Cultural crossroads
In Shabbat cookbook, author celebrates both local and immigrant traditions that make Israel such a melting pot
EShabbatvery Friday evening at sunset, the Jewish Sabbath — in Hebrew — begins and until sunset the next day it is meant to be a time of rest. “Instead of the mundane labor that inundated the week, on Shabbat we wrapped ourselves in a voluntary cocoon of peaceful and spiritual tranquility,” wrote cookbook author Adeena Sussman in her newest cookbook, “Shabbat: Recipes and Rituals From My Table to Yours,” published in September by Avery, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
Food was and continues to be a central part of Sussman’s Shabbat practices. Raised in Northern California, Sussman moved to Israel in 2016 and made Aliyah, or officially immigrated to Israel, in 2018. Now her typical Friday morning in Tel Aviv, where she lives with her Israeli husband, Jay Shofet, begins with a visit to the Carmel Market — or shuk — where she gathers seasonal ingredients, then returns home to prepare meals for the weekend.
Sussman is the co-author of 15 cookbooks, four of which have been New York Times bestsellers. She’s been working in the intersection of food and publishing for the better part of 20 years and writing about Israeli food and wine many of those years for publications including The Wall Street Journal, Bon Appétit and The New York Times.
“I really consider myself a recipe developer,” she said. “I’ve developed thousands of recipes in the last 20-plus years for other chefs and for my own cooking platforms and projects.”
Where Sussman’s previous book “Sababa: Fresh, Sunny Flavors From My Israeli Kitchen” celebrates her love of the food, culture, history and people of Israel, “Shabbat” is more focused on not just the Shabbat dishes she grew up with but also the Shabbat foods specific to the international Jewish communities that have immigrated to Israel and become interwoven into the country.
We get an Arabic-Israeli “Sheet-Pan Za-aluk” that features eggplant in a rich tomatoey spread that pairs perfectly with water challah. There’s a P’titim Risotto that straddles Libyan and Italian Jewish culture. Its greenish hue is derived from a
“I think people are looking for comforting foods right now and reasons to be together. There’s nothing better than a meal to do that.”
Adeena Sussman • cookbook author, “Shabbat: Recipes and Rituals From My Table to Yours”