Michael Solomonov<\/a>, comedian Alex Edelman and composer Benj Pasek.<\/p>\nThe event will include a conversation, a Q&A moderated by Solomonov and a book signing and nosh. For Cohen, a New Yorker, coming down to Philadelphia is a treat.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m always excited to come to the Weitzman. This is probably my favorite book I\u2019ve done \u2014 and I keep saying that every time I write one \u2014 but this one\u2019s so rooted in community. I had, in addition to old dinner party menus, grocery lists, timelines and really incredible recipes and vibes for any occasion,\u201d Cohen said.<\/p>\n
He added that this book is special because it isn\u2019t just focused on food. It\u2019s focused on community.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne thing I really wanted to do was showcase people. I am very adamant that I need pictures of every recipe in the book, because people need to see what they\u2019re cooking, especially as a tool for learning, but I also wanted to have pictures of people I love, and so I ended up having portraits taken,\u201d Cohen said. \u201cI had all my friends and family come and taste the recipes, and now I have these huge collages of portraits in the book.\u201d<\/p>\n
The list of people pictured in \u201cDinner Party Animal\u201d is varied, from actress Debra Messing to music producer Benny Blanco to Cohen\u2019s own grandmother.<\/p>\n
For Cohen, food is a family affair. He described his upbringing as similar to a \u201cFran Drescher in the \u2018Nanny\u2019-type household.\u201d That fun and colorful childhood informs much of what he does today.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very much a huge part of what I do now \u2014 there\u2019s a lot of humor, there\u2019s a lot of familial ties, and there\u2019s a lot of emphasis on community building,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s important to Cohen to maintain this authenticity. There are a lot of food influencers, and he wants to make sure that he is contributing something substantive to the ecosystem.
\u201cIt really comes back to the whole [idea] of what someone\u2019s voice is within any type of industry. When I think of what I\u2019m doing, I have this medium of food, and I think the most important thing is that I have a clear perspective \u2014 you\u2019re either adding to the conversation or you\u2019re adding to the noise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Part of Cohen\u2019s message is that Jewish cooking doesn\u2019t fit into a box. Like the Jewish people, the food that we eat is varied and often melds cultures. He referenced a well-known dessert in Asia as an example. Jalebi is a fried dough soaked in a syrup flavored with saffron and sometimes cardamom or rose water. People associate it with India, and while it is popular there, that doesn\u2019t tell the whole story.<\/p>\n
\u201cActually, it is one of the most famous Chanukah treats for Iraqi Jews and Persian Jews. We think of it in [terms of] modern culture as an Indian dessert, but really it\u2019s a dessert that comes from when the Persian Empire spanned India, Iran and Iraq. It\u2019s an item that\u2019s cross-cultural,\u201d Cohen said. \u201cWe love to describe things now with currently drawn borders when that\u2019s really not applicable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cohen said that food is a great way to illustrate how, over the course of time, cultures have overlapped, shared ideas and recipes and worked in the spirit of collaboration.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a lot of people, they see it as, \u2018Oh, you\u2019re stealing an Indian recipe,\u2019 and it\u2019s just so much deeper than that. I love all the nuanced ways that food comes with history, and it\u2019s just very messy,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s especially true in the Middle East when we think of all these dishes that really just have different tweaks and changes throughout the Levant, but at their core have all these values of when a community was shared.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later this month, Cohen will share his message with an audience in Philadelphia, and he hopes that they come hungry and leave satisfied.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s creating, truly, what I think is one of the most important aspects of the human experience \u2014 which is connection \u2014 and food is the ultimate vessel to do so,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I want to do is help people feel confident so that they can do it more often and find the same joy that I find out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Jake Cohen is a chef, author and social media personality from New York. (Photo by Matt Taylor-Gross)<\/p>\n