Episode 88: New York Times bestselling cookbook author Jake Cohen returns to the podcast to discuss everything from Katie Couric's Tupperware to making Kiddush on Fire Island. Jake's new cookbook, 'I Could Nosh' will be released September 12th and is available for pre-order now!
Follow Jake on Instagram @JakeCohen.
For information about upcoming shows visit www.modilive.com.
Follow Modi on Instagram at @modi_live.
Episode 88: New York Times bestselling cookbook author Jake Cohen returns to the podcast to discuss everything from Katie Couric's Tupperware to making Kiddush on Fire Island. Jake's new cookbook, 'I Could Nosh' will be released September 12th and is available for pre-order now!
Follow Jake on Instagram @JakeCohen.
For information about upcoming shows visit www.modilive.com.
Follow Modi on Instagram at @modi_live.
Finally, let's go with the Welcome to Andy's Modi. And here we are, back at Andy's Modi. Hi everyone. We have in the studio today Jake Cohen.
Speaker 2:Hi, jake, welcome back. I'm so excited to be back. It's been such a journey since last time.
Speaker 3:Yes, you were here episode 56, which was back in December, and this will be episode 80, something.
Speaker 1:Wow, 80 deep, 88, 89. Yeah, one of those.
Speaker 3:Welcome back. I think we've gotten a little bit better since you've been here.
Speaker 2:I mean also. It's just like our relationship has changed.
Speaker 1:Oh, completely, we are family, we are family, we are family, truly.
Speaker 3:We are family. Bread has been broken.
Speaker 2:Bread has been broken, drinks have been had. There is no connection like moving into a house with someone. I always say it's like the only way to get close with someone is to like replicate real world.
Speaker 3:Absolutely yes, yes.
Speaker 1:That's basically what that was.
Speaker 3:So to fill you guys in, if you case you haven't been following.
Speaker 1:Hold on one second Speaking of family. Speaking of family, the podcast has a family. Besides you, jake, we have our sponsors, our collaborators, our friends. A and H provisions, the best which we brought to the house.
Speaker 2:Yes, you have to bring for Labor Day.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, and it was amazing. And A and H provisions the best kosher meets Glock. Kosher meets best hot dogs in the world. Even goyim know how good they are. They know that there's a difference and their website is kosherdogsnet.
Speaker 3:You used to code MODI for 30% off your first order.
Speaker 1:MODI for your code to get your 30% off, and our friends at Whites and Luxembourg, the law firm. Whites and Luxembourg the law firm you want on your side. If ever has the shalom, you need a law firm, that's who you need, wow.
Speaker 3:We have kosher meet and law firms. That's true. I love it. I love it. It's in the world.
Speaker 1:And their website is WhitesLuxcom. And Seth is from A and H is our friend, and Arthur Luxembourg a close friend of the podcast. And now their family, their podcast family. And again, living with you in the house was an experience. What house, what house? Okay, we went to Fire Island together, we. Last time we were here, we spoke about it. Kim Kushner made the shirrdech when we ate at her house that you and I and us, we're going to all be would be great for Shabbat dinner together. And you said to us, we found a Fire Island house. It has an extra room and those of you who don't know what Fire Island house is, let's subscribe this.
Speaker 3:So we have a quarter share, which means we get five weeks spread throughout the summer. So you get like a week in May, a week in June, a month, a week a month, basically. And so we're coming up on our final week for Labor Day. So it will be our fifth week hanging out together in the house in Fire Island.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so it's. Everybody gets a room. It's a house, it's on the bay, there's a deck, it's stunning. The house is massive. Everybody has their own little vinkel, their own little corner in the house and there's a kitchen. That's gorgeous and you can entertain, and Jake is entertaining and I cannot explain to you.
Speaker 1:So when you have this, they take turns cooking and all that. We didn't have to, jake, the food you made was unbelievable. And then we have another person that's in the house, michael Kleinman, who always tries to impress you by his cooking which is good.
Speaker 2:He's a great cook. He's a great cook. He's a great cook, which is great, cause I love a night off, that's it Right.
Speaker 1:And he killed it with a few dishes he made and barbecued and he was ordering things from the mainland. It was crazy, and we ate a lot of the recipes from your, from your book yes, from your second cookbook I Could Nosh, which comes out September 12th.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, it's fine, cause I've talked about this a lot. I was just with with Isaac Mizrahi, who we're making that shidah with too, cause he's obsessed with you too, and it was about the Tupperware of cake that I would bring every time, this legendary Tupperware, the legendary.
Speaker 1:Well, tell them how this Tupperware is. So it was it was.
Speaker 2:it was Katie Kirk's Tupperware that she gave me cause we, we hang out and we cook and she's like, oh, take this Tupperware. It was. This is like crazy backstory to it. So it was meaningful to her and it became our tradition because I was baking something. It was right before we were leaving for Fire Island. I just like flipped the cake out into the Tupperware, slapped the lid on and brought it out and that was the upside down banana bread that we like picked at.
Speaker 1:Amazing Wow.
Speaker 2:It's a tradition that every week I'll bring a Tupperware full of cake.
Speaker 3:In the Katie Kirk Tupperware. In the Katie Kirk Tupperware.
Speaker 2:It was in the Katie Kirk.
Speaker 1:But is it? Can we tell the backstory of where that Tupperware?
