Contains over 300 kosher recipes from all over Israel, including chremslach, spanakopita, artichoke soup with lemon and saffron, Tunisian hot chile sauce, and hummus.

Simple meals inspired by Israeli street food, by the authors of the best-selling James Beard Book of the Year, Zahav.

Stories, photos, and recipes from Israel’s culinary scene—a fusion of flavors from around the world. After years of travels elsewhere, photographer Steven Rothfeld visited Israel for the first time, spending several months exploring the small country’s vibrant food scene. The locals guided him from one great restaurant to another, and to growers and producers of fine foods as well. This book is a delicious compilation of stories and reflections, recipes, and stunning photographs of Israel’s food culture today. From north to south, Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, chefs and food growers have branched out from a vast array of cultural influences and historic traditions to create fresh, contemporary fusions and flavors. Rothfeld’s friend Nancy Silverton, a winner of the James Beard Foundation’s Outstanding Chef Award, contributes ten dishes inspired by the delicious fusion styles that have become a hallmark of the Israeli culinary community. “Learn about the cultural traditions underlying dishes like spiced lamb kabobs grilled on cinnamon sticks, beet puree with tahini and date syrup, a kumquat marmalade Rothfeld first tasted at an inn in the Golan Heights, and inventive variations on Israeli staples like cauliflower and eggplant.”—St. Helena Star

When people discuss food in Israel, their debates ask politically charged questions: Who has the right to falafel? Whose hummus is better? But Yael Raviv’s Falafel Nation moves beyond the simply territorial to divulge the role food plays in the Jewish nation. She ponders the power struggles, moral dilemmas, and religious and ideological affiliations of the different ethnic groups that make up the “Jewish State” and how they relate to the gastronomy of the region. How do we interpret the recent upsurge in the Israeli culinary scene—the transition from ideological asceticism to the current deluge of fine restaurants, gourmet stores, and related publications and media? Focusing on the period between the 1905 immigration wave and the Six-Day War in 1967, Raviv explores foodways from the field, factory, market, and kitchen to the table. She incorporates the role of women, ethnic groups, and different generations into the story of Zionism and offers new assertions from a secular-foodie perspective on the relationship between Jewish religion and Jewish nationalism. A study of the changes in food practices and in attitudes toward food and cooking, Falafel Nation explains how the change in the relationship between Israelis and their food mirrors the search for a definition of modern Jewish nationalism.

In this stunning new work that is at once a coffee-table book to browse and a complete cookbook, Janna Gur brings us the sumptuous color, variety, and history of today’s Israeli cuisine, beautifully illustrated by Eilon Paz, a photographer who is intimate with the local scene. In Gur’s captivating introduction, she describes Israeli food as a product of diverse cultures: the Jews of the Diaspora, settling in a homeland that was new to them, brought their far-flung cuisines to the table even as they looked to their Arab neighbors for additional ingredients and ideas. The delicious, easy-to-follow recipes represent all of these influences, and include some creative interpretations of classics by celebrated Israeli chefs: Beetroot and Pomegranate Salad, Fish Falafel in Spicy Harissa Mayonnaise, Homemade Shawarma, Chreime–North African Hot Fish Stew, Roasted Chicken Drumsticks in Carob Syrup. With favorite recipes for the Sabbath (Sweet Challah Traditional Chopped Liver, Chocolate and Halva Coffeecake) and for holidays (Balkan Potato and Leek Pancakes, Flourless Chocolate and Pistachio Cake), this book offers a unique culinary experience for every occasion. All of this is enriched by Paz’s gorgeous and vibrantly colored photographs and by short narratives about significant aspects of Israel’s diverse cuisine, such as the generous and unique Israeli breakfast (which grew out of the needs of Kibbutz life), locally produced cheeses that now rival those of Europe, and a dramatic renaissance of wine culture in this ancient land. “In less than thirty years,” Janna Gur writes, “Israeli society has graduated… to a true gastronomic haven.” Here she gives us a book that does full, delectable justice to the significance of Israeli food today–Mediterranean at its heart, richly spiced, and imbued with cross-cultural flavors.

Israel and Palestine share an outstanding and dynamic cuisine. Divine Food is a visually striking collection of recipes from local markets, Arab traditions, the nomadic tribes of the desert, and the hip restaurants of Tel Aviv. Divine Food takes readers on a culinary journey through Israeli and Palestinian cuisine and its local varieties --from the Arab- Jewish kitchen of the north to nomadic specialties of the Negev Desert, from the contemporary food scene of Tel Aviv to the fish dishes of the coast. The book presents a wide range of delicious recipes. Because the food of the region is characterized by authenticity and tradition, it also provides insight into the origins of iconic dishes. Both a stunning regional portrait and a go-to cookbook, Divine Food is a must-have for any foodie.

The author of the acclaimed The Book of New Israeli Food returns with a cookbook devoted to the culinary masterpieces of Jewish grandmothers from Minsk to Marrakesh: recipes that have traveled across continents and cultural borders and are now brought to life for a new generation. For more than two thousand years, Jews all over the world developed cuisines that were suited to their needs (kashruth, holidays, Shabbat) but that also reflected the influences of their neighbors and that carried memories from their past wanderings. These cuisines may now be on the verge of extinction, however, because almost none of the Jewish communities in which they developed and thrived still exist. But they continue to be viable in Israel, where there are still cooks from the immigrant generations who know and love these dishes. Israel has become a living laboratory for this beloved and endangered Jewish food. The more than one hundred original, wide-ranging recipes in Jewish Soul Food—from Kubaneh, a surprising Yemenite version of a brioche, to Ushpa-lau, a hearty Bukharan pilaf—were chosen not by an editor or a chef but, rather, by what Janna Gur calls “natural selection.” These are the dishes that, though rooted in their original Diaspora provenance, have been embraced by Israelis and have become part of the country’s culinary landscape. The premise of Jewish Soul Food is that the only way to preserve traditional cuisine for future generations is to cook it, and Janna Gur gives us recipes that continue to charm with their practicality, relevance, and deliciousness. Here are the best of the best: recipes from a fascinatingly diverse food culture that will give you a chance to enrich your own cooking repertoire and to preserve a valuable element of the Jewish heritage and of its collective soul. (With full-color photographs throughout.)