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Food

Make room for the tastiest day of the year

April 30, 2015 11:36
Israeli ambassador Daniel Taub with Clive Lawton

ByVictoria Prever, Victoria Prever

3 min read

Gefiltefest, now a fixture in the diaries of many Jewish foodies, celebrates its sixth birthday this year with a number of changes.

The first is the arrival of new director, Nicki Tiefenbrun, replacing founder Michael Leventhal who stepped down last year from running the show. Tiefenbrun brings 20 years of event management experience in the not-for-profit sector, two of them running the family provision at Limmud.

"I want the festival to reach an even more diverse audience, to welcome in Jewish, non-Jewish, young and old and to expand it to a wider community of foodies," says Tiefenbrun, herself a passionate cook.

Also new this year is the location, a now short jog down the Finchley Road from one Jewish community centre to another - the sparkly JW3. According to Tiefenbrun rejigging the festival's format to fit into the different layout of this building was a challenge, but she and her team have managed a huge schedule of planned speakers, demonstrators and interactive events.