Speaker 2:came from or no, we can I, I it was, it was, it's just, it was from her, her late husband's funeral, and she and someone brought it to her and she gave me this whole story when she. She gave it to me so I was like, oh, I have to give it back to her.
Speaker 1:So, like you have to understand, we're in the house and the cake is there and everybody just it's not, no one cuts it up and takes it. We just take our forks and dig in like like Behame is like animals, but for me, every time I took it out, I would always say is the chronal of Racha, of blessed memory.
Speaker 3:It was Katie Kirk's ex. Well, it's like your joke about the Shiva that everyone's bringing their food to the house. Yeah but it was. It was a special cake.
Speaker 1:And then and then, one of the highlights we had, highlights and lowlights for the Jewish community yes, yes, so in Fire Island, you, you, you have your home with whoever your friends are, and there's people who have their own home and then people who have you. It's a rental, like an Airbnb, but like it's special because you have to really organize and be in harmony with everybody in the house. And Jake, if people don't know, is famous for his Hala. Yes, there's cookbook, he's famous for a lot of things.
Speaker 2:This is cookbook coming out and he's the best thing.
Speaker 1:He's famous for many things, but the Hala is unbelievable. If you are blessed enough to have a Jake Cohen Hala, you've made it Very special.
Speaker 2:You've made it no privilege.
Speaker 1:When you get a video of you receiving a Jake Cohen Hala. So now we knew that there were a lot of Jewish people on the island, jewish guys. They were all over the island and and we figured you know what, every night we eat this Hala. Jake said let's do an invitation. We'll have, I'll make, instead of two Hala's, four, five, six, whatever you made. They'll all come over. We'll make kiddish, we'll make, we eat the Hala, everybody have a little bit, and then they'll all go back to their homes for their respective dinners.
Speaker 3:They weren't all eating at our house. This was Jake's workaround to everyone trying to invite themselves to our Shabbat. That is true, that is.
Speaker 2:it's like what are you guys doing for Shabbat? What are you doing for Shabbat? Everyone wanted an invite to Shabbat and we love, we love taking in stragglers for Shabbat.
Speaker 3:You love but 50 people.
Speaker 2:But it's like we are a house of seven or eight and we like to get to 12, max 10 really is like the sweet spot for Shabbat.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And so that we can have like a conversation. It could be meaningful, that's not a catering hall.
Speaker 1:It's not a catering hall. No, it's not a soup kitchen either.
Speaker 2:We ended up with like like 40, 50 guys in the house 40, 50 guys came to the house to hear kiddish.
Speaker 1:To hear kiddish. They wouldn't have heard kiddish, they wouldn't have had a Hala, never mind a Jake Cohen Hala. And they came in and we're on the beach. Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 2:Everybody's in bathing suits and everybody's in speed ups and everybody's in everybody's in tank tops and yamakas.
Speaker 1:And I brought. For some reason that week I grabbed a bunch of yamakas and threw them into my bag and we had it and you made and for some reason you wore and you had a green crop top. Yes For more company-centered too.
Speaker 2:It's this Instagram account that a lot of people probably familiar with called Old Jewish Men, and it's a female crop top that says Pickle Princess, and it was just, I mean what you doesn't love pickles and it's just funny. It's very camp. It's the perfect kind of like intersection of Jewish gay culture.
Speaker 1:So it was like why not, and I had, and you wore green shorts and this was green.
Speaker 2:I looked like a giant pickle.
Speaker 1:I happened to have a green satin yamaka, because my rabbi, gav, which was a friend of the podcast, always makes yamakas for the shul and this was one of the Purim yamakas. We had it said adaloyadayana and anyway. So Jake's outfit was green, green, green. It was amazing. He made the, you made the blessing on the candles, you made, I made the kiddish and you did the khala, and now there's 60 people, 50 guys, standing around Again, all in bathing suits, tank tops, casual. The whole island is casual. This went on line.
Speaker 2:Someone taped. You guys made the blessing.
Speaker 1:Someone taped us.
Speaker 2:With the intention of how beautiful is that With the intention of what Mashiach energy is happening here.
Speaker 3:You're on a sandbar. You're on a sandbar eating.
Speaker 1:Jake Kowon khala, hearing kiddish making Hamotsi. This is amazing. So it went out. Many people were like this is wonderful, I wish I could be there, I wish my son was there, I wish this was there. And then there were the nasty people, the really horrible, horrible people who were judgy. Why would you make kiddish wearing that? Why would you do? And it brought me right to this thought of one of my gurus, dr Wayne Dyer. He always said when you judge somebody, you're not defining them, you're defining yourself as someone who needs to judge. So when they're saying, you know, it's their problem, it's their, they're judging themselves. Why would you wear shorts when you're making kiddish? That was it.
Speaker 3:Let's be real. Their issue was not with the shorts, their issue was with it was a group of gays, a group of gays, but it's their problem.
Speaker 1:And you know usually, the more you have a problem with something is because that problem is within you.
Speaker 3:Yes, someone who?
Speaker 1:doesn't have a problem with gay or homosexuality, has, just okay, this gay guy's making kiddish gizunthehate. Enjoy yourself. If you are digging and writing and pulling up, slugging up Gamorahs and Torah, you have a problem with it. I'll give you an example. I have a friend, brian Gross. He's a guy who run jokes by a friend of mine. He's my litmus test in the Orthodox Jewish community because he's in there, but he's normal. But he's normal. So I on the phone I'm running some material by him and he says to me I saw the video. I go, okay, no. So he says I have no problem with it, which means others have a problem with it, right. And then he says to me in his little tone he says to me let me ask you a question by gay people is it always Purim?
