Special Events

A Jewish Food Society Demonstration with Naama Shefi

Join us for a fun and delicious evening with Naama Shefi, the founder of the Jewish Food Society, a non-profit organization that works to preserve, celebrate, and revitalize Jewish culinary heritage from around the world in order to provide a deeper connection to Jewish life. Check them out at www.jewishfoodsociety.org. We’ve been visiting their website for years and find it inspiring and incredibly helpful in our own understanding of Jewish food and its history. It's an honor to host them in Ann Arbor!

We’ll prepare 3 recipes from their new cookbook, The Jewish Holiday Table: A World of Recipes, Traditions & Stories to Celebrate All Year Long (Artisan, 2024). We’ll start with Fava Bean soup with Harissa, followed by Samsa pastries with beef and squash fillings, and we’ll end with Cassola Italian cheesecake. As we prepare the recipes from the cookbook, Naama will provide context, history, and personal anecdotes about the families who shared them.

* Please note this is not a hands-on class but a demonstration—this means you’ll only be watching as we prepare the dishes. *

The Jewish Holiday Table is available for pre-order to be picked up at the event. (*Please note we do not offer shipping at this time.*). 

We’ll end the evening with a tasting of everything we made and a book signing by Naama. You’ll also leave BAKE! with recipes for all the dishes demonstrated and the knowledge to recreate them at home.  

About the Cookbook:

The Jewish Holiday Table is a collection of 135 vibrant recipes, each with accompanying stories collected by the Jewish Food Society. Jewish life is often centered around the table, where family and friends come together while relishing in traditions, rituals, and memories behind the dishes. The cookbook reflects three thousand years of love and loss, culture and change, and each dish captures the soul of what is served in a Jewish home on a Jewish holiday.

About the Author: 

Naami Shefi is a kibbutznik and New Yorker, whose work sits at the intersection of food, culture, community building, and art. In 2017, she founded the Jewish Food Society, a non-profit organization, which preserves and celebrates Jewish culinary heritage through a digital recipe archive and dynamic events. In the summer of 2021, she launched Asif: Culinary Institute of Israel, a center in Tel Aviv dedicated to exploring the diverse and creative food culture of Israel. She lives in New York City on the Lower East Side with her husband Ilan and their daughter Ella.

About the Jewish Food Society:

Founded in 2017, The Jewish Food Society houses a vibrant digital archive featuring hundreds of tested family recipes and the stories behind them. JFS brings their archive to life through pop-up dinners, cooking classes, and one-of-a-kind programs like their flagship storytelling and tasting event Schmaltzy, where you hear the tales behind the recipes, then eat the food they make you crave. In 2020, JFS launched a podcast by the same name, Schmaltzy, sharing the best stories from the live events told by chefs, cookbook authors, writers, entrepreneurs, and passionate home cooks.

A Demonstration by Chef Kieron Hales from Zingerman's Cornman Farms

Have you struggled to make a juicy roasted chicken? Would you like a new chicken dish to add to your dinner repertoire? Join us for a demonstration with Chef Kieron Hales of Zingerman's Cornman Farms. He’ll walk you through how to prepare a beautifully Roasted Chicken that is sure to impress any guest, as well as how to make a Classic Chicken Cacciatore. 

* Please note this is not a hands-on class but a demonstration—this means you’ll only be watching as the guest chef prepares dishes.

You'll leave the demonstration knowing how to brine, roast, and carve a chicken and tips and tricks to ensure that both your white and dark meat are cooked to perfection. And, as if that's not enough, Kieron will also share his written recipes for five other dishes to make from a whole roasted chicken 

There will also be a tasting and you’ll leave BAKE! with Kieron’s recipes for all the dishes demonstrated and the knowledge to recreate them at home.  

Meet the Guest Chef

Kieron Hales is a world-class chef whose career began in England at the age of 13 when he was accepted into the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts. An international globetrotter, Kieron has lived and cooked in 27 different countries. His professional posts have included working with the late three-Michelin-Star chef Paul Bocuse in France and the Dal Pescatore restaurant in Italy, as well as cooking for the British Royal family and three U.S. Presidents. In 2008, Kieron emigrated to the States to join the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses and pursue his entrepreneurial aspirations. After a few years as Executive Chef of the Roadhouse, he penned a vision and opened Zingerman's Cornman Farms, an award-winning event venue and working farm in Dexter, Michigan that specializes in weddings as well as private dining and corporate events with a focus on farm-to-table dining.