​"The Unintended Consequences of Technology" will take place on January 17 at 7pm. On top of exciting array of AI experts and a fabulous musician, there will be a carefully conceived and delicious four-course meal. We thought you might want to know what's cooking... and why!

Food insecurity and undernutrition are the most serious and common manifestations of protracted crises, which disrupt both livelihoods and food systems. Although each protracted crisis is different, underlying causes include some combination of conflict, occupation, terrorism, man-made and natural disasters, natural resource pressures, climate change, inequalities, prevalence of poverty, and governance factors. In a future world with a projected population of 9.7 billion people by 2050 and 11 billion people by 2100, proactive food security is one of the greatest challenges to our ingenuity, creativity, and adaptability.

The Committee on World Food Security (CFS) reports to the UN General Assembly. It consists of members of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Program (WFP), and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), in conjunction with civil society (e.g., small-holder farms and fisheries), NGOs, and philanthropic foundations. The mission of CFS is to identify and resolve the challenges to global food security. To this objective, CFS has identified a framework of 11 Principles for action.

​Our meal tonight has been conceived to promote and highlight Principle 10(33): Mitigate the effects of natural and man-made disasters, adapt to climate change, and promote sustainable use of natural resources.

There are several approaches we wish to examine: expanded use of existing space through hydroponic technology (greenhouses, vertical farming, drip agriculture), enhanced traditional husbandry, and biotech/genetically modified initiatives.

Your starter salads were grown right here in NYC, in high tech greenhouses in Brooklyn and Queens. Gotham Greens operates nearly 170,000 square feet of greenhouses that provide year-round local, organic, pesticide-free produce to customers in New York and Chicago.

Interestingly, a warming ocean results in benefits to some species, including cephalopods. Your calamari is wild-caught, and this is not only sustainable but will likely become a seafood staple for both diners and the commercial fishing industry.

Your Oaxacan Mole Chili is more exotic, combining sustainable fair-trade cacao; mass-agriculture beans; ultra-pasturized tomatoes and peppers; and Quorn, a vegan myco (mushroom) protein that provides more fiber, minerals, and protein per gram than meat. Quorn has also been proven to lower LDL (heart attack) and glycemic (diabetes) risk.

The dates used in your dessert are produced in Israel using advanced breeding, water-restrictive selection techniques and drip irrigation.

FULL MENU

• Mixed green salad with tomatoes
• Crispy-jacketed calamari, Chinese style
• Oaxacan Mole Chili con Quorn; plantains
• Vegan Snickers

Cross-posted from the Union for Reform Judaism Blog.

​I gravitate toward cookbooks – of any kind, really. I think though, that there is something very Jewish about the way I use cookbooks, and the way I use Jewish cookbooks, in particular.
First, I love exploring the history and geography of food through cookbooks. I contemplate insights they offer into the origins and uses of foods, and what can be gleaned about the individuals behind the recipes.

Second, I use recipes to spark creativity and invention. If imitation is a sincere form of flattery, taking a recipe and arguing with it, bringing new sources into the mix, and coming up with a bold new creation is true Talmudic love.

These tendencies are exacerbated while talking about the cookbooks of the Jewish people. I love dreaming about the lives and foods of Jews around the world and debating about why those exact seven vegetables must go over the couscous, or whether the chicken in a pomegranate walnut sauce could instead be replaced by a butternut squash. These debates are fierce and never-ending.

I recently visited a dear friend’s summer house in the Berkshires, and I happened upon a cookbook he had (which quickly changed hands) called Jewish Cookery from Boston to Baghdad. As my husband Brian and I perused it, we gravitated toward a recipe for Libyan eggplant fritters stuffed with mushrooms and cheese.

The recipe is called “manna sandwiches,” and the explanation given is that “this and similar ‘sandwich’ dishes are said, in Libya, to represent manna between two layers of dew.”

I find this quite poetic. Manna, the substance God provided for the Israelites while they wandered the desert, supposedly tastes differently to different people, according to the Talmud. It also signifies finding something miraculous. For instance, the phrase “like manna from Heaven” might be deployed when a person unexpectedly spies a fantastic Jewish cookbook in a summer house.

Neither descriptor is exactly true of the eggplant, though to me, it is queen of the vegetables for its versatility, fascinating texture, and how much fun it is to prepare it. It can be salted to remove the bitterness. It can be battered and fried to produce a crispy shell around a meltingly soft interior. Funnily enough, my husband can fry eggplant better than me, the queen of this queen of vegetables. This, needless to say, translates directly into my endless devotion to him, and my new favorite humblebrag. (“Oh, my eggplant? It’s terrible – compared to my husband’s…”)

It is said that King Solomon composed the Shabbat eve song “Aishes Chayil” (“Woman of Valor” from Proverbs 31), with our Jewish matriarch Sarah in mind. As Rabbi Pinchas Winston said, “This is what makes a true Aishes Chayil, of whom King Solomon wrote. She possesses the ability, above all else, to transform her non-spiritual reality into one of tremendous spirituality, even when all the surrounding elements are working against her.”