Speaker 3:Yes, the answer is yes. Yes, it is yes, and you should live your life the same way and you should live your life always Purim.
Speaker 1:Enjoy yourself, wear something fun.
Speaker 2:This conversation comes up a lot. We love, like a a a Shabbos debate, I think, in true Jewish fashion. We love an opportunity to gather community and debate Torah culture community. I think we're seeing this on and on, going with like there are a million reasons why we need to be doing this right now, but once something has been coming up a lot in the instance of that, and what we did is this concept of modernizing tradition in order to have it still be a part of Jewish life. Where we look at this group of 50 guys and if it wasn't for us creating this space of Shabbat through our lens, then they just wouldn't be doing it and they would just be leaving Jewish tradition behind. And it's the conversation of is it better to adhere to what is defined as traditional or Orthodox or is it better to create something that is sustainable, so it becomes part of their daily life, of living Jewish value, and that that's like. Everything I'm about is like how do we continue Jewish value Through the lens of like, how it works for you?
Speaker 3:And that's very well said and very beautiful. I guess my problem was just like and then I'm gonna drop this, cause I wanna talk about the book was that just everyone's main point down to being you can't be Jewish and gay at the same time? And that's where you hit a wall with me.
Speaker 1:And again, it's you can't be, it's you they can't. They're in their own world struggling, and they're nasty, it's always people with like no profile picture and like one post and I'm like.
Speaker 3:And then they put they said that man Sean outlawing with man, he should be put to death. And I literally responded to one. I was like I'll send you my address. Come try to like put me to death.
Speaker 2:There's nothing I want more than like you have a confrontation. I favor you. It's gonna be Leo and I in a ring.
Speaker 3:And we would take them cause we work out.
Speaker 1:Oh, I have no patience for them, I don't. It's the. Let me explain to you something. They're already punished, of course, because they're themselves, they live with themselves.
Speaker 3:And they have no gays in the right.
Speaker 1:They have no horrible existence to be that you have a problem with 50 gay men making kiddos and having Hamotsi. You have a problem with that, then you really have your own problem. You really. You're a sad person Like jealousy. What's the what's the? What's the punishment of jealousy, jealousy? What's the punishment of being judgy and being judgmental is that you are that person. You poor thing. I feel so bad for them. That's why I don't come for them. And when that one guy came for us the Yoysel and Mansi I that I no, no, but he did it with Torah behind him. I'll give you, I'll give you Torah behind it. I'll give you, don't, don't, don't come to me with that.
Speaker 1:But this is people never would have heard Kirish that day. Maybe, maybe this, maybe some of them left and said I think we should do this every Friday, I think, whatever, and it's their Shabbos, it's not your Shabbos, it's their Shabbos and that's what it is. Period, and there is nothing better for a Shabbos than a recipe from Jake Cohen. I could not Period Emmys 100%. I was. I will not.
Speaker 2:Well, I could not, I could not. It's been the funniest thing throughout the summer Modi getting the name.
Speaker 1:You're not dyslexic. You know I can. You should be glad I got some of the words.
Speaker 2:I love it. I love it.
Speaker 3:So how has it been? So the book comes out September 12th, yes, and you're doing a big event at the Stryker.
Speaker 2:Center. Yes, is that how you say it Stryker Center, stryker Center.
Speaker 3:With Isaac Mazzarahi right.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:And so what do you? How does the book tour work, Like, where are you going? What do you?
Speaker 1:do. I will just set one thing up. Jake went into the summer like this I am letting my hair down, and by hair down, hair off. I am letting my hair down because you are ready to go. This was your summer to relax before you go on the road.
Speaker 2:I mean, you know the drill. It's funny because I feel like Modi doing this. All right, and then it's tour, september 12th, the Stryker Center in New York.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you gotta push it.
Speaker 2:I did a tour for my last book. That was like hybrid. So it was like because it was still like COVID-ish, so it was like half in person, half virtual. This is my first time doing like full on the road, nonstop and like bigger venues, which is a blessing. So I'm launching in a lot of Jewish places because that's where that's home, that's where it's a great place to start with community. So, launching at the Stryker Center on September 12th with Isaac Mizrahi, then we go to Joy-Z doing words bookstore in Maplewood with Taffy Ackner, the incredible Jewess who wrote Fleischman's in Trouble, and then we take a quick break for Rosh Hashanah and then I'm back to do Toronto and then it's Yom Kapor and then I go to Philly where I'm doing the Weitzman Center with Mike Salamanov, and then we head to the guest of the show.
Speaker 2:Exactly, we head to LA where I'm doing the Skirball Center with Alex Edelman. Yes, as a guest of the show. And then I do San Francisco. When you say with Alex Edelman, what does that mean In conversation like, for example, if you weren't on your crazy Euro in rail tour, you would be doing one of these conversations with us on stage talking about the book. Maybe we do a demo and then I go into the book signing.
Speaker 1:By the way, I am very good in a demo and I now have a chef code that says Modi.
