Gefiltefest

A celebration of Jewish food in London.

By MIRIAM KRESH
Sesame Crusted salmon is just one of the foods on highlight at the fifth annual Gefiltefest. (photo credit: PATRICK DODD)
Sesame Crusted salmon is just one of the foods on highlight at the fifth annual Gefiltefest.
(photo credit: PATRICK DODD)
Foodie alert in Jewish London – the fifth Gefiltefest is taking place on June 15.
The festival’s quirky name covers a day of learning about, and eating, Jewish food. To absorb the topic in its myriad interpretations, participants can choose from among 75 sessions and 25 garden stalls, and there will be plenty of opportunities to fress.
Chefs and respected food writers are flying in to demonstrate Israeli and international Jewish food.
Chef Gil Hovav will demonstrate how to make a fiery Yemenite s’hug relish; eminent food writer Claudia Roden, who is the festival’s sponsor, will spotlight Italian Jewish food; Poopa Dweck will show how to make classic Syrian-Jewish pastry and kibbeh; Joan Nathan will bake rugelach; and Marlena Spieler will teach how to make preserved lemons.
Festival founder and organizer Michael Leventhal modestly told The Jerusalem Post: “The first Gefiltefest happened in October 2010. I organized it in six weeks, though I have no useful experience in organizing big events. I used to be a journalist, working for London newspapers, then a history book publisher. I freely admit that until recently I was one of the world’s worst cooks.” The festival will be held at the London Jewish Cultural Centre, Ivy House, in the northern part of the city. More than 650 people attended last year’s festival, and this year 750 are expected.
Fun events include hands-on cooking workshops, tastings, lectures and screenings. As part of the children’s program, young cooks will learn how to make instant ice cream. Interested in knowing how Coca-Cola became kosher? There’ll be a talk on that. A panel of judges will select Britain’s most delectable hallot, bagels and rugelach. Participants can even leave the grounds and go on a foraging walk with an expert, or do a kosher restaurant trip around Golders Green.
Moreover, live beekeeping is on the schedule, as sustainability, fair trade, organic farming and ethical animal husbandry are notes that sound often.
“This was not part of my life plan; it happened by accident,” Leventhal said in an interview over Skype. “It just exploded, in a way that I never expected. There was a need, an interest in food in the English Jewish community. No one else is addressing that interest the way we are.”
One of the most popular events last year was the Ashkenazi vs Sephardi cook-off, a light-hearted competition where each team has to create two dishes from their culinary heritage in less than an hour. “The Sephardim won last year,” says Leventhal with a grin, “but there are going to be two rematch sessions this year.”
Rabbi Harvey Belovski will give a talk called, “Getting It in the Neck: The Kashrut of Giraffes;” last year’s lecture was “The Crunch of the Matter,” a discussion on the kashrut of locusts. “It packed the hall,” says Leventhal. Participants will get to munch on locusts again at the end of the lecture, but a giraffe tasting is doubtful.
“The mission of the festival is to change the way the Jewish community thinks about food,” explains Leventhal. “Food is an incredible, powerful way of involving and educating people about Jewish culture, heritage and law. It connects people right across the community, regardless of their backgrounds.
“Rabbi Belovski’s lectures, for example, are a brilliant way of exciting and involving people in what is essentially a lecture about kashrut. They involve people who would never normally attend any shiur or lecture on Halacha.”
Leventhal sees the festival as a potential gateway to other Jewish studies. “It can lead people to cooking more traditional Jewish meals, or to other studies. You never know what domino effect such an event has. For example, involvement in the festival has affected my personal life.
I’m far more mindful about what I eat, which is one of the key things about the Jewish approach to food. I’ve gone from eating meat four to five days a week, to once or twice every two weeks.”
“My wife will tell you that I’ve become a much better cook, and I can tell you where bagels came from, three ways to prepare gefilte fish and the differences between Ashkenazi and Sephardi food,” notes Leventhal, who keeps kosher but admits that “it only came on after I met my wife.”
Gefiltefest has had other unexpected results.
“For several years, we had Muslim caterers who were refugees from Somalia and Eritrea.
We arranged kashrut supervision, and they came along; it was the first time they’d been invited to cater a Jewish event. They told me that from everything they’d read and heard, they expected to be hated.
But we received them so enthusiastically they said it ‘changed their perception of the Jewish community.’ Those are their exact words.
“One person said their father now bakes bread every day since participating. Another person with a food disorder told me that the festival changed the way they see food, and they reached a turning point in their own personal battle. You never know how you’re affecting people.
“I’m confident that we make an impact that goes beyond, and lasts longer than, the day of the festival.”
Leventhal explains another facet of the Gefiltefest: “It’s very hard, but we cover costs. We donate any profit to Jewish food charities. We’ve supported Leket Israel [The National Food Bank] and the Beit She’an Food Bank via the My Israel organization, and we’ve also donated money to a British-Jewish food charity called Gift.”
Over its four years of existence, the Gefiltefest has raised over £25,000 (NIS 145,000) for food charities. In addition, the event provides a platform for another British-Jewish charity, Tzedek, which has sessions during the event and a stand on the grounds. Tzedek will challenge participants to make dinner costing no more than 33 pence (about NIS 1.90), to drive home the meaning of poverty and food insecurity.
Leventhal’s past fund-raising efforts included a sponsored bike ride in 2013 called the Rabbi Relay Ride – in which 14 rabbis cycled from England’s southernmost point to its northernmost, raising money for food charities.
The newest fund-raiser is The Gefiltefest Cookbook, which features an introduction by Roden and recipes contributed by a fabulous array of 65 Jewish world-renowned cooks, chefs, food writers and restaurateurs.
“Claudia Roden says that every recipe tells a story,” says Leventhal. “It’s true, there’s always a reason for a recipe to exist. You can look at the dish and know where the cooks are from – their community and background. You know where their grandparents came from.
“The Gefiltefest Cookbook contains recipes from Syria, Ethiopia and even China, alongside fresh salads, many ways with chicken, favorite desserts like apple strudel, and, of course, the definitive baked cheesecake, without which no self-respecting Jewish cookbook would be complete.
“Now more than ever, I’m convinced that food is a wonderful way for people to connect. Food excites people. The number of Gefiltefest volunteers alone proves, beyond any doubt, that the passion for food is alive in our community.”
For more information, visit www.gefitlefest.org.The Gefiltefest festival is supported by the Israeli Embassy in London, El Al, Kosher Deli, the Grove Hotel and the London Jewish Cultural Centre.