If you don’t know who Jake Cohen is yet, at least you know you can count on The Word Mavens to fill you in on all things trendy, delicious and Jewish. Jake is all of these. A classically trained chef turned cookbook author, Cohen rose to fame through his cooking demos on social media. He has an easy, fun style and his  signature phrase uttered when he presents the finished food is : “Shove it in your mouth!”

Cohen’s first cookbook, Jew-ish: Reinvented Recipes from a Modern Mensch, transformed many  traditional Jewish recipes so that they were easier to cook and more accessible to today’s home cooks. Jew-ish became a best-seller, and Jake became pals with superstar chefs like HGTV’s Molly Yeh, who loves his “vibrant Bubbe food for the everyday.” Katie Couric wrote on the dust jacket that she “can’t wait to whip us his Fried Challah PB&J and Sweet Potato Hummus and shove them in her mouth.”

Cohen’s second cookbook, I Could Nosh, just came out in September and he’s currently on a book tour to promote it. Ellen got to catch his stop in Philadelphia at the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, where he chatted with James Beard award-winning chef Michael Solomonov, owner/chef of the groundbreaking Israeli restaurants Zahav, Laser Wolf and K’Far.   

Along with jokes and mutual admiration, Solomonov and Cohen talked about their shared vision of bringing Jewish food to people who have never enjoyed it, people who might wander into one of Solomonov’s hummus joints or whip up a batch of pistachio pesto kasha from Cohen’s cookbook – and be surprised to learn the Jewish stories behind the meal. There’s many theories why Jewish cuisine has been marginalized – anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism and wandering persecuted communities among them – but Cohen wants to bring Jewish food into the foreground. He thinks that when someone is considering going out to dinner in the future, they might say, “Let’s get Chinese, or Mexican, or Jewish!”  

Because Judaism and being Jewish is a big part of his daily life, Jewish food is, too. But Cohen is on a particular mission to save, share and extend the life of Mizrahi Jewish recipes from communities that no longer exist. Mizrahi is the modern Israeli term for Jews whose ancestors came from the North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia.

Sometimes confused with Sephardic Jews, Mizrahi Jewish communities dated from Late Antiquity, and the oldest and largest of these communities were in modern Iraq (Babylonia), Iran (Persia) and Yemen. There is no one language of Mizrahi Jews, and most of them were killed or expelled from the countries they came from, which had Arab or Muslim majorities.

Cohen said that at one time, the population of Baghdad was 50 percent Jewish; today you can count the number of Jews remaining on one hand. But he is determined to save their recipes. Fortunately, he has a connection: His husband, Alex, is an Iraqi Jew, and Cohen is busy calling his in-laws and testing new variations of foods that are beloved by Mizrachi Jews, such as baharat-roasted squash soup. (Baharat is a special all-purpose blend of Arabic spices, including cumin, sumac, coriander, black pepper and cinnamon.) It’s very different from the Ashkenazic chicken soup with matzah balls that many of us grew up with. 

Although Jake Cohen’s research is more far-reaching and the foods he’s reclaiming are more exotic, we too love it when we can preserve and recreate the recipes our ancestors made in the shtetls of Eastern Europe.

So when we first got married and had our own kitchens, we asked our Bubbes for their recipes. They weren’t written down because Bubbes cooked by instinct. They’d say shitteryne – and we thought they were cursing! But shitteryne wasn’t a curse; it was Yiddish for “add a little of this and a little of that.” 

How much of that? “A bissel,” they’d say. Bissel is Yiddish for a little bit – and like a smidge or a pinch, it wasn’t very helpful either. Bubbes didn’t use a measuring cup. They might use an old yahrzeit glass or one of the glasses that Breakstone sour cream came in. And if they gave you directions, they might say, “Add one half eggshell of milk.” Bubbes didn’t have standard measuring cups – they used what they had!

Joyce has beloved recipes from her Aunt Ruth for holiday brisket and more. Aunt Ruth was not only smart enough to collect and write down her recipes – she made a Jewish food website when she was in her seventies!  

We grateful to the aunts and grandmoms and others who have helped us recreate our family’s recipes. It’s even more special that can use our grandmother’s 12-quart stainless steel Wear-Ever chicken soup pot and Mom’s knaidel glass to make these recipes when we host family holidays.

If you’re lucky enough to be a guest at our next gathering, and we’re feeling adventurous, you just might find Jake Cohen’s Cauliflower-Caper Kasha Varnishkes and Super Fudgy Date Brownies on the table – cozying up to our same old roasted chicken and rice.

Here’s the link toAunt Ruth’s website where she posted all of her delicious recipes. Check it out; her recipes are terrific, and so are her helpful hints!