Speaker 2:I am demoed. Listen, you know, the first thing I did was checked your tour schedule. It saw that you were out of town on the tail. Yeah, otherwise you know we would have been there.
Speaker 2:You would be there, yeah, so it's really fun because this is like the moment where you get to see an IRL and, unlike, I think, the In real life, those of you who don't know In real life Because I do not know the big difference which is so fascinating, is so much of what I do on this tour is like splitting up my time into like these little vignettes with every person, since, like you're going, you're signing, you're talking and people have like a quick moment to share with you so they're giving like the biggest punch. It's like their favorite recipe of yours, some family history, how they're connected to you.
Speaker 1:Oh, my aunt's mother knows your grandma, yeah, yeah, yeah, all this stuff.
Speaker 2:And it's both like incredibly beautiful stuff, some like more touching stuff, cause food is so integrated in people's lives, both positive and a lot of like incredible memories around people who have passed, and to be a part of that journey is special, and that's what I want with this book. I think with the first book it was so rooted around the holidays, so rooted around like big celebrations, shabon, and this book is about like everyday Jewish hospitality. I always say this is like my grandma hospitality book of like embracing that vibe that we kind of really grew up with, or it's like someone's coming over. How am I going to feed them quickly?
Speaker 3:Just a little, not a whole meal, not a whole production, just like a little, a notch, a notch.
Speaker 2:But the people think that's like oh, a snack. Well, when you think, when I think of, like my grandmother, my mother-in-law, a lot of these are big, like big scale items that then you keep in the fridge and the freezer, so you have leftovers for days.
Speaker 1:Oh, you're hungry.
Speaker 2:Let me heat you up a plate of this. Let me heat you up a bowl of that. Always have something sweet out on the counter. I was coming here. The funny thing is it's like obviously I forgot to bring the physical book. Why? Because I was so set on bringing some cake for Leo.
Speaker 3:Because this is your favorite. He brought cake everyone. If you could.
Speaker 1:You can't even imagine how good that is.
Speaker 3:We are getting their multi-cam views right Just because.
Speaker 1:I'm a single wife, I have a good one on me. I have a good shop on me. This is not the Katie Kirk Tupperware. There's not the Katie Kirk Tupperware. Let me open it, keep it on me, let's see how. Oh, oh, you can't really, it's just Lift it up, yeah, ah.
Speaker 3:So this is.
Speaker 1:Are you on my camera, ha?
Speaker 2:ha, ha ha, oh God, all smushed because this is, it's so good Simice cake.
Speaker 1:But we just in the house, we just chicken the ticking, the ticking, the ticking. So what's the Simice cake? What's like this?
Speaker 2:So it's like a play on carrot cake but inside it's carrots and sweet potatoes and prunes and cinnamon and orange zest, so it's all of the kind of flavors of Simice into a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. And the best part is it's like this is very decadent and dairy. The cake itself is parved. So I remember when we, when you came over for Hanukkah, I did a version that a friend taught me. It's like whenever you have a parved cake and you need a frosting, you just take cookie butter like Biscoff cookie butter and whip it up with powdered sugar and it's like the perfect parved frosting, voila.
Speaker 1:Voila. No, but that Until this podcast I never looked really understood between having you, mike Salamanoff and who else. But that it's your Mashiach energy. Food is your Mashiach energy. It's insane. I didn't ever realize that. And we had Jackie on. She was like, yeah, I was. When I was groomed with my mother I grew up Such a talent, it's such a Mashiach energy in food Me.
Speaker 2:It's comedy, yeah yeah, of course, maybe people laugh, people happy.
Speaker 1:That's my Mashiach energy. This reveal Mashiach through that. You know and you. It's the food.
Speaker 2:It's the food, but I do think that I think you've gotten to know that, like my first job, first and foremost is a shatchan like making shirrachs is my.
Speaker 3:It is literally. Jake loves to make shirrach.
Speaker 1:Who did you make shirrach with? With Sarah Pasig.
Speaker 3:Yeah, sarah.
Speaker 1:Pasig, that's one of many.
Speaker 2:What a very oh I do romantic.
Speaker 1:People you should know. Shirrach does not mean who you're getting married with and that's it. Shirrach is also friends. Kim Kushner, we cannot thank you enough for making this shirrach with the Fire Island.
Speaker 2:We knew each other Completely.
Speaker 1:But we that the Shabbat dinner of yours, when you had the house and all that that was at the shirrach.
Speaker 2:She made multiple shirrachs. Now Dr Amy Wexler is now my dermatologist, like it's literally.
Speaker 1:Michael Rubberport, yeah.
Speaker 2:Michael Rubberport.
Speaker 1:We met him at Kim Kushner's house.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:She made that shirrach, it's a shirrach. Yeah, it's you, it is a talent, it's a talent.
Speaker 2:When you do that over a meal, with food, you connect people. It's something that it's very interesting because it's a discipline I've had to take in where I have thrown these big shabbats, I've made these crazy connections of people and there's a lot of instances where I connect people who then become closer with each other than they are with me and there is something that's also kind of, but you have to be beautiful and you have to really know that it makes you happy.
Speaker 1:Exactly Because isn't the hey, go be friends, Send them off on their way Exactly You're with her and now I've made.
Speaker 2:Now you're going to Israel and your tour I was a great. You're the people that you need to meet and tell of you.