I think the idea of manna sandwiches made of eggplant accomplishes something similar: transcending the ordinary into the sublime through food. Food is about more than sustenance; it is about expressing oneself, one’s values and identities, and is best when eaten in community.

​My husband and I are the cooks for FED, a community where you are fed delicious food, inspirational ideas, and the company and creative energy of others. We prepared the manna sandwich recipe for this year’s Yom Kippur break-fast, with wonderful results. The eggplant is crunchy, and the cheese and mushrooms inside are pure umami. Try it for yourself!

Manna Sandwiches (adapted by Brian Shelby from Jewish Cooking from Boston to Baghdad)

• 1 large eggplant
• salt
• 1/2 lb. fresh mushrooms, chopped
• 1 medium onion, finely minced
• 1 tsp. dried sage
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 lb. cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 lb. parmesan cheese, grated
• 1 egg yolk, beaten
• flour
• bread crumbs
• salt and pepper
• oil
• (cornstarch can be substituted for flour and bread crumbs to make it gluten free)

Instructions:

1. Peel and cut eggplant into slices less than 1/2 inch thick. Cut each slice into rectangles about 1-1/2 by 2 inches. Place in a colander and sprinkle with salt. Let stand for about 30 minutes.
2. Sautee onion in olive oil until transparent. Add mushrooms and sage and sautee lightly. Cool.
3. Add cream cheese, parmesan and a pinch of salt. Blend well. Add egg yolk. Mix.
4. Rinse eggplant pieces and pat dry with paper towels. Dredge in flour. Fry lightly in oil until soft and just golden but retaining their shape.
5. Spread half the eggplant pieces with the cheese mixture. Cover with another piece to make a sandwich.
6. Beat remaining eggs and dip each sandwich into egg and then into seasoned breadcrumbs, completely covering. Fry in deep, hot oil for about 3 minutes or until crisp but not too brown. Drain on paper towels. Serve immediately.

​If you find yourself in New York City, come celebrate joyous occasions at FED! View upcoming events.

It is my pleasure to present you with... Rosh Hashanah Menus! Just in time for High Holidays 2018 - see our full offerings for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur here.

Brian and I think long and hard about menus. For Rosh Hashanah, there is a rich tradition to work with of simanim, culinary omens for a sweet and successful new year. Many of them involve plays on words in Hebrew or Aramaic - that ensure that our enemies will get cut off (yikartu - a pun on karti, leeks) or that we be fruitful and multiply (like fish). Look for the following simanim reflected in these menus: apples, dates, fish, leeks, squash, carrots, beets, and black-eyed peas. The meals are pescatarian, and we can accommodate dietary needs upon request, including vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, etc. 

Served both nights:
-Homemade round challah baked with honey
-Moroccan carrot salad
-Rainbow salad with Swiss chard, apples, carrots, and a creamy
 avocado lime dressing
-Roasted beet chips with a creamy topping
-Couscous tagine with squash, chickpeas, and carrots

1st Night only (Sunday, September 9, 7pm):
-African-Brazilian black-eyed pea fritters with coconut dipping sauce
-Fried fish served over frisee with crispy leeks
Dessert:
-Apple cake

2nd night only (Monday, September 10, 7pm):
-Leek and potato fritters
-Sephardic fish stewed in peppers and tomatoes
Dessert:
-Honey cake with dates

Please join us for one or both meals at FED House.
​RSVP Here!

FED - an intentional community based in Harlem, NYC - feeds you with delicious food, inspirational art and ideas, and the creative energy of others you find here. For the first time, this year FED will be offering services and meals for the Jewish High Holidays, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. There is a universal need for spiritual experiences, for a sense of community and belonging. FED offers a platform for creativity and dialogue where those from a variety of backgrounds feel welcome and included. It so happens that creativity with the tradition and how it can inspire reflection, help us find and realize a sense of purpose, and be our best selves is to me what Judaism - and FED - is all about. 

