Letter from the Editor
Food for Thought
J
unpacks in his deep dive into the business of running a kosher kitch- en. There are some obvious factors (kosher ingredients are more expen- sive, you need to shut down for Shab- bat and holidays) — but, it turns out, some less obvious ones as well. Between those two ends of the spectrum: dishes themselves. While the history of many staples of the Jewish kitchen is familiar, others were developed in secrecy. For her feature on the hidden history of some Sephardic foods, Caitlin Stall-Paquet interviewed historians and chefs who are still gleaning new insights about dishes that date back to the Spanish Inquisition, when Jews were forced to hide in plain sight. Especially in Canada, land of long winters and short growing seasons, summer seems the right time to celebrate Jewish food. We hope that the stories in this issue help you appreciate it even more — and that you get to enjoy at least a few picnics as delicious as the one on our cover. HAMUTAL DOTAN EDITOR IN CHIEF SCRIBE QUARTERLY
EWS AND FOOD. It’s a rela- tionship that runs throughout history and shapes culture — the stuff of legend (and also many jokes). We are a peo- ple defined by, among other things, both by our food and
our commitment to food: we love to eat and we love to talk about eating. As with any aspect of culture that is so well-established and so famil- iar, it’s easy to lapse into cliché when writing about Jews and food. Our hope, in this issue dedicated to this classic combination, is to shed new light on an age-old theme. There is (it seems inevitable) some chicken soup in this issue — but also agricul- ture and finance and DNA testing, dishes created in present-day Texas and fourteenth-century Egypt. We begin, appropriately, not with meals that we love to dig in to but with the ingredients that go into making them: though diaspora Jews aren’t often associated with farming, Avi Finegold’s interview with Shani Mink of the Jewish Farmer Network is a beautiful meditation on the temporality of Judaism — its distinct annual cycles shaped by a relation- ship to the land and the things we grow on it. At the very other end of the food chain are restaurant meals. Hospi- tality is always a challenging indus- try; the degree of difficulty rises even higher when that restaurant is kosher, for reasons Corey Mintz
P.S. We always appreciate hearing from readers about the stories in the magazine, and hope to begin publishing some of your notes soon. Write to us at letters @ scribequarterly.ca
5785 ַקִיץ 13
13 MONTH 2025
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