Speaker 1:Because that's the goal. That's always the goal. Yes, you have to create a vibe too. When you create the vibe and at a Shabbat dinner, things like that happen, you get that yeah.
Speaker 3:So not to switch gears too hard, but the video of your mom seeing the book for the first time.
Speaker 1:Oh the sister too.
Speaker 3:Oh, so sweet.
Speaker 1:Oh, my God.
Speaker 3:It's like your mom is so adorable. It was so sweet seeing her reaction, how she some must be so proud.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's actually the thing that people say the most to me when I'm on tour, when I'm anywhere that they love your mom. They're like oh you know, your mother must be so proud, oh my gosh. That's the number one thing that I get which I love, and this, like this book, I dedicated to my sister, who's truly my best friend, but also the pickiest eater in the world, so it's a good book.
Speaker 1:There's a story behind you, derek. You also wrote. You gave her a shtech but in the Derek, it wasn't just a.
Speaker 2:I love you thing. It was like, hmm, you gave her a shtech. There was just one recipe in this book which I love. It there Havdala Snickerdoodle. So there's Snickerdoodle cookies that you use, which are delicious, by the way especially coming home from dancing all night.
Speaker 1:That is true.
Speaker 2:They are.
Speaker 1:If you were dancing all night and come home at 4 am and you are hungry, you should put that.
Speaker 2:That's a.
Speaker 1:Snickerdoodle with the jelly on top, oh my God. Or the Tempty Cream.
Speaker 2:Cheese.
Speaker 1:Tempty Cream Cheese, by the way. That's the sponsor of our Fire Island house 1980, it literally is the 1980 Tempty Cream Cheese.
Speaker 3:I see that. So what was that recipe with your sister, the?
Speaker 2:Snickerdoodle, so Havdala Snickerdoodle. So there's Snickerdoodles that use all of the spices from the Havdala spice box. So it's like, instead of doing that, it's like, oh for Havdala, bake up thing of cookies, make your whole kitchen smell like to awaken the senses. And she hates it. Has rosewater and cardamom, which rose petals, and caramel, both part of the Havdala spice box. She hates them. So she takes a bite and this is at a big table full of people. She goes oh, this is literally the worst thing I've ever tasted.
Speaker 1:Oh, my God.
Speaker 2:Wow, she's a good one. She has no shame. The funniest part is there was one Shabbat where someone brought a dessert and she thought I made it and she, she goes. Oh, no, she goes. Oh, this isn't very good. Oh, no, and I was like I was like that wasn't mine and she really bit her tongue. She has no shame. What it's me, what else? She could be very polite, zero editing skills, exactly.
Speaker 1:Which can be funny, is she?
Speaker 2:funny, she's very funny. And she is when I tell you the person she is the harshest with Alex at all, like she just is relentless with, like she loves someone who's also funny that she can volley with yes.
Speaker 1:What do you mean? She's relentless with him.
Speaker 2:Oh, she just like, she'll like, she'll just throw things, or she'll pick at things, or she sees something.
Speaker 1:Oh okay, cheppel, cheppel, the cheppel, and you know it's cheppel, she cheppers him.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, people who have no editing skills are very funny. Case in point my father oh wow. My father has what's on his mind is out of his mouth in one swoop. So it's very funny sometimes because it's not like held back anything. Yeah, and my mother's no different.
Speaker 2:I mean you got to you, you got to mean her, we experienced your mother.
Speaker 1:Yeah she's very sweet. She's very, very sweet. Oh my God, that's okay. So the tour's coming up and all that.
Speaker 3:And Wait, I just noticed that you brought forks. Oh, of course.
Speaker 2:He's like fully prepared guys, like he comes in with a.
Speaker 3:Tupperware full of cake and forks. Even Should we have a little. Have a little Like this is hospitality.
Speaker 2:I believe in curating, like curating what you want out of life. So if you want to do something and it's so funny because it's the opposite of there've been a couple of instances where I've been around people who are in like the music or acting industry and they like kind of force a performance in a situation that, like, is very awkward and weird, which doesn't work, and yet there's never a wrong time to bring out a little cake. Like it's just like the best, it's the best thing, on that note.
Speaker 1:Borochata Dona Melchambore, my name is Onot. I mean, wow, oh my.
Speaker 2:God, it's a good one. It's a good one.
Speaker 1:I will say this.
Speaker 2:This book is so many recipes that are both like new inventions as well as so many old family recipes.
Speaker 3:What are some of the things that you're most excited for people to like, see and try in the book. So there's a full besides this yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1:That is really the next level.
Speaker 2:I mean, since it's coming out right before Roche, there's a brand new brisket that I love.
Speaker 1:Are you in that school, like my mother, that the year can't change unless a brisket is made.
Speaker 2:That is insane when I tell you there is no world without a brisket. Any special occasion, any holiday, there needs to be a brisket, doesn't matter if you're making chicken, doesn't matter if you're making salmon, it also needs to be a brisket, a supplementary brisket, exactly.
Speaker 1:You know what? It's a meat eater, my mother. If there's no brisket, like the year won't change, like the calendar will get stuck.
Speaker 2:That's tradition. That's tradition.
Speaker 1:And it's like do go and eat brisket. Yes, go and eat brisket, yeah, but they don't not as much as we eat it. Not that we eat it. They do like smoked barbecue brisket yeah, we eat it, and then, like for three days, yeah, it's a little fragile.
