Tasting Jewish diversity from Matzah Chilaquiles to Berbere Latkes

When Alana Satsuki Chandler was growing up their mother made kosher gyoza with tofu instead of pork and hybrid okonomi-latkes, a Jewish riff on savoury Japanese cabbage pancakes. 

Their Ashkenazi-Jewish father and Japanese mother created a home in Chicago that fused cultures, with food always a big part of that lifestyle.  

But Chandler rarely met other Jews of colour and rarely saw their experience represented in Jewish environments. 

Their desire to find and amplify the voices of Jews with diverse identities and underrepresented experiences was a key reason they created a new cookbook dedicated to expanding the definition of Jewish food. 

T'laim (Hebrew for patchwork) is a collection of more than 80 recipes and stories from Jewish communities around the world, designed to celebrate the ethnic and racial diversity of Jewish people, and to spotlight historically underrepresented Jewish identities.  

Among the recipes are Mexican-influenced Matzah Chilaquiles, an Eastern European-Spanish fusion of Borscht Gazpacho, Ethiopian-inspired Berbere Latkes, and Japanese-flavoured Kinako Mochi Donut Hole with Kuromitsu Syrup. Chandler’s personal favourites include Scallion Pancake Challah and Tofu Kreplach. 

Contributors were interviewed for the stories that accompany the recipes. Persistent themes included how recipes weave known and unknown traditions into one, and how food can be both a creative outlet and a connecting force.