Remembrance: Recreating a Jewish family's recipes

Jews the world over will celebrate Passover  later this week complete with recipes passed   down for Generations Lee Cowan has a tale  of survival that's a blessing indeed [Music]   the rich culinary landscape of New Orleans  you find a restaurant named Saba which means   grandfather in Hebrew its owner Israeli Chef  Alon Shaya has been winning awards for his   modern Middle Eastern cuisine how's everything  tasting so far guys which is a bit odd perhaps   given that when he first emigrated from Israel  at the age of four his roots were something he'd   hoped to erase I spent so much of my life trying  to hide my Israeli identity you know at the age   of four and five years old the last thing you  want to do is talk to them about this chickpea   Fritter that you're bringing to school when  they're eating tater tots in culinary school   instead of hummus and Peta Shaya went full Italian  pastas charcuterie and pizzas were his passions   until that is in his mid-30s when on a trip back  to Israel the dishes of his youth whispered Anew I   realized that I was really missing out on a part  of who I was and I started cooking Israeli food   again and felt like I really began understanding  what my identity was as a chef so this is cholent   It's a stew that's typically made on Shabbat ever  since sometimes they'll put wheat in a trollent   but this one doesn't have any so it is kosher  for Passover he's been marinating in Israeli   ingredients and their history which one day  brought him here to perhaps an unlikely place for   a chef The Archives of the U.S Holocaust Memorial  Museum I was just blown away by how during one of   the most horrible moments in someone's life that  they could turn to food and that food would have   that power he was both heartened and Disturbed to  learn that during the Holocaust those forced into   Jewish ghettos and concentration camps would  write down family recipes not to cook but to   remember because it reminded you of home it's  a reminder that a pleasure in this lousy place   where where you were not a human Stephen fenves  was 13 when his train arrived at Auschwitz in 1944   all the tangible evidence of his life before had  been ripped away or so he thought how fragile is   it the text block is actually pretty sturdy  to his surprise after he and his sister were   liberated from Auschwitz the pier his mother's  recipe book famous Estera my sister says oh your   sister's saying that when Shaya discovered it in  the basement of the Holocaust Museum's collections   he had one big question so you mean that I could  actually like talk to the person who remembers   eating this food and I said yeah well maybe we  can put you guys in touch how that book survived   is just one of those stories the fenves family  lived an upper middle class life in the former   Yugoslavia they employed a maid a chauffeur  governess and a cook named maris big woman very   thick Hungarian Accent on the day looters stormed  into defend this home as they were being let off   presumably to the gas Chambers maris who wasn't  Jewish raced in to save the family cookbook for   reasons Steven still doesn't totally understand I  think it's just sense of loyalty and sense of Love   of uh of the family pretty brave thing to do but  everybody was thinking to do what was the risk to   her everything was that was punishable by death  that's my mother such a beautiful picture when   Alon Shaya heard that story he was so moved that  he said about recreating the taste of Steven's   childhood the recipes in this book are written  like recipes like you would see in a cookbook   today so it's not like a half a teaspoon no like  imagine your grandmother teaching you how to make   a dish you know a little bit of this a little  bit of that essentially you know heat setting   instructions because this was all done on a cast  iron stove no I don't have that setting on myself   there were potato circles a walnut cream cake and  a dish that looks an awful lot like a fish stick   but isn't he began translating the recipes from  Hungarian to English and I began cooking the food   and shipping the food to him to taste for the  first time in over 70 years did you like some   mustard yeah just a tiny bit Steven the family got  involved in the process that's a real thing fenves   rediscovered a painful personal connection to his  story that he says had gotten lost over the years   I have become such a chore I no longer broke  into tears in my presentation it just became   so routine so cold but somehow Shaya's Revival of  his mother's cooking reminded him of all that was   lost he Frankly Speaking he got me out of a major  slump in my duty to speak as a volunteer Survivor   how do they get you out of your slump made it you  made it interesting and made it moving one of the   first recipes that I wanted to make together these  Newfound friends now host donor dinners where's   mother's dishes are served and Steven speaks  we were separated at Auschwitz so far they've   raised more than three hundred thousand dollars  for Holocaust conservation efforts the effect of   it on me was very very pronounced childhood food  you know right it seems to have been something   tangential that went by the way with lots of  other things that went by the way so that's it   it survived pretty well given all that it's been  through yeah and you yeah barely oh wow look at   that Passover is about the imperative to remember  both the good and the bad Alon Shaya offered that   gift through food and because of it nine out of  10 on that picture died in Auschwitz Steven fenves   has a renewed mission to tell the terrible Tale  that must be told that's a very sad picture to see

Channel: CBS Sunday Morning

Views: 53,745

Keywords: CBS Sunday Morning, CBS News, news, jewish, recipe, tradition, united states holocaust memorial museum, alon shaya, the holocaust, cookbook, family, steven fenves

Id: oUGHMYz2pqQ

Length: 6min 50sec (410 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 02 2023