Speaker 3:I love, I love. So you have the brisket recipe, I do have a chicken.
Speaker 2:I call it, alex named it. My husband named it soupless chicken soup, because it's a roast chicken with all of the vegetables and flavors of like Jewish penicillin. So it has all of that kind of vibe without the soup. For the desserts, I have the Simis cake, I have these, this apple cake for my great grandmother. That's like half cake, half pie. Maybe I'll bring that for Lumber Day. I need to figure out what's the final Tupperware situation.
Speaker 3:Yeah the final round. The final round, it has to be huge.
Speaker 1:It has to be huge.
Speaker 2:It has to be huge.
Speaker 3:It has very nice. You know we've been vacationing with you and Alex and you you take. He is obviously so sweet and you take such good care of him and you're always making him little plates and like it's so obvious that, that is your love language to him and he loves it and it's interesting, like, does he give you he's? I've heard him give you like some feedback and ideas and stuff, so he named this recipe. He's my muse, yeah.
Speaker 2:He is the only opinion that matters oh really. Truly. And he'll come to me and he'll be like like what about that? He'll like name an ingredient Like I'd be like. What about? Like something like that with this?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And and then I'll think about it. I was like, huh, actually that would work really well. Perfect example there's this recipe in my book. One of my things is like what do you do with a loaf of challah? We always end up with bread and that's kind of the perfect things, like everyone always has challah on hand in the freezer in your pantry. So one of the things I do is like these, these challah schnitzel sandwiches. So you make schnitzel, you can make it fresh, it's delicious, schnitzel is also great. The next day on a sandwich, and I was trying to figure out like what direction to take it as a sandwich, and he was just saying he's like do you know what? I remember, cause he grew up in Switzerland and one of his favorite things is this thing called, called remoulade, which is just like the celery root coleslaw, oh wow. And he's like I want that.
Speaker 2:And he's like you should do something with that. And it was kind of like exactly what I needed. And then I made it into this like schnitzel, like this French schnitzel sandwich. So I added like herbs de provence to the schnitzel and then I add the celery root on top and cornichon. I'm hungry. And it was and it was just an on challah and that's the perfect thing is like you use soft challah with the crunchy schnitzel and it's like that.
Speaker 2:I love textures and kind of a lot of that stuff and it was born from, from him, from just one little off comment that you never know what's going to spark, which is why I actually don't surround myself with many food people. I love creatives from like other fields, which is why I'm you always see me with comedians, with actors, with Broadway people. I'm not a Broadway guy, I can't tell you any of these songs, but I love the craziest nights of that Broadway show night. Yes, oh, my God, we did know one song we went to show tunes, are you not?
Speaker 3:eating.
Speaker 2:But yet we had, because we had a Tony nominated actor is just crashing on our couch and it's like right you have these moments where you get to be surrounded by other creatives who are so passionate about what they do. Yes, and you never know what's going to be that one and you have no connection to it.
Speaker 1:I have no connection Besides you and the food and eating. I have no connection to to food, exactly, I've, I've, I don't want to cook anything, I don't want to have a clean dish, I mean, it's so young.
Speaker 3:But it's so funny what you said about creatives like being on and your way of being on is actually just you. You handed me this.
Speaker 1:No, but also also a personality. Personality Also, there's love in that cake. No, I know, it's not just the cake. I can't stop eating it.
Speaker 2:There was this one moment where, literally, I'm going around, I was like it was this one, it was this around Seder, my friend, through this thing. I'm not like. I mean naturally. I mean these brownies, these kosher of Passover brownies. I'm like hand feeding Deborah messing brown, like you got to eat one. You got to eat one, like in a way that was so pushy, because it's like I see all these people and no one's having dessert. You got to have a little something sweet.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, yes, I remember. One night you came to our house and no one ate your dessert.
Speaker 2:Because no one was hungry. I was crushed. It might as well, they might as well call me fat, like I would tell you one thing.
Speaker 1:Everybody asks me when they see you on the videos with us how does he stay so thin? The number one thing I know I'm like oh, I'm going to stay so thin.
Speaker 2:You must not eat, you don't eat?
Speaker 1:Does he eat? Does he eat? He doesn't eat, he doesn't eat. No, eat is what it is.
Speaker 2:I will say it is a discipline that requires so much work. So much work to do it all, because I'm also have no self control. So I'm like I'm not eating this right now. I had last night. I made it, cut myself a slice. That night I had someone over. I cut them a slice, cut myself another slice. Alex came home, you want a little? Okay, I'll have another bite. It's just like.
Speaker 3:I will say I was skeptical too. I was like how does he look the way he looks and make all this beautiful food? But then again, we lived in the house with you for a few weeks and you work out like a crazy person. Yeah, you sit by all over the place.
Speaker 2:I sit by here.
Speaker 3:You're, you, you're burning off the cake, so you, you need it, you need it.
Speaker 1:You need it. Bless your heart. Yeah, yeah, yeah, good for you. No, no, we everybody's obsessed with that. What he has, he doesn't need his stuff. He doesn't need his stuff Now. He eats his stuff. We've seen him eat Also.
Speaker 3:I mean, we don't, you can. You can tell us to cut this if you don't want to talk about this, but it's been interesting because when we were out in Fire Island, you were also giving us previews for things for your third book.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:So, like this new book isn't even out yet, you're already brainstorming and brewing for the third. Hold on.
