Helen Nash was born into an old rabbinical family in Cracow, Poland. In New York City, where she has spent most of her life, she studied with world-famous cooks Michael Field, Marcella Hazan, Lydie Marshall, and Millie Chan. An accomplished lecturer and teacher, she has given demonstrations at New York University and the legendary De Gustibus cooking school at Macy’s, as well as at numerous synagogues and Jewish community centers.
From our eight favorite books from the year — one for each night of Hanukkah — we present two below. They are all great holiday gifts for the passionate cook in your life or a treat for yourself.
Whether or not they realize it, today’s Jewish food lovers, particularly the kosher-keeping ones, owe a debt of thanks to Helen Nash. Born in 1935 in Krakow, Poland, to a prominent Orthodox family, Nash, a longtime member of Manhattan’s Upper East Side society (she learned to cook as a newlywed, by taking lessons with culinary legends like Marcella Hazan), was an early champion of the notion that kosher food could be sophisticated and elegant rather than oppressively heavy. With restaurants like Pardes in Brooklyn and Jezebel in Manhattan making headlines today, the idea of artisanal kosher food seems almost obvious. But when Nash published “Kosher Cuisine,” those words were still an oxymoron.
Food porn alert: Eater gets a first look inside “The Mile End Cookbook.” Even the matzo looks mouthwatering… [Eater]