Recipes are far more than measurements and ingredients; they transport us to other places and times, evoking forgotten memories through the taste, texture, smell, sound and visual presentation of food. Key to our social history, recipe books passed down through the generations are a historical blueprint connecting us to our ancestors and food traditions. We remember the comfort of our mother’s arms with a taste of matzo ball soup or recall a joyous celebration with a bite of walnut cake.
It is this human and historical connection — forged by recipes — that has brought together Israeli American chef Alon Shaya (New Orleans’ Saba and Miss River, Denver’s Safta), 92-year-old Holocaust survivor Steven Fenves and Phil Rosenthal, from Netflix’s Somebody Feed Phil, to host the Rescued Recipes dinner in Los Angeles on Saturday, Oct. 21.
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The gathering, which will take place at Rosenthal’s house, will feature “stories from Steven about what life was like when his family would sit around the table and eat food together, the flavors and the memories of cooking, going to the markets to shop,” Shaya shares. “There was a whole world that was happening before the Holocaust and it’s important to talk about that.”
In 2020, the multi-James Beard award-winning chef was drawn to Fenves’ family cookbook during a visit to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, where it is displayed in the offsite collections and conservation center. When he was barely a teenager, Fenves, who is Jewish, along with his sister and parents were taken from their home in Subotica, Yugoslavia to a Jewish ghetto and later a concentration camp. His mother and father were killed but Steven and his sibling survived internment. Years later, their family cook Maris sought them out and returned his mother Klara’s cookbook of family favorites and special occasion dishes.
Touched by this story, Shaya connected with Fenves during the pandemic and helped reconstruct the recipes of his happy prewar childhood — which had to be translated from Hungarian shorthand — through trial and error. This collaborative friendship sparked over Zoom with Shaya shipping the test dishes to Fenves for notes, and then evolved into the Rescued Recipes dinner series, which launched in 2022. It directly benefits the museum’s documentation, preservation and digitizing of the record of the Holocaust. Events in Washington, D.C., New Orleans, Atlanta and Philadelphia have raised more than $500,000 to date.
“We had this plan to do a Rescued Recipes tour. When we chose L.A., Phil [whose parents are Holocaust survivors] was the first person I thought about as someone who might be interested in hosting it. When I asked him, it was a resounding yes,” Shaya says. The pair struck up a friendship when Somebody Feed Phil filmed a first season episode in New Orleans. Shaya and wife Emilly opened up their home to Phil and now he returns the favor.
“The timing of this is not lost on me. What happened [during the terror attacks in Israel] is a reminder of the Holocaust. That pure hate and pure evil exists in the world and you always have to be vigilant against it,” Rosenthal tells The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s more important than ever to remember those that came before us. I think food is the great connector. It’s a beautiful way to literally take in the culture. See it, smell it, taste it, hear the voices of the people and their stories while you’re eating. It’s visceral, it’s relatable. The memories come not just around the dinner table, but from the dinner itself. These traditions can stay alive, and in a way people can stay alive, if we make the recipe.”
One of the dishes that Fenves and Shaya first connected through is semolina sticks, chilled, cut down, breaded and fried.
“Steven remembers that being one of his favorites when he was a kid. When we were talking about the recipe, he kept asking to make sure it looks like a fish stick because that is the way he remembered it,” Shaya says. “After Steven and his sister survived Auschwitz, they were in Paris, and they walked by a Moroccan restaurant that was making couscous. They smelled it being made and it brought them right back to their mother’s kitchen. I’ve been cooking Semolina sticks at every one of the dinners and sharing that story.”
Shaya points out that soon there will not be any more first person narratives about what happened during the Holocaust and modes like the Fenves recipe book are an entry point to begin dialogue with younger generations.
“I originally wanted to cook these recipes to connect with Steven, hear his stories and give him a taste of his mother’s cooking for the first time in 80 years. From that experience, I learned that by cooking a meal for someone you can learn, teach, remember and prevent,” Shaya says. “This dinner will be a lesson in how to speak up against hate, and how to do so confidently. By supporting this dinner, we make sure that information exists about the horrors of the Holocaust, whether it’s through letters that people wrote to each other or it’s through official government documentation or a cookbook that was saved from a person’s home. Every one of those things matter. By digitizing this information, more people can be in tune with how to stop hate — what they need to stand up for — around the world and do their part. History will repeat itself.”
The event offers tickets and sponsorship levels ranging from $1,000 to $25,000. Upcoming Rescued Recipes dinners will take place in New York City, January 30, 2024; Chicago featuring Chef Zach Engel, hosted at the home of Danielle and Jordan Goodman in March 2024; and Denver, June 2024.
Outside of Rescued Recipes, Shaya continues to spread cultural collaboration and education through food. He just opened Mediterranean and Middle Eastern restaurant Silan (meaning “date syrup” in Farsi) at Atlantis Casino in the Bahamas. He joins the resort’s marquee chefs including Jose Andres, Michael White and Nobu Matsuhisa. For the chef, it signifies another exciting experimentation with cuisine. “I never thought about putting conch in my grandmother’s yogurt soup recipe before this opportunity came up. I never imagined I’d be cooking hummus with spiny lobster. From a creative standpoint, this has opened up a huge channel for me to explore,” he says. Shaya will also host events at the resort’s 2nd Annual Nassau Paradise Island Wine & Food Festival, March 13 to 17.
