“How the recipes will be exhibited depends on how many we receive and on the future spaces the Museum — currently without a permanent home — has for physical exhibitions.”
He hopes to bring some of the recipes to life via short demonstration videos of the dishes being cooked – these will go online (on YouTube). “These will form the foundations of an online exhibition — one which showcases a range of recipes / stories in the context of how food is central to Jewish life.”
Corsini says that as well as the evolution of recipes within families, he's interested in the range of influences from Ashkenazi to Sephardi and Mizrahi, and how they blend together.
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This is brought to life in a recipe already shared by restaurateur and cookbook author, Limor Chen, an Israeli living in London. Chen — who, together with husband, Amir — owns and operates three Delamina restaurants in London — says her chicken soup captures her parents’ mixed heritage.
On her mother’s side, her grandma’s family had immigrated to Israel from Eastern Europe in the 1920’s and her grandpa’s ancestors had lived near the Sea of Galilee for six generations. Her father emigrated from Iran with his family when he was a young boy. “From Iran he brought a rich tradition of family food. His dishes were wonderfully fragrant, with lots of herbs, coriander, parsley, dill and mint as well as more exotic ingredients such as barberries and dried lime” says Chen.
“At my grandmother’s home on the kibbutz, we would have the traditionally Eastern European clear chicken soup, but at our home it took on new shape, with my father adding chickpeas, plenty of herbs — parsley, coriander and dill — as well as spices like turmeric and cumin. The soup evolved with creativity and love through the lens of different cultures, everyone enjoying each other’s versions but adding their own influences to the literal and metaphorical soup.”
For food writer and cookery teacher, Judi Rose, the Friday night recipe that evokes most memories is her mother Evelyn Rose’s sticky toffee pavlova.
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“One of my earliest food memories is of standing on my tiptoes next to the kitchen counter in our South Manchester home in the 1960’s, very carefully adding small spoons of sugar to the egg whites being beaten in Mum’s Kenwood mixer. She was showing me how to make Pavlova — one of my favourite recipes to this day.”
Her mother, who was the then food editor at The JC, taught Rose to add the sugar gradually to avoid the meringue collapsing.
“We would count [the spoonfuls] together and I would literally stand on tiptoe, I can't have been more than four or five, because I could only just reach a kitchen counter. We had a step stool for me to stand on so I could reach the bowl.”
“I was a very naughty little girl‚ always getting into trouble so I was terrified if I added it too quickly it would all fail, and I would be in trouble again. It would magically come together.”
Mum Evelyn would then carefully pipe it in a spiral to make a large circle. “I’m a really impatient baker and generally would prefer to slosh the meringue onto a baking sheet, but to this day I have infinite patience for pavlova piping. That method holds a place in my heart.”
Judi says that her mother’s original recipe was for a lemon pavlova filled with tangy lemon curd but this evolved over time to a sticky toffee recipe including salted caramel and chopped hazelnuts. She explains that their family tradition was to eat fish on a Friday night (“perhaps something to do with our Polish roots”) and “so we could have lovely milky, creamy puddings for dessert.” It was the dessert made for family celebrations and Judi still makes it when she wants a “killer” dessert.
“It’s something special and a classic that will never go out of date — I’ve made it with my son but he’s less patient than me so does not yet make it himself.”
Television presenter, Rachel Riley’s contribution is her grandma’s “Jewish Christmas turkey soup”. “My bubbe died before I was born and her recipes went with her, unfortunately.
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Most of our family stories around food were funny and along the lines of, Zada did something bonkers so bubbe threw the dinner at him! The only thing I have is a memory of a recipe that’s been passed down the generations — our Jewish chicken soup made with turkey.”
Riley recalls that they would eat it Christmas time when, like many Jewish families living in Britain, they’d sit down to a traditional Xmas meal. “I guess this recipe is kind of symbolic of secular Jewish life in Britain! We’d always light the menorah round the same time obviously, but we’d also have a Christmas dinner. My Mum would be cooking all day, and my Zada would come round on Christmas Eve.”
“I love that she’d do the traditional Jewish chicken soup recipe but with turkey. Every year we’d have the same conversation that Zada would want the parson’s nose and we’d all discuss how gross that was. I guess it’s no surprise that we all ended up becoming vegetarian!”
The recipe is very much like a traditional chicken soup, made in a pressure cooker with celery, onions, carrots and chicken stock cubes, but with turkey giblets. It was served with lokshen in the traditional way. A real blend of Jewish and British culture.
To share your recipes and stories, upload your recipe — or even a photograph of it — to the Jewish Museum’s website or email it to curation@jewishmuseum.org.uk.
"Traditional Challah. Shot on white, shallow dof"Getty Images