Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Food

Toronto’s King Of Comfort Food Is Bringing You “The Last Schmaltz”

According to the dictionary, schmaltz can refer to melted chicken fat, or to excessive sentimentality; overly emotional behavior.

So how much schmaltz is too much schmaltz? Anthony Rose, a chef who swears by schmaltz, would know. Rose owns 5 successful restaurants, including diner-turned-deli Rose and Sons, as well as Middle Eastern-themed Fat Pasha, and a store called (what else?) Schmaltz.

Random House’s suggested title for what was to become “The Last Schmaltz” was “Let Anthony Rose Serve You.” Within 48 hours of their cookbook’s deadline, Rose’s writing partner Chris Johns called him up and said three words: the last schmaltz. That was that, and “The Last Schmaltz” now had a name.

Nostalgia plays a big role in Rose’s cooking, from trying to make kishke from scratch to experimenting with chicken fricassee. “It’s about figuring out what my parents ate,” said Rose. “You’d walk into the kitchen anytime and there’d be chicken gribenes cooking, and schmaltz on the counter, and hot challah, and chicken stock, and it’s very, very familiar.”

Rose didn’t expect to end up cooking Jewish food. “It started with a matzo ball soup there, a brisket there, and then getting into big crow with a bologna.”

Rose is very open about the illicit pleasures of enjoying bacon in his cookbook, and he thinks that Jews can enjoy bacon more than the average person because of the forbidden aspect. “As I’ve cooked more Jewish, I do eat a lot less bacon now,” he said, “but I have been known to stuff the menu with bacon.” Back at the Drake Hotel, where Rose began cooking, bacon was a culinary staple, and he believed it to be the perfect meat.

So why the last schmaltz, and not the last latke or the last bagel? “Well, we use schmaltz everywhere,” says Rose. “We deep fry it, pan fry it, light our Hanukkah candles with it…it’s definitely the new lard for me.”

If Rose has his way, it’ll be the new lard for everyone else too.

Shira Feder is a writer. She’s at [email protected] and @shirafeder

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.