(Castellano abajo)
Turkey, Morocco, Tunisia, Bulgaria, Sicily, Italy, Egypt, Greece, Britain, Holland, Denmark, Italy, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, the Americas – there is hardly a corner of the globe whose gastronomic heritage has not either been impacted by or exerted its own influence upon Sephardic cooking, a centuries-old, international cuisine with its roots in the Jewish traditions of pre-Inquisition Spain and Portugal.
How do you distinguish a cuisine that shares its history with so many others? When the Jewish people were forced from Iberia in the 15th century, their cooking evolved in a new way absorbing and reinterpreting the ingredients found in new lands, leaving a unique and lasting imprint of its own, and always remaining true to ancient cultural traditions – cooking techniques, dietary laws, even specific recipes, and an Iberian culinary heritage developed in the span two thousand years.
So many different flavors and textures! Five centuries of Judeo-Spanish influence and creativity have formed uniquely distinct approaches to shared traditional recipes and cultural experience. Once you know what to look for, you will begin to recognize Sephardic food in places you might never have imagined. Widely assimilated, yet retaining unique, fundamental characteristics in its many guises, it is the original “Mediterranean fusion” cuisine.
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Turquía, Marruecos, Túnez, Grecia, Egipto, Sicilia, Gran Bretaña, Danimarca, Italia, Méjico, Hungría, Lituania… La herencia gastronómica de estos países y de otros muchos se ha visto marcada por o ha influido de alguna forma en la cocina sefardí, una cocina internacional con siglos de antigüedad, cuyas raíces se hallan en las tradiciones judías anteriores a la Inquisición en España y Portugal.
Así pues, ¿cómo distinguir una cocina que comparte su historia con tantas otras? Desde el siglo XIV, allá donde el pueblo sefardí (judeoespañol) emigraba, su cocina se adaptaba con el tiempo a las técnicas, a los gustos y a los ingredientes que encontraban en las nuevas tierras, mientras permanecía siempre fiel tanto a las antiguas tradiciones culturales – incluyendo técnicas de cocina específicas, leyes dietéticas y formas e ingredientes simbólicos – como a la herencia culinaria ibérica en general.
¡Cuántos sabores y texturas diferentes! A través del Mediterráneo y más allá, cinco siglos de influencia sefardí han dado forma a acercamientos únicos a recetas tradicionales compartidas – todas ellas igualmente tentadoras.
Una vez que sepas lo que buscar, empezarás a reconocer la comida sefardí en lugares que nunca hubieras imaginado. Ampliamente asimilada, aunque manteniendo características fundamentales en sus diferentes formas, se trata de la primera cocina mediterránea de fusión.
(Traducción por Neme Servan)
What a great website, thank you! I “stumbled” across my Sefardic roots within the past year and am in awe of my family history. My mother was from Spain, born in Burgos. I always thought it was odd that she was raised catholic and her family practiced the catholic religion but as soon as Mama left Spain, she never had a rosary, never lit candles, never stepped into a catholic church. She prayed, “Abba father”, swepped the floors by bringing the dirt to the middle of the floor (which I would always run into LOL), and wrote a song about Jerusalem…all these things were “different” about a spanish woman who was raised catholic. However, now that I have connected to a few family members in Spain, one uncle admits to having Jewish roots and another is adament that it is not true. So, still some issues there, but I dont rock the boat. My mother would make us rice mixed with corn only once a year and I knew it wasn’t a typical spanish dish. I’ve heard it is jewish. Is this true?
Wow, Zamil. You’ve provided some fascinating pieces of information that I haven’t seen before. I’d say “Abba father” is pretty much a dead giveaway, but the rest is news to me. I’ve never heard of the rice & corn tradition, but I hardly know everything. Corn is an import from the Americas, so its arrival in Spain was after the expulsion. Columbus’ departure coincided with the expulsion, so my immediate thought is that if the dish was/is served only once a year, it might be in relation to that event. When your mother served it – a specific day or date each year – would help figure that out. It may well be a custom unique to conversos & crypto Jews.
As for floor-sweeping technique, on the one hand that sounds a bit extreme, like the kind of observation people gave as evidence of Judaising in Inquisition trials. A lot of what was deemed acceptable ‘proof’ meant absolutely nothing. There’s nothing in Judasim telling you how you’re supposed to sweep the floor
Then again, my mother sweeps the floor that way, too. Is it cultural? I never gave it a second thought, but yes, when I was very young she taught me to do the same, and was quite specific about it. Fascinating.
If you recall the timing and any events surrounding the rice & corn dish, that could prove incredibly interesting!
Thanks so much for sharing your story.
This past week Time (http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2093164,00.html?xid=newsletter-weekly) posted an article about the popularity of Chinese food in the American-Jewish community. Sadly the author states, “We like it more than our own cuisine — and who could blame us?” One side of my family is sfardi, so my concept of Jewish food is rather broad. The author needs to read through your web site so he too can be blessed with the wonders of sfardi cuisine!
Hi my name is Raquel Treves i live in Mexico city. All my ancestors came here from Turkey, Greece and Italy. I grew with all this flavors you describe mmm yummy. I´m a chef and right now I´m giving a course about Sepharadic food at my local synagogue. I have some recipes from my grandma, who was an amazing cook, and if you ever need something in particular i´ll be glad to share.
Your site is really nice by the way.
My father was an Ottoman Turk, my mother a Sephardic Jew from Istanbul. We immigrated here to the US a half-century ago and now I’m writing a book about our family with a cookbook embedded in it. Thanks for your lovely website. It confirms so many of the recipes I know and the family traditions, as well. Happy cooking.
Oh!. PS – Thanks for the term “Judeo-Spanish!” I’ve been fishing for the right word for weeks!
It’s my pleasure, Beyhan. So many people have written to tell me elements of their own Sephardic upbringing or family histories. We share so much common experience (uniquely Ottoman Sephardic at that) and this is our story to tell. I hope more readers will be encouraged to do as you are doing; ours is a beautiful legacy that bears preserving, sharing and celebrating! Thanks for your comments, and best of luck with your book. –JA