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Jazz and Cooking Prodigies Potash Twins Whip Up Takeout Recipes in Food Network Kitchen App Series

They developed the 10-episode series to see if home cooks could make a recipe “equally as good if not better than” the takeout alternative.
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September 15, 2020
Hosts Adeev and Ezra Potash joke with actor Rob Riggle over Skype before making a breakfast sandwich, as seen on Takeout Twins. season 1. Photo by Victoria Agromayor.

Twenty-six-year-old identical twins Adeev and Ezra Potash are renaissance men. Despite their youth, the brothers already have found success in both jazz performance and the culinary arts. 

As teenagers, the brothers from Omaha, Nebraska, studied under jazz legend Wynton Marsalis and Jon Faddis, as well as at SUNY Purchase College and the Manhattan School of Music, and placed second in the Chinese version of “America’s Got Talent,” which led to performing around the world.  

While in Asia, a team of cameramen followed them as they tried new and bizarre foods, which brought about a career that allowed them to merge their passions for both music and food, with three television shows already under their belts: Travel Channel’s “Southern Road Trip with The Potash Twins,” Bravo TV’s “Beats + Bites” and now Food Network’s “Takeout Twins,” which launched Sept. 2 on the Food Network Kitchen App.

“When you take a bite of food, what are the first things that come to mind? ‘Smooth,’ ‘texture,’ ‘balance,’ ‘harmony’ —  these are all things that are used to describe music,” Adeev told the Journal in a joint Zoom interview with Ezra from their Palm Springs home.  

Hosts Ezra and Adeev Potash play their instruments on Season 1 of Takeout Twins. Photo by Victoria Agromayor.

Growing up, the twins said they were bored with the “Midwest palate” and were curious to learn about how food is made and eaten around the globe. Raised by a mother who constantly traveled internationally for work, they learned about other cultures and food through her.

“Instead of her bringing us back souvenirs, we asked her to bring us whatever shelf stable food she could bring because we were always curious [about], ‘What do they eat where you’re going?’ ” Adeev said.

As a result, the brothers were introduced to mochi, dim sum, Indian and Vietnamese curries, and pad see ew. They also grew up eating and cooking kosher food with their grandmothers: challah, matzo ball soup and matzo brei were the first recipes they remember creating. Another was their “world famous” spicy mayo, which they packaged, bottled and distributed at Herzl Camp in Wisconsin. “Our spicy mayo was famous,” Adeev joked. “[Our] wasabi mayo had critical reception.”

From poutine and cherry pie latkes to a “gazpacho borscht with avocado crema,” (which they came up with during this interview), the twins brainstorm wherever they go.

Like music and food, they say Judaism is an extension of who they are. Their father, a former director of the Anti-Defamation League Texas and current CEO of the Jewish Federation of Omaha, ensured that they upheld Jewish rituals and included them in their lives.

“We were very, very comfortable getting up and leading the Birkat [ha-Mazon] (grace after meals),” Ezra recalled. “So it wasn’t that much of a transition for us to performing because we were already doing that.” 

One of the things that makes “Takeout Twins” special to the brothers — or Potashim as their friends like to refer to them — is that they get to show people how easy it is to re-create their favorite takeout dishes. They developed the 10-episode series to see if home cooks could make a recipe “equally as good if not better than” the takeout alternative, so they selected the top 10 most ordered takeout dishes, including pizza, tacos, butter chicken and matzo ball soup.

“We would be touring [as musicians] and eating all around the world,” Ezra said. “We’d get home and we would be craving something we’d eaten abroad that we couldn’t order. What we were doing was trying to re-create those dishes at home the best we could.” 

“It’s about working with what you have and being resourceful,” Adeev added. “Through our travels, we’ve learned a lot about the authenticity of these dishes. We aren’t trying to make the most authentic butter chicken. We’re making our version the way we like it with the lens of, ‘Can someone who isn’t us make this dish and also be happy?’ ” 

Hosts Adeev and Ezra Potash with chef Andrew Zimmern, as seen on Takeout Twins season 1. Photo by Victoria Agromayor.

A common pastime for the brothers was watching James Beard award-winning TV personality and chef Andrew Zimmern. “My dad said, ‘That job. If you could get that job, that would be the coolest job on the planet.’ I was like ‘OK,’ ” Ezra said. And while the family kept kosher,  their father told them they could eat treif only with Zimmern. So when the twins met him in 2012, Zimmern invited them to his home for Thanksgiving. “We get to his house,” Ezra recalled, and “he has so much treif.” 

“It was basically the kingdom of treif on the kitchen countertops,” Adeev said. “[Zimmern] said, ‘Now this can go down one of two ways. You can either eat it in front of me and we can talk about it or I can step in the other room for plausible deniability.’ We wanted him there. This was a big moment for us. … He was kind of breeding us for what we are doing now.”

Since then, Zimmern has taken the twins around the country, introducing them to bizarre foods. He’s also an executive producer on “Takeout Twins” and they use Zimmern’s matzo ball soup recipe in Episode Two. The brothers constantly refer to him as their “food dad.”

In an email to the Journal, Zimmern said, “Right away [the twins] had something special going on. They were world-class musicians, extremely smart, very funny, loved food and had 90-year-old grandfatherly sensibilities stuffed into their then teenage bodies. … Ez and Dee are my friends, but my production company Intuitive Content gets to make TV with them, so it’s very rewarding. Seeing them have success fills me up. God knows how hard they work at it, and they deserve all the accolades. As far as being their food dad, well, not the greatest moniker in the world, but I am flattered and honored. I was hoping for food rabbi, but maybe they are saving that for later.”

https://www.facebook.com/PotashTwins/videos/619001728761381

Right now, Rosh Hashanah is on the twins’ minds. They say it’s their favorite holiday because it is food-heavy and packed with symbolism. “There is a real vibe that comes with leaving shul and being like, ‘We’re about to feast,’ ” Adeev said. “To this day, I don’t know if I’ll be able to re-create that feeling in anything I make.”

Round sweet challah, apples and their father’s famous dill salmon are their favorites, and the brothers are adamant that sweet kugel is the only way to go. No discussion. Joking that they are the best fasters on Yom Kippur for being big foodies, a strange tradition they have is watching cooking shows in between services.

“The second we get home from services, Food Network’s on,” Adeev said. “Little did we know we’d become the people that people would watch on Food Network when they returned from Yom Kippur services.”

The full season of “Takeout Twins” is available on the Food Network Kitchen App. For more on the Potash twins, click here. Follow the Potash twins on social media @potashtwins.

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