cookbook Shabbat and its resonance in our times Shabbat is trending
BY LILA SARICK
PHOTOGRAPHY BY NAOMI HARRIS EXCLUSIVELY FOR THE CANADIAN JEWISH NEWS
I n an age where a cook with, say, an over- abundance of zucchini is likely to turn to Google for a recipe, Adeena Sussman makes the case for cookbooks. “The web is great for recipes, but cook- books are great for stories,” she says. “I think people are looking for more meaning, and for a deeper connection with the food they are cooking.” Sussman, who has co-authored 14 cook- books, says she reads cookbooks the way other people read novels. “There’s something about a book that al- lows you to take it at your own pace. You can look through it a hundred times, backwards, forwards, lingering here, lingering there….A good cookbook has a really strong narrative arc.” In 2018, she made aliyah, and a year later published her acclaimed book, Sababa , which was an exploration of the tastes of Israel, as experienced by an American cook. Her newest offering, Shabbat , is an homage to both her late mother’s traditional Sabbath meals and the diversity of dishes and traditions in Israel. “The longer I’m in Israel, there’s sort of this Venn diagram of my Jewish identity, my Israeli identity, my cooking identity, and I’m always trying to refine where those things overlap,” she notes. “Shabbat is a great unifier in Israel. Eighty percent of the country observes it every week.” In the introduction to Shabbat , Sussman writes: “It isn’t lost on me that Shabbat is the north star of my kitchen identity; after all, it’s been a central part of my whole life.
sides and some dips.” Canadian cooks, who can’t visit abundant farmers’ markets, especially in the winter, shouldn’t be intimidated. “My cooking is very flexible, if you can’t find a certain fruit a recipe calls for, use a differ- ent fruit,” she says. “The idea is to cook and to take enjoyment, both from the cooking, and also from the sharing and the serving of the food, and gathering around the table.” The theme of Shabbat has hit a chord with readers, according to Sussman, as people strive for a healthier work-life balance and to take a weekly break from their phones. “It’s always funny to talk about a thou- sands-year-old tradition as trending, but Shabbat is trending. People are looking for reasons to re-connect and disconnect all at the same time,” she says. Although Shabbat is not organized around the Jewish holidays, Sussman has some rec- ommendations for a Hanukkah meal. For a main course, she suggests the potato kugel, which she describes as a “giant, oversized latke.” The kugel is both crispy and custardy, rich with eggs. It pairs well with any salad that has a bright, lemony dressing or citrus to balance the richness of fried or heavier main courses. When she’s deciding what to cook for Shabbat, Sussman is inspired by both the seasonal produce around her and whatever she happens to be craving. “The cook’s mood and the cook’s desires are as important as wanting to feed your guests. If the cook is happy, then everyone is going to be happy.”
But it took almost leaving Shabbat cooking behind to realize how much I actually needed this respite. Shabbat is a weekly opportunity to slow down, chill out, and feast along the way.” She grew up in one of the few observant families in Palo Alto, Calif. where her family often hosted visitors and friends looking for a Shabbat meal. The theme of Shabbat has hit a chord with readers, as people strive for a healthier work-life balance and to take a weekly break from their phones. “Everybody wanted in on our Shabbat table growing up, whether they were Orthodox or not, or Jewish or not. There’s a certain magic that happens when you put certain elements together.” Today, she lives in Tel Aviv, not far from the Carmel Market, which she visits on Friday mornings for inspiration. These days, her Shabbat is “a little bit more spontaneous in nature. It can be a more traditional meal with roast chicken and potatoes, but often preceded by a walk on the beach. Or it can be a Saturday meal with a giant salad with some feta cheese and some cute little fruit from the shuk and fresh challah and a bunch of Israeli salads on the
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