This program originally aired on Thursday, September 19th at 12:30pm Eastern.
Julie Salamon (New York Times best-selling author) sits down with award-winning cookbook author Joan Nathan. Joan is the author of twelve cookbooks including her latest work, My Life in Recipes: Food, Family, and Memories. Joan discusses the process and events that unfolded as she wrote her memoir/ cookbook; the tragedy of losing her husband, the choice to investigate her family history, and travel to the cities of her ancestors. Family stories were connected with food, and enriched by an understanding of the past. Joan recounts memories of her husbands mother; the care and time she took making Polish dumplings and how making that dish was a way for her mother-in-law to connect to a home she was forced from during World War II. She remembers her German fathers love of food, and the special trips he would make on his day off to seek out food that tasted like home. Joan discussed how her book Jewish Cooking in America (1994) uniquely delved into looking at how Jewish food influenced American food, and the impact that America had on Jewish cooking. Themes of immigration, food, and identity have followed Joan throughout her career.
Topics covered in this program: Languages and food, 1865 toy kitchens, childhood play, Rhode Island, Israel, Teddy Kollek, David Ben-Gurion, Jewish religious identity, Julia Child, Judith Jones.
