For New York chef and restaurateur Jeffrey Nathan, Sukkot is a time to practice what he preaches in his new book, \”Jeff Nathan\’s Family Suppers: More Than 125 Simple Kosher Recipes.\”
Although today\’s bar mitzvah parties are often as elaborate as yesterday\’s weddings, there\’s a new trend on the horizon — a, noisy, jubilant oneg Shabbat and lunch directly after the ceremony, and a quiet, intimate dinner at home for a few close friends and family at night.
In our family, Shabbat is always a potluck.
Unlike the bar and bat mitzvah parties of my youth, which were often like pint-sized weddings, where barely a dozen preteen friends and a smattering of cousins ate grown-up food, mingled, and danced awkwardly among a sea of elders
Yom Kippur\’s break the fast is the most anticipated meal of the year. Of course, it\’s because we\’re starving; we\’ve been fantasizing about that first bite for the last 25 hours.
The wedding was beautiful. Everything went off without a hitch. Now it\’s time for the farewell finale — the \”Goodbye, it\’s been great to see you, thanks so much for coming\” Sunday brunch.
Your mishpacha may have traveled from around the world to attend this wedding, and because it\’s rare that they\’re gathered all together for the entire weekend, it\’s your pleasure to send them off well fed.
Monty Hall spent 27 years making outrageous deals with anxious contestants on his TV game show, \”Let\’s Make a Deal.\” But the sweetest deal he ever made with his mishpachah was for a plate of pickled herring if they\’d join him for Passover seder.
Instead of spending upwards of $30 per person and having the whole family kvetch about \”prosaic pasta\” and \”commonplace chicken,\” or spending even more money hiring a caterer to tramp through your house and schmutz up your kitchen, how about making our delicious, do-able menu and toast the bride with a heartfelt \”mazel tov!\” and a glass of Champagne in your garden?
Three years ago, Los Angeles entrepreneur Severyn Ashkenazy gathered in Warsaw, Poland, a small group of American and Polish Jews, all of whom had fled their native land during the Holocaust, and hosted the first Passover seder in that city since 1945.
When Jeffrey Nathan auditioned for his first job cooking for the captain of a Navy destroyer somewhere in the middle of the Pacific and substituted vanilla for Worchester sauce in the meatloaf, little did he know his destiny was a 375-seat upscale kosher restaurant in Manhattan\’s garment district named Abigael\’s.
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