For Rosh Hashanah on September 9-11, Hadar Cohen will lead us in interactive services incorporating sound and movement, and two delicious dinners will mark the start of the Jewish New Year. For Yom Kippur, we are hosting a service on September 18 at 7pm called Kol Nidre, perhaps the most dramatic, significant and powerful service in the Jewish calendar, which launches the Day of Atonement. In a participatory music theatre take on the Jewish ritual, Mátti Kovler and members of Floating Tower will explore the parallels between different versions of Kol Nidre (from the Persian, Yemenite and Turkish traditions) and other magical incantations. (Featuring Parham Haghighi, voice, Laura Derover, electronics, and others.)

We continue the next day at 4pm with Ne'ila, as the Book of Life is being sealed for the year. Dario Helman will lead us in an immersive experience called "Therapeutic Chevruta (study in pairs)," weaving together the personal introspection of psychoanalysis with the collectivism of religion for some deep conversations in a trusted environment. Opera singer and Jewish innovator Marques Hollie will perform from the rich holiday liturgy. All this hard work is then rewarded with a Break Fast, a delicious communal meal. Please join us!

More Info and RSVP: https://fedhighholidays.splashthat.com/

There is a universal need for spiritual experiences, for a sense of community and belonging - all year round, and especially on the High Holidays. It goes back to the reason I founded FED: New York City is teeming with extraordinary people, yet it can feel isolating, lonely and impersonal. Furthermore, in today's polarized discourse, too often we find groups speaking only amongst those with whom they agree. I envision an ideal Jewish community, powered by the Jewish values of hospitality, openness and dialogue, that can ameliorate these challenges. In order to do this, as an entrepreneur and chef, food is my personal artistic expression and also my convening tool: it lowers social barriers to entry and fosters connection (not to mention that at FED it is vegetable-forward, home-cooked, and delicious!). 

The coming High Holidays will be a special mix of these FED ingredients that make a greater whole: a platform for Jewish creativity where those from a variety of backgrounds feel welcome and included. Indeed, creativity with the tradition and how it can inspire reflection, help us find and realize a sense of purpose, and be our best selves is to me what Judaism (and FED) is all about.

There are two final ingredients without which FED would not be possible. The first is the rich collaboration with artists, facilitators, speakers, and other sorts of rockstars who bring their energy and their full selves to the party. For the High Holidays, we have Hadar Cohen, a spiritual leader and community organizer manifesting visions of feminism, soulful prayer, and communal care, who will lead us for Rosh Hashanah. Composer Matti Kovler, the founder of Floating Tower, together with singer Parham Haghighi and Laura Derover on electronics will produce the Kol Nidre musical theater. Opera singer and Jewish innovator Marques Hollie will perform and Dario Helman, an analyst of modern psychology and religious practice as systems of transformation, will bring us the unique workshop as Yom Kippur closes that will take us through "Therapeutic Chevruta". 

The most special ingredient to FED is also the most simple and priceless: love, home, and all those visceral feelings that go back to the childhood vignettes I described at the beginning. I co-create FED together with my husband Brian Shelby in our home, a former firehouse converted to loft apartments in Harlem. This is our home, and we want it to be yours, too! If this vision for Judaism, the High Holidays, creativity, and community speaks to you, please come connect! I hope to host you soon, and in the meantime, wishing you and yours a Shana Tova, a sweet and beautiful new year. 

For more information about High Holidays at FED and how YOU can join us: https://fedhighholidays.splashthat.com. See you at FED!

Allow me to tell you a secret: I have great admiration for those of you who have savvy in getting folks to be better together than they would be by themselves.

You are combating apathy, disconnection, and disaffiliation in today's America. You are asking the right questions about the meaning of being together in this time and place -- and answering them through fantastically creative avenues and programs.

If you feel that being a pioneer and a shepherd all rolled up in one can sometimes be exhausting, or challenging, here’s something to cheer you up: You are not alone, and I have a recipe that will feed us all ;-).

Those who know me know that all menus are preceded by a story, so here is mine:

Four years ago, I set out on a journey to interview about 30 Jewish community builders to learn what we all had in common and what our challenges were. They all had a desire to get to know others due to an insatiable curiosity for and fundamental love of people; a knack for retaining knowledge about others so as to formulate helpful connections between disparate parties on the spot; and an ability to employ these talents for the sake of driving forward projects, and ultimately missions. Sound familiar?

But more than that, the vision that came out of those interviews was that there was a need for a network of “network-weavers” (don’t worry, they didn’t call themselves that, either).

Since then, I founded a community that restores our human capacity for empathy through delicious food, inspirational ideas, artistic performances, and dialogue with people from diverse backgrounds who engage with Jewish creativity and culture.
I called it FED: it’s like TED, but you get fed.

As Victor Hugo (the French guy*) said: nothing is more compelling than an idea whose time has come. So tell me what you think of this menu.

