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VideoArts & CultureAustralia

Babka, hummus, cholent: Five foodies share their favourite Jewish bites

Ahead of Sunday's highly-anticipated Melbourne Jewish Food Festival, five notable chefs and food writers reveal their top Jewish delicacies in a series of videos filmed exclusively for TJI.
Ruby Kraner-Tucci
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Bowl of falafel with hummus

The festival features cooking demonstrations, an artisanal food market, specialist cookbook shop, and a home baker’s cake competition (Image: Zoshua Colah/Unsplash).

Published: 12 September 2024

Last updated: 10 February 2025

The diversity of Jewish delicacy will be on show at this year's Melbourne Jewish Food Festival, which returns on Sunday boasting a jam-packed program for all ages.

Headlining the event – which is run by Kadimah – is a series of discussions with celebrity chefs and foodies, including Ellie Bouhadana (Ellie’s Table), Alice Zaslavsky (ABC) and Nikki Laski (Monarch Cakes), as well as demonstrations and tastings from coveted cooks and restauranters including Elliot Szafran (Zaidy’s Pastrami), Shuki Rosenboim (Very Good Falafel) and Boris Portnoy (Gray and Gray Bread and Wine), among several others.

An artisanal food market, specialist cookbook shop, and home baker's cake competition will also feature throughout the day, which is being hosted by The Age restaurant critic and food writer Dani Valent.

To celebrate this year's Melbourne Jewish Food Festival, five foodies appearing at the event share their favourite Jewish tastes with The Jewish Independent – from babka and apple cake, to cholent and the perfect Rosh Hashanah treat.

1. Food writer, researcher and broadcaster Rita Erlich

2. Ehud Malka, owner of The Left Handed Chef 

3. Maaryasha Werdiger, founder of Zelda Bakery

4. Delia Baron and Ronnit Hoppe, authors of Better Together Kitchen cookbooks

5. The Age restaurant critic and food writer Dani Valent

The Melbourne Jewish Food Festival 2024 runs on Sunday 15 September from 9.30am to 4pm at the Glen Eira Town Hall. Learn more and book tickets online.

This article was first published on 12 September 2024.

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About the author

Ruby Kraner-Tucci

Ruby Kraner-Tucci

Assistant Editor

Ruby Kraner-Tucci is a journalist and TJI's assistant editor. Her writing has appeared in The Age, Australian Jewish News, Time Out and Broadsheet, among others. Ruby was awarded Multicultural NSW’s Best Report in Multicultural Media 2025 and has been named a Top 36 Under 36 Jewish Changemaker by B'nai B'rith.

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