Aromas of Aleppo: Michael J. Cohen

By JULIETTE ROSSANT Who is the real "author" of a book? Sometimes it is one person - the name of the person on the title page. Sometimes there is a co-author. Sometimes the real author is buried in the acknowledgments, forever hidden from publicity and journalists writing about the book. Most cookbooks have co-authors – especially ones by chefs. No one assumes that chefs can write and certainly writing a recipe is very different than conceiving it or preparing it. Co-authors have to be acknowledged as essential in the process. Super Chef was reminded about the importance of authorship – not only by the recent bruhaha over Barack Obama's speeches, but by a comment on the February 20th review of Aromas of Aleppo. The comment made Super Chef take a second look at the title page and go back and include the co-author's name in the review. Michael J. Cohen has a lot to say about writing the book with Poopa Dweck, his own experiences as a Aleppian Jew and his plans to co-author future cookbooks. Michelle Ishay, who also has a Syrian background, acquired the title for HarperCollins and put together the team to produce it, including hiring Michael to write it. She was the art director for the book design and photo shoots and did the photo research and editing. Her work is stunning and makes the book a beautiful visual record of the Jews of Aleppo. It was through working together on "Aromas of Aleppo" that Michael and Michelle started a relationship, which led to their marriage in a traditional Syrian-Jewish ceremony. She is currently creative director of Abrams. Here is Super Chef's interview with Michael: SC: How did the book come about? MJC: In the 1970s Poopa compiled hundreds of recipes in a binder. It was called the red book, everyone had it. Over the years it became the staple item you had. It's very rudimentary, it wasn't really professional. Poopa oversaw it - it was a looseleaf bound book. A lot of communities have one. My wife is a publishing industry person. She told Poopa: you should do a bit more than redo this. You should do a serious cookbook. Poopa was the natural person to guide this in the community. They initially hired a different writer to get the project going, but that person didn't work out. SC: What was your role? MJC: I came up with the structure for the book, which broke it into separate sections on our history, our recipes, and our customs. I spent months researching our history, culture, foodways, and unique religious customs. Then I wrote those sections plus all the headnotes as well as revised the recipes so that they are clear to the novice cook and elevated to a professional level. For instance, my research for the book gave me the opportunity to reintroduce Aleppo pepper into our cuisine, which likely fell out of favor after our community settled in the U.S. early in the 20th century due to its unavailability. It was important to me that this book -- which is ssentially a story of a community told through its food -- be accessible to the broader public, including foodies and those interested in Middle Eastern and Sephardic culture. SC: How did you choose recipes? MJC: In our community, cooks have about 20-30 dishes for the daily meals and then more for holidays. We also wanted to include difficult to make dishes and obscure dishes. Some of the desserts are professional, you don't typically prepare them at home, you go out to a special pastry shop, but we wanted to include them. Some recipes, like making cheese - Poopa contacted different authorities and found out how people had made those foods at home. SC: How much did food change in the time since the Jews left Aleppo? MJC: In most cases when I worked on the head notes, Poopa would find out information from old timers. What do they know? What do they have to say? SC: How does Jewish food differ from other community's food in Aleppo? MJC: One key difference, an elemental dish - rice, a staple of all the communities (Muslim, Jewish, and Christian). For Muslims or Christians they would make it with butter or lamb fat. Either of those would be problematic for the Jewish cook. If you used lamb's fat, you couldn't serve a milk dish with the meal. You couldn't mix meat with dairy, so basically we always stuck with a neutral oil with rice. It forms a crisp crust on the bottom of the pot, a very crunchy thin layer, which is often served in a separate bowl. There are certain Persian influences in our cuisine. We have much more cross border or international aspects to our community. Jews from Spain, Persia and elsewhere. I know people with Persian last names. What is unusual is our use of tamarind paste. It's an important ingredient in saucy dishes along with tomato. There is a stuffed grape leaves dish with a sour tamarind. It's one of my favorite dish. It's got apricots, and they melt and get soft. It's all absorbed in the inner filling. It's more substantial than other versions. SC: How did you choose what version of a recipe to include? MJC: We tried to include what was the most accepted recipe, as much as possible. If people excluded or included an ingredient, we tried to put that in. For me, personally, Laham b'Ajeen (p. 50), I know my Mom uses tamarind paste and a bit of tomato with browned beef as a topping for bread dough. My mom favored tamarind over tomato, I thought it was superior that way, but most people don't do that. I had to go with the norm. SC: How did you get interested in Food? MJC: In our community there are so many holidays and they all involve food. You are exposed to food constantly. You get invited to tons of events. My mom is a terrific cook, but that was like most people in the community. I worked in restaurants a bit in college. I got exposed to other cuisines and ingredients. I realized that our cuisine is great. SC: Did the Aleppian Jews find the ingredients they needed for their dishes or did the change recipes? MJC: There were changes. Lamb is of poor quality in the US. There was a big shift to beef because it was a higher quality.We mention that lamb was a big ingredient, most people can move to beef. In my opinion, most of the dishes work better with American beef. It's not a change that made dishes worse. SC: What is your favorite dish in the book? MJC: My favorite dishes is Roast Chicken with Crispy Spaghetti (p. 192). It is a very kid-friendly recipe. It's easy for any American to understand. It's very rich and delicious. It goes back to the Middle East but it is American friendly. 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