What inspires you about the recipe development process?

Q A

So much of Jewish food is based around memories, family and tradition. Everyone's bubbe says that theirs is the best chicken soup or theirs is better than their sister's or sister-in-law's. When you're making recipes for a Jewish cookbook, the first thing I think about is: Where is the memory coming from?

I went through my grandmother's tattered favorite cookbook and looked at the marinades for things like the brisket, the dough for the kreplach and the spices that were in some of these dishes and tried to be as true to to those as I could. With the brisket recipe, I adapted it slightly but largely used that as the base for the mushroom tofu brisket.

Once you get the idea of what the recipe is going to look like, you test it. You fail a bunch of times. You send it out to testers. They test it, they provide feedback, you test it again, and you send it out again for testers. You get really sick of making it. You make a really big mess in the kitchen. And then finally everyone's happy with it — and then you send it to your editor and they red-line a bunch of the language, and then it makes its way into the book.

Q

You're talking about a global Jewish diaspora, where people may connect with different flavors. What characterizes a specifically Jewish recipe?

A

A lot of it was looking at dishes that are common for Shabbat or holiday meals across the diaspora, or looking at communities and asking people, “What's on your holiday table?” and “Is this a common thing or a family thing?” My husband and I have been very fortunate to be able to travel, so I always made a point of doing two things: going to see someone in the Jewish community and always taking a cooking class from someone in the Jewish community. A lot of the dishes — for example, slow cooker dishes — are very common for Shabbat, because you can't use electricity. I also researched Jewish archives and resources and spent a lot of time reading about food traditions in different parts of the world.

QDid living in the Bay Area influence the cookbook?

AEspecially as a transplant, I understand how fortunate we are to live in the Bay Area and have the ability to get fresh produce year round from farmers. It's such a special place to live, when it comes to food. I've been working with Oaktown Spice Shop for a number of years and they were able to supply all the spices for my recipe testing. I was also able to connect with Sylvie Charles of Just Date.

We're so spoiled, it's crazy. In Midwestern Canada at the farmers market, if you want anything local, it's basically beets and potatoes. Here, there are lemons! It's wild to me.