A thought-provoking time at the B’teavon Jewish Food Retreat.
I really didn’t know what to expect when I made my way to the inaugural annual B’teavon Jewish Food Retreat at Ramah Darom in Clayton, Georgia, Feb. 17-20; but I knew I was excited to attend, and I anticipated eating some delicious food.
The long weekend was conceived as a celebration of all things Jewish food through a collaboration between Ramah Darom, a camp and retreat center affiliated with Conservative Judaism, and The Gefilteria Co-Labs.
Several chefs at the forefront of the Jewish food world representing a wide range of cuisines came to teach classes and to connect with participants, including 50 children and 200 adults ranging in age from 28 to 85.
Adeena Sussman, who focuses on modern Israeli food, headlined the event and devised the weekend’s lunch and dinner menus using recipes from her cookbook, Sababa. Other chefs included Liz Alpern and Jeffrey Yoskowitz of The Gefilteria, focusing on Ashkenazi food; Michael Twitty, focusing on cuisine from the Southern U.S. and African diaspora; Susan Barocas, focusing on Sephardi food; Tova du Plessis, focusing on baking; and Todd Ginsburg, owner of the General Muir restaurant in Atlanta, who was the weekend’s Southern Spotlight chef.
The chefs gave workshops, demos and discussions throughout the weekend. Rabbi Joshua Hearshen served as the rabbi in residence for the weekend and led several text studies related to food. Supplementing the food-centered content were Shabbat activities, yoga, hikes, rock wall climbing, classes on flower arranging and tablescapes, wine, and DIY activities like making spice blends and glass etching.
I am a foodie who is passionate about cooking and baking; the weekend was a treat in so many ways. To start, I was able to enjoy an abundance of delicious and kosher food that I did not have to cook, with new and enlightening flavors and preparations. I was also able to learn from amazing chefs, both related to my own Ashkenazi food traditions, but also for food traditions with which I am less intimately familiar.
Another highlight of the weekend was getting to connect with likeminded individuals and make new friends and see old ones. Many of the participants were alumni of Ramah Darom or had children who were, but others had heard about the retreat from the attending chefs’ social media feeds.
Several inter-generational families came, with adult children coming with their parents. Shortly after arriving, I managed to run into an old friend I did not expect to see and met several participants with Michigan connections. I also made and deepened connections with new friends with interests and experience in the Jewish food and Jewish communal worlds, bonding over games of Jewish geography, sharing our favorite recipes, and relating over more mundane topics, like our professional lives and pandemic experiences.
Sephardi Flavors
In addition to enjoying what the retreat had to offer as a participant, I had volunteered to serve as an assistant to a chef throughout the weekend. I was assigned to assist Susan Barocas in three sessions — Marvelous Mezze, Converso Cooking and Sephardic Sweet Tooth. Susan’s sessions were ambitious and, across the three, participants made six savory dishes and two sweet ones, including eggplants stuffed with a mix of savory and sweet flavors (mushrooms, pears and apples), chickpeas, salads, marochinos (almond cookies), and biscochos.
While the flavors were new for me, I very much enjoyed them. Susan started each session providing some background on Sephardi cuisine including how Jews ultimately influenced the broader Spanish food culture.
As an assistant, I prepared the room, equipment and ingredients before the class, helped Susan and participants during the class and cleaned up afterward. Seeing the work that went into preparing for the class and comparing the approaches different chefs took in conceiving their classes gave me a new appreciation for all the consideration and effort that made these happen.
While I expected to enjoy the eating and learning opportunities at the retreat, I also came away thinking differently. Food is more than just food: Food is memory; food is community; food is connection. The retreat reaffirmed for me the value of connecting to my own food traditions, whether they be the old-country ways of my great-great-grandparents or more proximately, understanding my parents’ cooking and the stories behind the foods I ate growing up.
I also came away feeling emboldened to explore more of the full spectrum of Jewish food traditions beyond my own to develop a fuller understanding of our Jewish history and experience. And to enjoy some new tasty foods, too.
Finally, I was reminded of all the ways in which food connects me to others, whether it be over a Shabbat dinner or making new friends at this retreat. I’m so glad I attended B’teavon, and I encourage others to attend next year.
Find out more at www.ramahdarom.org/bteavon-jewish-culinary-exploration.
Dr. Joelle Abramowitz is a past JN 36 Under 36 winner and past president of Jewish Young Professionals of Ann Arbor.