Everything that Jake Cohen cooks is rooted in authenticity, from his Jewish heritage to his personal cooking style.
The 30-year-old chef and cookbook author has built a massive online platform where he shares recipes related to his Jewish heritage, including meals for Shabbat.
Cohen, who boasts over 1 million Instagram followers and 1.5 million on TikTok, often shares videos that elevate and modernize Jewish cooking. The New Yorker’s focus is providing accessible recipes for home chefs looking for something that could be made for any occasion.
The two-time New York Times bestselling author of “Jew-ish: Reinvented Recipes from a Modern Mensch” and the recently-released “I Could Nosh: Classic Jew-ish Recipes Revamped for Every Day,” shares family recipes — like his great-grandmother’s apple cake — and his own, like pumpkin spice babka.
Unpacked spoke to Cohen to discuss the need for innovative Jewish cooking, creating new Shabbat traditions, and why he believes cooking is a great way to connect to one’s Judaism.
Craving Jewish comfort food? Try Jake Cohen’s harissa tomato bisque with challah grilled cheese
Jake Cohen’s recipes are inspired by his Jewish upbringing
As Cohen shifted from roles in test kitchens and as a food critic to becoming a cookbook author and content creator, he knew he wanted to center Judaism at the heart of his work.
Many of the recipes Cohen shares — like challah, rugelach and matzo ball soup — are inspired by food that he ate at family meals growing up.
Get Jake Cohen’s famous recipe for chicken soup with matzo balls
Each of Cohen’s recipes is accompanied by an anecdote, many of which are shared on his social media and his cookbooks. He often recalls memories associated with the food or the people he prepared the meal for. Cohen believes that there is a unique story behind every dish, shaped by various influences.
Growing up in Queens and Long Island, Cohen was surrounded by Jewish cooking at every holiday. While working at a test kitchen for a magazine, he loved sharing his family’s recipes and became passionate about showcasing his Jewish cooking.
This was soon reflected in his innovative uses of schmaltz and new flavors of babka. “Sharing food really has to be rooted in authenticity. And for me personally, it’s such a huge part of who I am, my upbringing,” Cohen shared with Unpacked.
In addition to recipes that reflect his Jewish heritage, Cohen also shares a variety of pasta, cakes and breakfast options.
“There are some dishes that I hold more sacred based on my upbringing and the meaning that they have for me through the lens of hospitality. There are other dishes that I have more fun with because I don’t have a deeper connection with them,” Cohen said.
Cohen views cooking as a way to connect to Judaism and deepen relationships
The author began to integrate more Mizrahi flavors into his recipes when he married his husband, Alex Shapiro. Cooking with Shapiro’s grandmother, Cohen learned about their family’s Persian-Iraqi traditions.
The Ashkenazi fare of Cohen’s childhood was extremely different from the flavors at Shapiro’s table. Cohen said that sharing those different traditions helped the couple understand each other’s backgrounds, and their Shabbat table soon became a mix of the different cuisines.
“We’re of the same religion and yet have completely different cultures, which are both incredibly vibrant,” he said.
Cohen’s recipes are inspired by actual dishes he serves at his star-studded Shabbat table — with guests like Jewish music producer and fellow cookbook author Benny Blanco and Broadway comedian Alex Edelman.
“My new recipes are a representation of the Shabbat practice that I started with my husband, creating a table of our own to build relationships and deepen connections,” Cohen explained. “I think these are really fun recipes that represent tradition and modernity.”
Understanding each other’s backgrounds through sharing culinary traditions is an “incredible exercise that we try to do with not only each other but everyone else that we meet. It’s a really great way to get to know someone and embrace the things that they hold nearest and dearest,” he added.
Cohen’s cookbooks blend Jewish tradition and innovation
Shapiro’s background inspired Cohen’s Persian-style latkes and traditional Iraqi beet kubbeh soup, both featured in his first cookbook.
Cohen’s approach involves creating new takes on traditional recipes that his great-grandparents might have made, adapting them for a modern lifestyle.
He believes that cooking is a dynamic and evolving practice, with recipes continuously adapting to reflect changing tastes, ingredients and cultural influences. He sees the fusion of Jewish cuisine with other culinary traditions (in recipes like “cacio e pepe rugelach” and “chall-zones”) as a continuation of innovation practices that have existed for thousands of years.
“The evolution of any diaspora cuisine, especially Jewish food, is that Jews have continued to evolve their cuisine to whatever area that they live in, the ingredients that are native, absorbing [traditions] from their neighbors. I’m just continuing that tradition through the lens of New York and modern cooking,” he explained.
Cohen wants to challenge preconceptions about Jewish cooking
Over the years, Cohen has seen remarkable similarities between Jewish cooking and other cuisines. When he travels, he often seeks inspiration from local cuisines and mulls over how to blend them with Jewish cooking or infuse them with the flavors of New York City.
“You start to see similarities because at the root of all cuisines, there are parallels in terms of techniques or ingredients. There’s something super fun about being able to see our similarities with other people,” he added.
Cohen believes that Jewish food is too often relegated to cuisine for Jewish holidays, rather than integrated into everyday fare. One of his goals for “I Can Nosh” is to challenge this by showing how Jewish cooking and flavors can enhance everyday dishes.
Another misconception Cohen hopes to dispel is the idea that Jewish cooking is bland and flavorless, a stereotype associated with Ashkenazi food. Cohen emphasized that the Jewish people are incredibly diverse and their food is representative of that.
“There’s vibrant [Jewish] cuisine that has survived throughout both hardship and complete displacement and continues to stand the test of time, and I think that’s absolutely magical,” he said.
Cohen hopes to create spaces for people to enjoy Jewish cooking
Later this month, Cohen will be taking Jewish cooking to the South Beach Wine & Food Festival. He is hosting a sit-down dinner, which will be prepared alongside fellow social media star Olivia Tiedemann and Food Network juggernaut Robert Irvine, to kick off the event’s FoodieCon.
The sit-down dinner promises to be not only delicious but also an Instagram-worthy display of beauty. (“People eat with their eyes,” Cohen said on the importance of aesthetics in cuisine. “The way that you tell a story is so important, but one doesn’t exist without the other. Pretty food doesn’t mean anything unless it’s delicious.”)
Cohen’s contributions to the meal include a fried potato kugel and a challah bread pudding. He wanted to highlight Jewish cooking at the event since it showcases the best the food world has to offer, and he knew Jewish food needed a place in that.
Cohen, who is currently working on his third cookbook, emphasized that he has no interest in starting a restaurant.
To him, the magic of cooking is seeing someone’s reaction to eating his food. The highlight of Cohen’s career has been witnessing the impact of his cooking on home chefs, seeing how they integrated parts of his recipes into their holidays and daily routines.
“The more I dove into food, the more I understood these recipes are truly made for the idea that you get to engage your family, friends and community to create space for [meaningful] conversations…I only really want to create spaces that can be tied to both my Judaism and food as a connector,” Cohen said.
Originally Published Feb 14, 2024 11:29PM EST