Speaker 1:Speaking of the shift with Sarah yeah, to get your new book is obviously pre-order and all my friends have. Dina already has a pre-order at this and everybody. Sarah the lit agent, I'm your lit agent. We pre-ordered, um uh, dina pre-order. All of our friends pre-ordered already. Right, love, but she always has ways of like different.
Speaker 2:Yes, so she has some recipes that didn't land in the book.
Speaker 2:We had to come, but what I wanted to do was, um, it was actually it was. It was a really fun conversation because my editor emails me. We want the book to come out September 5th. I call her up. That's impossible. I'm coming back from Fire Island that day. I'm not going to. I was like. I was like I'm on vacation. I'm not going straight into a press tour. I'm going to be sunburned. I'm going to be like exhausted. Good for you, I can't do it. We're pushing into weeks. September 12th the only thing is it comes out on Tuesday. That Friday is Erefrashashana, right? Um, and I was like, well, here's what we're going to do.
Speaker 2:Pre-orders are super important, if any, if you like, if you want to support someone. Like pre-ordering is a great way to give, like the um, the publisher, a good idea of like how's the book going to do, how much re, how many resources they're going to get towards marketing. And a big thing is, it's like I always want fame for myself as separate I. That's why it's like you see my face, but really it's like you don't know a lot about me. You know more about, like, what I'm cooking, because I want all of the fame, all of the energy towards the recipes, towards the book I think it's changed a little bit throughout the summer they got to know you a little bit closer from your Instagram posts.
Speaker 1:I mean sex sells Sex sells.
Speaker 2:Um, but one of the things I'm super important was like everyone's going to be playing the rush on a meals, so I was like great. The second you pre-order my book, you get eight recipes that are rush on up ready to start cooking. So a you could like start cooking book as soon as you pre-order and B, you could start planning your menu, these desserts. I've gotten so many messages from people who have made the Simis cake and they're like this is the best cake I've ever made.
Speaker 3:It's really the best. It's like crazy. I'm eating it. It's a Simis cake.
Speaker 1:I don't describe what Tim is. Do people know what Simis is?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a stew, it's like. It's like quote we love. We love sweet things as a savory side dish. Um, and this is like a sweet carrot and sweet potato squash, like stew with prunes and cinnamon and orange.
Speaker 1:It's so Ashkenazi, though Ashkenazi love to eat and go. It's like dessert.
Speaker 3:So wait, your first book, jewish right. That was more of like a traditional cookbook I could Nosh is smaller scale hospitality, would you say every day hospitality.
Speaker 2:So it's like think of, it starts with a challah section. So every once you master a yeast to dough, these are all the things you can do with challah. So you can make Moses in a blanket where you're wrapping hot dogs, which is literally the best snack in the world. To like challah monkey bread, which is beyond, beyond, beyond, um, making burger buns, all these things of what you can do. If you don't want to make two challahs, if you want to just make one and use the other half of the dough for something else, then we go into breakfast stuff where I have a whole section of shmirs. So you're buying your bagels. Here's how you shush up your shmirs, um, and then it's like soups, salads, sandwiches, what's your everyday things and how you're eating the things to keep in the house. You don't have three quarts of soup in your freezer for, like, what's going to happen when you get sick? What, like? That's a crazy. It's crazy, yeah.
Speaker 1:I told you.
Speaker 2:You always have to have soup in the freezer, and then the entrees made you buy me soup and keep it one time I accidentally bought like $200 worth of soup.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we had nothing wrong with that From being vegetarian, of course. Of course you never.
Speaker 2:It's never a wrong time for lentil soup.
Speaker 3:I didn't know what a pint versus a quart was, I think.
Speaker 2:No, I love it. And then the entrees are split into either like recipes that come together in less than an hour, so like quick, someone's coming over and we cook dinner, or like project recipes that yield tons of leftovers, so you have something in the fridge or the freezer to like read. And then the desserts are snacking cakes and cookies. The whole idea is like you should have something sweet on the counter. How do you define a snacking cake versus a cake that can just stay out? Really, it's like not a layer cake, nothing that's too precious, nothing like like Dina has in the corner in her kitchen.
Speaker 1:She has a whole dessert, a whole dessert. Like if you should never and no one eats it, I eat it.
Speaker 3:I eat it whenever I'm there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dina has like all over the counter, that's exactly what you're talking about.
Speaker 2:To snag, cut a little slice, you're having a cup of coffee and all the chapters are named I love, I love a reference. I love a reference to some kind of Jewish TV show movie. So all of the chapters are references to, like my favorite quotes. So like the soup section is called we Both Love Soup, which is obviously from Best In Shell From Best In Shell.
Speaker 3:We say that all the time. We both love soup, we both love soup.
Speaker 2:The cake section is called who Serves Coffee Without a Piece of Cake?
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:From Seinfeld when George's mother says or sitting there like idiot's drinking coffee without a piece of cake, right, and so the idea is, it's so ingrained in our culture of like, how do you feed someone, how do you feed those you love, and I feel like we're really like reclaiming this idea of like it's so easy to turn your home into your center for hospitality. You don't have to be meeting people outside. It's the only way you make deep connections is by welcoming people into your home 100%.
