More Than Matzah Balls: Food and Cooking in Jewish Culture

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Pati Jinich

Pati Jinich is host of the Public Television series "Pati's Mexican Table," which is aired nationwide, is now in its third season, and was nominated for a 2013 Imagen Award.

She is a cookbook author, food writer, cooking teacher and chef of the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington, DC. Pati was born and raised in Mexico City and comes from a family of accomplished cooks. She has resided in the Washington, DC area for the past 13 years, where she and her husband are raising their three boys.

Pati holds a master's degree in Latin American Studies from Georgetown University, and served full time as political analyst before leaving policy work to pursue her lifelong passions: researching, writing about, testing and cooking Mexican food, and sharing her knowledge of Mexican cuisine and culture with others. In 2007 she launched "Mexican Table” an ongoing series of culinary programs comprised of informative talks, cooking demonstrations and tasting dinners at the Mexican Cultural Institute.

Through the “Mexican Table” series, Pati shares her rich, entertaining and insightful perspective on Mexican cuisine and culture in an intimate setting. With the launch of "Pati's Mexican Table" on television, she is able to share her knowledge and enthusiasm with a far broader audience. She familiarizes viewers with Mexican ingredients and cooking techniques, and also with the many regional cultures, traditions and historical events that together inform Mexico's diverse cuisine, inside and outside of Mexico.

Pati launched her blog, patismexicantable.com, to share her work and food-related writing and stories. Her first cookbook, Pati’s Mexican Table: The Secrets of Mexican Home Cooking was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in March 2013, recommended by The New York Times and featured among 250 books named “Best in the World” in the 2013 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards (see www.patismexicantable.com/book).

Pati is a regular guest on ABC's “The Chew,” NBC’s “The Today Show,” CBS’s “The Talk,” NPR and “The Splendid Table.” She has also appeared as a guest on The Food Network, CNN en Español, FOX News, CBS “This Morning” and others. She has also been featured in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Chicago Tribune and other leading national and regional press. In addition to writing on her blog, she is regularly invited to contribute to a wide array of print and online publications. Pati has also hosted live programs for The Smithsonian Institution and Meridian International Center, and has cooked for dignitaries at Blair House, the official guesthouse for the President of the United States.

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Joan Nathan

Joan Nathan considers food through the lenses of history, culture and tradition. She regularly contributes to The New York Times, Food Arts Magazine and Tablet Magazine and is the author of ten award-winning cookbooks; six focus on Jewish cooking, two highlight Israeli cuisine and two focus on American cooking. Her most recent book is Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous: My Search for Jewish Cooking in France, which made both The New York Times’ and NPR’s lists of the best cookbooks of 2010. Nathan’s work preserves the heritage of Jewish and other ethnic cooking and encourages new traditions to take shape.

In 1994, Nathan's Jewish Cooking in America won both the James Beard Award for the best American cookbook and the IACP/Julia Child Cookbook of the Year Award. The same James Beard Award was later bestowed on her 2005 cookbook The New American Cooking. An earlier work, An American Folklife Cookbook, was given the R.T. French Tastemaker Award in 1985 for American cooking.

Her culinary talents translated easily to television. In 2000 her PBS series "Jewish Cooking in America with Joan Nathan" was nominated for the James Beard Award for Best National Television Food Show. She has made guest appearances on many programs, including the "Today Show," "Good Morning America" and "The Martha Stewart Show."

Nathan has won numerous awards for her work. In 2001 she was honored as an inductee into the James Beard Foundation's Who's Who in American Food and Beverage, and she has also received the Silver Spoon Award from Food Arts Magazine. She was the guest curator of the 2005 Smithsonian Folk Life Festival's Food Culture USA, a program which was based on the research for Nathan's The New American Cooking. In May 2011, she was awarded a Special Recognition Award from the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research for her work to preserve Jewish foodways.

Nathan is an active board member of Martha's Table, a DC-based nonprofit which provides comprehensive support to impoverished individuals in both the short-term and long-term. Annually she co-chairs Sunday Night Suppers, an event in which two DC-based organizations, Martha's Table and DC Central Kitchen, team up to fight hunger.

The mother of three grown children, Nathan lives in Washington, DC and Martha's Vineyard with her husband, attorney Allan Gerson. For more information, please visit her website at joannathan.com.

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Louisa Shafia

Louisa Shafia is the author of the acclaimed cookbook, The New Persian Kitchen (Ten Speed Press, 2013), winner of Food52’s Piglet award for best cookbook of the year. Louisa has cooked at notable restaurants in San Francisco and New York, including Millennium, Aquavit, and Pure Food and Wine. She recently created a menu of fresh, healthy Persian food for Café Nadery in New York. Her unique, Silk Road-inspired cooking has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, Bon Appétit and on National Public Radio. Her first cookbook, Lucid Food: Cooking for an Eco-Conscious Life, was a finalist for the IACP award. See Louisa’s upcoming events and watch her cooking videos at lucidfood.com.

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Ari White

Ari White, a native of El Paso, Texas, brings his passion for Texas-style Barbecue to the streets of New York. His pop-up Kosher food truck, The Wandering Que (formerly Hakadosh BBQ), draws crowds by the thousands to taste Ari’s amazing food. With his team from Gemstone Catering by his side, Ari delivers some of the tastiest Kosher Barbecue to street fairs and private events across the tri-state area. Check out Ari and his team, including The Wandering Que’s schedule, at www.WanderingQue.com.

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