I wouldn’t be a good Chopped contestant.

I mean, I’m above average in the kitchen, sure. I’ve put in my Malcolm Gladwell 10,000 hours and then some. My struggles lie more in the “origin story” department – you know, those minute-and-a-half long stories about an ethnic grandmother or similar stand-in who taught the chef in question to love the kitchen and also coincidentally the recipe for this appropriately old-timey and/or ethnic dish.  Just don’t really have those! It’s an odd feeling as a chef.  And because I’m Jewish, it also makes me feel guilty.

It’s weird! My family had large dinner parties, we made quarterly pilgrimages to extended family meals, we were active at our temple. Somehow, I didn’t realize what a matzo ball was made of until I was 18.  I could not have positively identified any deli meat other than turkey.  I routinely confused babka and rugelach.  You get the idea.

Ok, I found some pictures of me doing Jewish food stuff as a kid, which may or may not run counter to the argument laid out above.Whatever, I’m going with it. I’m on the right, my friend Nick is on the left. The Challah dough is inexplicably on the …

Ok, I found some pictures of me doing Jewish food stuff as a kid, which may or may not run counter to the argument laid out above.

Whatever, I’m going with it. I’m on the right, my friend Nick is on the left. The Challah dough is inexplicably on the floor.

And then I lived in Israel for a while, and then New York City for a lot longer after that. A particularly good friend practically dragged me to Katz’s for my first time. He shoved a pastrami Ruben sandwich into my hands. The rest is history. The exhilaration and joy I felt when eating that sandwich is a feeling I can only compare to when I met my wife, or to when she said yes to marrying me. All I’m saying is that when I eventually get married to sandwiches, my friend who took me to Katz’s will give a toast. (I’d apologize to my wife for placing her into a hypothetical polyamorous relationship with a food product, but she knows who she married.)

To find food that was both spectacular and also belonged to my culture, to a thing that was already a deep part of who i was - it was like discovering that the team you root for won the championship last week and somehow you missed it, but now you get to go on the victory parade.

Less than three months after that, I started my first job cooking professionally. I’ve spent the last eight years cooking and learning at several restaurants of varying cuisines – I’ve gotten a lot of enjoyment from learning new cultures through their food and executing their institutional culinary vision, but I have always had a fantasy of working at a Jewish deli, perfecting my recipes for bialys and blintzes. 

And now I get to be the Executive Chef at the Dallas Jewish Community Center! Life is wild. When I was a kid, I would play floor hockey at the JCC in Rochester, New York. Before the games I would buy a cookie and a Coke from the deli there and wait for my friends to show up.  Hey! That’s almost a Chopped story.  If only I had munched on a knish instead.

So, my mission seems clear. I have been a chef that is Jewish, and I want to become a Jewish chef. I want to explore the full breadth of Jewish food, I want to learn everything I can about every element of my culinary culture, and I want to push myself to continue this amazing tradition I have been handed with intention and honor.

By the wildly talented Jennifer Truong

By the wildly talented Jennifer Truong

Below I’ve put together a basic inventory of the items I want to learn about, partially in the hopes that in the coming weeks and months, I’ll turn this page into a table of contents of blog posts about lessons learned and delicious food made.  I hope you’ll join me for the journey - if you’d like to help, look over the list below - what have I left off that I need to get to?

 1.      Bread

  • Sourdough Starter

  • Rye

  • Marble Rye

  • Pumpernickel

  • Rolls

  • Bagels

  • Bialys

  • Pretzels

  • Challah

2.      Meats

  • Corned Beef

  • Pastrami

  • Roast Beef

  • Smoked Turkey

  • Montreal Smoked Meat

  • Knockwurst

  • Brisket

  • Roast Chicken and Potatoes

  • Smoked Salmon

3.      Soups

  • Matzo Ball

  • Mushroom Barley

  • Split Pea

  • Red Pepper and Corn Chowder

  • Chicken Noodle

  • Tomato

4.      Brunch

  • Matzo Brei

  • Latkes

  • Blintzes

  • Challah French Toast

  • Noodle Kugel

  • Potato Kugel

  • Corned Beef Hash

  • Shakshouka

5.      Salads

  • Potato Salad

  • Macaroni Salad

  • Israeli Salad

  • Beet Salad

  • Egg Salad

  • Whitefish Salad

  • Chicken Salad

  • Tuna Salad

6.   Sides/One-Offs

  • Dill Pickles

  • Sour Pickles

  • Cucumber Relish

  • Knishes

  • Kreplach

  • Chopped Liver

  • Gefilte Fish

  • Pierogi

  • Kasha Varnishkas

  • Falafel

  • Hummus

  • Tehini

7.      Desserts

  • Rugelach

  • Sticky Buns

  • Babka

  • Chocolate Matzo Bark

  • Black and White Cookies

  • Macaroons

  • Hamentaschen

  • Honey Cake

  • Mandlebrot

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