Speaker 1:We have a beautiful home, you do, and we invite people over, and if someone ever wants to meet me for lunch or whatever for works, I go. No, no, no. You come to our apartment. There's no waiter sitting on top of you. Do you know what you're having? Do you know what you're having? Let me get that. No, we're quiet, and Leo this week actually made an amazing salmon.
Speaker 1:But, when we order in, and then we order in and then we just throw it all out, so we're not sitting in the kitchen cleaning, so our guests don't feel bad that we cooked for them and made for them and all of that. That's your whole journey on your own, but we, you know.
Speaker 3:So, yes, when they come to the house and you're eating in your own home, I can't not cook, I just don't know how to grocery shop, and I know that sounds counterintuitive.
Speaker 2:No, no, no. I get to have like a fridge full of stuff that's rotting and this whole. I know you're on the road.
Speaker 1:Okay, so so the book by now. By the time this airs the, will it be available?
Speaker 3:to buy up to you? Oh no, I mean, we can, just the schedule.
Speaker 1:So we can just the just the Shmir.
Speaker 2:Let's Shmir it Maybe probably like right before it comes out. Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:So I always say be the friend that brings the friends to the comedy show. Be the friend that buys the book, not only for your Jewish friends. This is exactly what you buy for your non-Jewish friends. Give them that little taste, that little moody comedy that they feel like they're apart, they're in our world, they're in the tribe. Here it is. This is the reference. This is delicious. If a non Jew eats this cake, he'll understand why the Jews have survived all these years.
Speaker 2:They'll understand you get it. I think that's so spot on, cause I always say the person who's single-handedly done more for American Jewry than any other individual is Fran Drusher. What she did with the nanny of making America fall in love with Jews, listen, I love. I love Larry David, I love Jerry Seinfeld, but the whole the whole gist of Seinfeld and Kerb is that these are not likeable people.
Speaker 2:These are bad people, like, but with the nanny you just love them. You see yourself, your families, in these people that just happen to be so proudly Jewish, and that's the power of comedy, that's the power of food, which are able to create that connection across cultures. So many people that aren't Jewish reach out and they're like oh my God, I love the dynamic between you and your mother, between your mother and her aunt, because that's just like me and my family and that's what you want. You want to create those bridges. Amazing. And how do they get this book? Wherever books are sold? Obviously, we love an indie bookstore, but it is all on Amazon Vards and Noble. They're signed copies on premiere Like. If you go to my website or my Instagram, I have everything linked very easily. It's Chef Jay Cohen, just Jay Cohen.
Speaker 1:Just Jay Cohen, just Jay Cohen. I have you, I have you say this Chef, jay Cohen, I love that, I think I love that. So, jay Cohen, wow, I can't believe you got that as your Instagram.
Speaker 2:I paid a child for it. This was years ago. Was it like a preteen who have no idea?
Speaker 3:Oh my God, was it the domain or the?
Speaker 2:handle the handle. I always think of people. It was like a 13 year old.
Speaker 1:Never someone named Mike Bernstein, like there must be 4,000 Mike Bernstein. There are a lot of Jay Cohen's, of course, a lot of Jay Cohen's, yeah.
Speaker 2:So what happened was and this was years ago, this was probably like six years ago, six, seven years ago and you'll never guess how much I paid him for it. We don't have that, We'll bleep it out $25.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:Wow, I was just ready for something crazy. I would have paid two grand, like whatever.
Speaker 3:Listen. Branding the handles all that stuff.
Speaker 1:Listen me, I wanted by Modicom. Modi's a huge name in India.
Speaker 2:So there's a name of the president.
Speaker 1:There's Modicom was taken by some like a travel company or whatever a carpet sales people. A lot of Indian companies were taken and the president's name is Modi, but I got Modi live and it became like Modi live. Which is, by the way, it's really great because Modi, modi, modi, high live it's great, it's a good little, it works Anyway.
Speaker 2:So people love calling. I know people like oh, you know, modi live Right, right, right. They do.
Speaker 1:So get your book, get a book for yourself, get a book for a friend Bring it to the high holidays. Bring it to the. Oh my God, what an amazing gift. Send it them ahead of time. Wherever you're going to eat wherever you're going to eat, send the book ahead of time. What a gift wrapping Better than flowers or whatever you're going to bring them over there, bring the book. It's, it's, it's. Mashiach energy. It really, really is this love behind it. He really is so passionate about it. We've lived with you for a summer.
Speaker 3:You're a superstar.
Speaker 1:You're a superstar. You're really, in the summer, a real, real soul. Thank you for coming back.
Speaker 3:Thanks for coming back.
Speaker 1:And you're always invited.
Speaker 2:You know that Any time Standing guests I'll bike here Anytime you want.
Speaker 3:What do you do it? What do you do it? I don't have to bring cake every time I probably will.
Speaker 1:Okay, me I am. We've announced a whole bunch of tour dates Milwaukee, charlotte, north Carolina and Atlanta, atlanta. The tickets are available on mori livecom.
Speaker 3:We also have shows that are we were at this time adding shows in Israel for Sukkot. We're adding a second Tel Aviv show. There's a lot of things going on, so go to mori livecom mori livecom.
Speaker 1:Be the friend who brings the friends to the comedy show that's Mashiach energy. Again, thank you very much to A&H provisions and whites and Luxembourg, our friends that help make this podcast happen, and thank you again.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Jake Bye. Happy New Year.