Izmir Sephardic Cuisine (English)

The Sephardic Cuisine as nurtured by the Jewish Community in Izmir is an important component of the overall culinary culture of Western Anatolia. This culinary heritage shares a similar fate along with other traditional cuisines and that is a struggle for survival in the face of ever-changing eating habits such as popularized fast food diets and some gradual socio-economic and cultural transformations which have contributed to the deterioration of eating habits. Six homemakers from the Jewish Community, who are well aware of this reality, have joined their efforts and compiled this book out of 100 recipes they inherited from their elders. They cooked and tried every one of these recipes. Through their work, they wish to reach both their children, and members of other communities living in this part of the world who respect and appreciate each other’s cultural treasures. They have fully tested each and every recipe. They realize the importance of being witnesses to a culinary culture still alive but in danger of being forgotten. They seek to leave this work for posterity hoping to give the future generations an idea of the pleasures they thought they were lucky to experience in their lifetime.