Growing up in Atlanta, Eli Kirshtein was more interested in pork than in pomegranate, figs, and other staples of Tu B’Shevat, the Jewish celebration of nature and trees. In fact, Kirshtein, who appeared on the recent season of the Bravo reality show Top Chef—he finished fifth—had little idea that Tu B’Shevat existed until Tablet Magazine ...

In September of 1789, Congress passed a resolution declaring a “public day of thanksgiving and prayer,” but, in the rush of last-minute business before an autumn recess, left it up to the president to actually pick a date for the holiday. A few days later, George Washington, following a loose precedent set by the Continental ...

When I ordered the blackened redfish at a North Carolina restaurant in August, I hadn’t eaten any meat or fish in more than 13 years. Being a vegetarian had been easy, and I’d rarely been tempted to stray. Sure, certain cooking aromas—a roasting turkey, chicken soup simmering on the stove top—could still make me ...

I get a little exercised whenever I hear the word “authenticity” used to describe a cuisine, since it implies that one cuisine is the real thing and another is a fake. Tex-Mex often gets branded as “inauthentic,” as does most of the Chinese food we spoon out of white cardboard containers. Yet Tex-Mex is the ...

On a rainy fall night in Teaneck, New Jersey, Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster and her husband bumped around their tiny kitchen, tending a heavy skillet full of frying potatoes and onions. Kahn-Troster, 30, spooned a pudding-like yellow glop into the pan, where it sizzled and gave off the aroma of a highly concentrated chicken soup.
She was ...

Of all the Jewish holidays, Sukkot is the one that lacks a signature culinary treat. So, we at Tablet asked Christopher Lee, the chef of New York’s celebrated Aureole, to imagine a dish suitable for Sukkot (or as he lovingly called it after a feat of masterful cooking, Shanuk).
He came back with a chicken salad ...