1. Hand-picked invitees, chosen for their brilliant minds and community-building efforts, with a bent towards community engagement and the arts.
2. Get them together, with their passions and experiences.
3. Put them in a Harlem Loft.
4. Have a French facilitator* pose meaningful questions to feed their souls (he didn’t know how to cook), and a New Yorker chef (yeah NYC!) to feed their stomachs with delicious food. 
5. Bake for a few hours.
6. Enjoy the company.
7. Create a first and one-of-a-kind woven meeting.
8. Explore the feasibility of all of us doing complementary work.
9. Allow us to achieve more together than we could alone.
10. Lay the foundation of an up-and-coming Professional Field.

Yield: One Batch of Widening Your Vision for Creativity, Connection, and Action.

*About that French facilitator: The conversation will be facilitated by Ruben Uzan, who has expertise in the influence industry of advertising; the authority industry of politics; and in the reshaping industry, where he facilitates collective identity-building for self-organized communities, nonprofits and the private sector with brand-storming workshops.

Let me know if you are interested in participating, and/or what thoughts you have about this idea. We hope to find a date in early December. Also, if you have colleagues or know others who you think should be part of the conversation, I would welcome the opportunity to connect with them.

Menu

To go along with these stimulating intellectual activities, I wanted to create a menu that explores vegetarian food pushed to the extreme -- which is to say: How could I take foods that are traditionally meat-centric and produce vegetarian versions of them? Well, here goes:

Appetizers
Burger-> Cheese-stuffed mushroom burger 
Caesar Salad-> Kale salad with crispy chickpeas 

Soup
Chili-> Butternut squash chipotle chili 

Main Course
General Tso's-> Sesame cauliflower
Meatballs-> Vegetarian spaghetti and meatballs
Served with: Roasted broccolini (I mean you need a vegetable, after all)

Dessert
Carrot cake
(I couldn't think of any meat-centric desserts, so I decided upon a different transformation: Vegetable -> Cake!
​

...and it's California Beach themed!

Our menu this evening will be in collaboration with Moving Gastronomy. Check it out:

Menu

First Course
Guacamole with cumin-dusted corn chips
Fennel, orange, feta salad, Green Goddess dressing 
Wilted napa cabbage with mock crab, sesame crisps, alfalfa sprouts, ginger-soy-citrus dressing

Second Course
Lumpia (Filipino spring rolls) with duck

Third Course
Battered fish tacos, ranch dressing, white corn tortillas
Mango salsa with cilantro and lime
Frijoles negros and rice with stewed onions

Fourth Course
Tehina cookies with date jam​
Lemon pie

Ever wonder what happens behind the scenes when FED comes about? Here's the step-by-step that has led me to new experiences, friendships, and adventures!

1. Make new friends. Sometimes, all it takes is meeting new people for entire new worlds to open up. The dinner came about because I had the pleasure of meeting Monica Huayna Chirinos, who is Peruvian, through my dear friend Aimee Weiss.

2. But keep the old. As the song would have it, friends like Aimee are solid gold. Aimee and I are more than friends -- we're cooking buddies. When Aimee traveled in Peru, she kept a list of Peruvian delicacies, knowing that at some point we would recreate them. With Monica on board to lend her Peruvian know-how, the time is now!

3. Break out of your bubble. I feel so fortunate to live in New York City, where if you're not having eye-opening cultural exchanges, it's your own fault, for they are always just around the corner -- or at least in the next borough. Brian and I went to Jackson Heights, Queens to shop at Mi Tierra, a grocery store featuring an overwhelming variety of Mexican, Central and South American products (yes, this is what we do for fun). We had an intense experience in the Peruvian aisle, where we were assaulted by not just one, but at least five different brands of achiote paste, a brightly colored condiment made from red annatto seeds. We also found chicha, a beverage derived from maize; cancha, a popular snack akin to popcorn made from a variety of corn called maiz chulpe; and, critical to the production of Peruvian food: aji amarillo, a brilliantly yellow chili pepper native to the Andes. Oh, and a little dulce de leche never hurts.

Inspired to try some Peruvian food? Here is the full menu to further excite you!

Menu
Humitas with cheese (buttery corn cakes)
Salted fava beens and cancha (toasted corn)
Solterito de quinua (chopped salad with quinoa)
Fried plantains

Parihuela (fisherman's stew)

Peruvian roast chicken
Fried yucca
Papa a la Huancaina (potatoes with Huancayo cheese sauce)

Alfajores​ (dulce de leche confections)

​Tea provided by RUNA, a socially conscious tea company whose mission is "to improve livelihoods for indigenous farmers in the Amazon. We believe people everywhere can benefit from the bounty of the rainforest without destroying it." www.runa.org

Space is limited -- RSVP Today!