Leah Koenig

Image by Zivar Amrami

The best food writing isn’t only about food. It’s about considering the world — a community, a region, a country — at a moment in time, through its flavors, textures, ingredients, cooking methods and dining traditions.

That’s exactly what Leah Koenig, 33, achieved this year with the publication of her second cookbook, “Modern Jewish Cooking: Recipes & Customs for Today’s Kitchen” (Chronicle Books). Her first was published in 2011.

“I wanted this book to really be a snapshot of who the Jewish community is today,” Koenig told the Forward earlier this year.

She achieved that goal by grasping the direction Jewish cooking is taking — a trajectory that follows what Koenig has experienced in her own kitchen. She’s a leader in a generation of Jewish chefs, farmers and food producers who “are not afraid to infuse history with a sense of innovation — to incorporate global flavors and fresh, seasonal ingredients into the mix,” she wrote in the book’s introduction.

Koenig lives in Brooklyn with her husband and baby boy and writes for publications including Saveur, The New York Times and the Forward, where she’s a columnist and contributing editor. Since “Modern Jewish Cooking” was published in March, she’s also spent a lot of time on the road, offering cooking demos of the book’s recipes, which include twists on classics. Think jalapeño-shallot matzo balls.

“I kind of put it through the test of would my grandmother recognize this, and would my 21-year-old cousin also think it was interesting,” she said.

Mission accomplished.

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.

In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.

At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.

Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO