Free-range shwar­ma. Artisi­nal gefilte fish. Mar­i­jua­na mat­zo balls. The gold­en age of Jew­ish food makes us wan­na chal­lah! Come meet cut­ting-edge writ­ers and chefs who are rev­o­lu­tion­iz­ing Amer­i­can Jew­ish cui­sine. Mod­er­at­ed by Bari Weiss.

As the own­er and exec­u­tive chef of The Rag­ing Skil­let, Chef Rossi has earned a rep­u­ta­tion as the one to call when it’s time to do things dif­fer­ent­ly. The Rag­ing Skil­let has been described as a ​“rebel anti-cater­er” by The New York Times and ​“the wildest thing this side of the Mason-Dixon line” by Zagat, and has been named one of The Knot​’s Best Wed­ding Cater­ers for the past five years. Rossi has writ­ten for Bust, The Dai­ly News, The New York Post, The Huff­in­g­ton Post, Time Out New York, and McSweeney’s. She is the host of a long-run­ning radio show called ​“Bite This,” and has been fea­tured on The Food Net­work and NPR.

A 2011 James Beard Award win­ner for ​“Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic,” Chef Michael Solomonov is the co-own­er and exec­u­tive chef of Zahav, Philadelphia’s renowned mod­ern Israeli restau­rant. He also owns Per­cy Street Bar­be­cue, Fed­er­al Donuts, and the recent­ly opened Dizen­goff (hum­mus and small sal­ads) and Abe Fish­er (small plates of Jew­ish food inspired by coun­tries out­side Israel), all in Philadelphia.
 

Michael W. Twit­ty, a food writer, inde­pen­dent schol­ar, culi­nary his­to­ri­an, and his­tor­i­cal inter­preter per­son­al­ly charged with prepar­ing, pre­serv­ing, and pro­mot­ing African Amer­i­can food­ways and its par­ent tra­di­tions in Africa and her Dias­po­ra and its lega­cy in the food cul­ture of the Amer­i­can South.

Michael is a Juda­ic stud­ies teacher from the Wash­ing­ton D.C. met­ro­pol­i­tan area where inter­ests include food cul­ture, food his­to­ry, Jew­ish cul­tur­al issues, African Amer­i­can his­to­ry, and cul­tur­al pol­i­tics. His book, The Cook­ing Gene: A Jour­ney Through African-Amer­i­can Culi­nary His­to­ry in the Old South , will be pub­lished by Harper­Collins in 2016.

Today, along with her cousin Josh Russ Tup­per, Niki Russ Fed­er­man is the fourth gen­er­a­tion to own and run Russ & Daugh­ters’ land­mark appe­tiz­ing shop on East Hous­ton Street, its online busi­ness, Russ & Daugh­ters Cafe (restau­rant on Orchard Street), Russ & Daugh­ters at the Jew­ish Muse­um (kosher restau­rant and take­out appe­tiz­ing counter), and Russ & Daugh­ters Bagels & Bak­ery (where they bake the most tra­di­tion­al bagels, bialys, babkas, and breads for all of their locations).

Host­ed at the Jew­ish Muse­um in New York City (1109 5th Avenue), Unpack­ing the Book: Jew­ish Writ­ers in Con­ver­sa­tion brings togeth­er some of the finest writ­ers of the day for con­ver­sa­tions around con­tem­po­rary Jew­ish life and iden­ti­ty. This event is FREE with pay-what-you-want admis­sion and includes wine and refresh­ments, a book sale and sign­ing, and the oppor­tu­ni­ty to vis­it the Jew­ish Muse­um gal­leries on the day of the pro­gram; how­ev­er, space is lim­it­ed and guests must reg­is­ter in advance.