Bringing Gratitude to the Table

As a child, I have fond memories of the fresh meals my mother cooked for her six boys. We rarely ate fast food, mostly because we couldn’t afford it, but as a result, we ate soul-filling, home-cooked meals. In her young years, my mother was a maid for wealthy Mexican families. I guess that’s where she perfected her craft.

My mother’s menu was simple but always flavorful. One of my childhood favorites was her deep-fried quesadillas, which were made of handmade masa tortillas stuffed with mozzarella. They were topped off with lettuce, sour cream, and fresh tomato salsa spiked with a pinch of oregano. Deliciousness is an understatement.

As a father of two, I may have inherited her cooking skills. My kids often tell me I should open a restaurant. I often tell them it only tastes good because I added a secret ingredient for them – love.

During the holidays, food is more than nourishment. It is a mechanism to bring us together, enhance our connections, and create memories for the year-end. Food is community. So share a fresh meal with those you care about.

With love,

David

Growing up in Israel, our main meal of the day was lunch. My mom was a stay-at-home mom and I always came home from school to a hot, homemade meal. As a family, Saturday lunch was our family meal at the table (not in the kitchen) and my mom always made a three-course meal with us, sharing the main course and sides “family style” - with an older brother and sister I had to elbow my way to the bone marrow. In addition, it was a given that we would celebrate the holidays around traditional foods, together with extended family. I carry the same cadence with my family today: sitting for dinner as a family (no cell phones allowed) and celebrating Fridays and holidays with friends and family, breaking bread together.

My mom’s chicken soup, schnitzels, and huge potato latke (called Totchkale) are still her staples and what my kids are looking forward to when she visits.

Food is our enabler to connect. It is the best form of nurturing, loving, and giving, so much so that I made it my profession. As a chef, I take joy in making others happy via food.

The love for food has been in my family’s DNA for quite a few generations. Before WWII, my mother’s side of the family owned a bustling restaurant in Japan. Decades later and thousands of miles away, my Nana opened her first diner in the heart of Los Angeles. Growing up in a multi-racial family with unique ties to different food cultures, I grew up learning many ways to express gratitude both for our food and towards those around us with delicious meals prepared with love.

Before eating a meal, we often say “itadakimasu”, a customary tradition in Japanese culture that roughly translates to “I humbly receive.” On my dad’s side of the family, our family’s food heritage is shaped by the flavors of Mexican and Irish cuisine. One of the most significant feelings of gratitude I remember from my childhood is from my earliest memories of Christmas. Each year, my Nana would make sure that each family member left with enough tamales to keep us fed for weeks - a true testament to a grandmother’s love. As I now begin to explore the art of cooking on my own, I’m grateful to incorporate my family’s heritage into the meals I’ll share with my friends, family, and loved ones.

I grew up in a family that valued local food before it was a trend. I spent every summer visiting my grandparents on their potato farm in northern Maine, where growing their own food was the norm. Apples from the orchard became pink applesauce. We shelled peas on the porch to go with the new potatoes that had just been dug up. Before I was born, they even kept a sugar hut, making their own maple syrup from the forest at the end of the potato fields. Unfortunately, after the farm became too much for my family to continue, it was sold and turned into a commercial canola operation.

But those memories and fresh food habits stuck with me. Traditions, like growing giant edible gardens and picking wild berries, have remained strong in my family. My cousin and I regularly trade photos of our latest garden hauls in preparation for that night’s dinner. I like to think we have my grandparents to thank for that.

After my grandmother passed away, I compiled a 146-page recipe book of her 80+ years of handwritten, passed-down, and clipped recipes, and made copies for everyone in my family. It’s something to remember her and my grandfather by; something to remember the sounds, smells and tastes of the farm. And I still use it whenever I’m feeling nostalgic for those tastes of my childhood. I love that food has become that comforting way to remember and appreciate everything that place meant to me and my family.

Coming from a reformed Jewish family, it was interesting to see how food and meals became such a cornerstone of the culture. It is interesting because even though Judaism is a religion in our families, in many reformed families it is treated more like a culture. When I moved to Boulder, many families had moved here away from where they grew up and didn’t have a place to go for the high holidays (Rosh Hashanah and Passover.) I decided to open our house to friends and acquaintances that didn’t have another place. People would bring something that they had growing up and it was a giant pot-luck. The parents originally led the prayers and readings but once a child had their bar or bat mitzvah, they would lead the prayers. It has turned into a tradition and people know to invite anyone alone for the holidays.

There are a few recipes that are strongly connected to our family, but the one that my family loves the most is the sweet noodle kugel. The kids love it and my sister makes sure to make an extra so they have one for the week. I make a sweet and sour brisket and that is a fan favorite as well, it cooks in the oven for 4-5 hours and it is really good. My Nana always served stuffed cabbage with hamburger in it and she said her secret was “guava jelly” that she used for the sauce. Now, my sister is opening up Fleishman’s Bagels and Delicatessen in Boulder and she is going to be serving a number of things that we have always had at these gatherings.