The Woman Who Made Microwave Cooking Into An Art
Image by iStock
At one point, James Beard Lifetime Award winner, cookbook author and culinary pioneer Barbara Kafka owned 13 microwaves. She even gifted her daughter with a microwave when she was headed off to medical school. In 1987, Kafka became a household name with her book “Microwave Gourmet,” the result of years spent puttering with her microwaves, during a time when microwave cooking was not viewed as legitimate by respectable chefs. “I hate it, I just hate it,” food doyenne Julia Child once said about Kafka’s cooking methods.)
If you’ve ever cooked your dinner in a microwave, you have Barbara Kafka to thank.
Kafka was married to Viennese Jewish immigrant Ernest Kafka and made sorrel soup, or schav, for Shavuot. Her chicken soup recipe is a thing of wonder (one of her tips: put the chickens in the dish whole for chicken in the pot).
She was also a ‘Russ and Daughters’ fan, as she mentioned in this interview: “But better is to go across the street, and go to Russ and Daughters for the fish and next door to the dairy store, then go to the bread place to get your little knishes.” Her One Pan Roast Chicken is likewise the perfect Shabbat dish.
I’ve made whole meals in the microwave and I know I have Barbara Kafka to thank. She was 84 when she died this week on June 1 in her Manhattan home. Rest in peace, Barbara Kafka. The food world will miss you.
Shira Feder often cooks in the microwave. She’s at [email protected]
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
