🥔 Food People, Parent Picks: Joan's Favorite Things
The legendary cookbook author shares the recipes, pantry staples, and family traditions that make food feel joyful across generations.
Food People, Parent Picks: we ask our favorite chefs, food writers, and industry insiders who we interview in our Order Up! Series to share the products, books, and bites they can’t live without.
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Earlier this week in our Order Up! conversation, Joan Nathan reflected on a lifetime of documenting Jewish cooking, from global traditions to the deeply personal recipes that shape family life. If you haven’t read that yet, it’s worth going back for the full story behind her work, and checking out her book, A Sweet Year: Jewish Celebrations and Festive Recipes for Kids and Their Families [Bookshop, Amazon], for enjoying cooking with your kids.
For Parent Picks, we kept things simple: the dishes that bring her back to childhood, the foods she still makes for her family today, and the small philosophy that guides it all—food should feel like joy, not pressure.
A dish from childhood that instantly brings you back?
Chocolate chip cookies.
And tuna fish casserole—that was a very typical weeknight dinner. Certain meals were tied to certain days, and that rhythm really sticks with you.
One recipe every family should know how to make?
Hummus. It’s simple, versatile, and something everyone can enjoy.
A food tradition you’re especially grateful was passed down?
The hand-written apple shallot recipe from my great- great- great-grandmother.
What do you love making when your whole family gathers?
Challah.
A pantry ingredient that makes a meal feel complete?
Preserved lemon. It adds brightness and depth to so many dishes.
A recipe from My Life in Recipes that feels especially personal?
The sweet and sour fish with gingersnaps. It’s deeply tied to my family, and it’s delicious.
A cooking lesson you still carry with you?
My mother made one dish when I was growing up: sweet and sour cabbage with hot dogs. It was simple and really good, and I still make a simple version of it today.
What’s funny is that she didn’t love to cook when she was younger, but she became a great cook later in life. She lived to 103, and over time she really grew to love cooking and collecting recipes. It’s never too late to learn.
A cooking memory that always makes you smile?
Cooking together, always, any time. When the family is in the kitchen, talking, laughing, teasing each other—that’s the best part.
Cooking creates space for conversation. It slows things down. People open up more when they’re cooking together.
Any final advice for families?
Food should feel like joy.
I remember visiting a house where the kids weren’t allowed to leave the table until they finished everything on their plate. I decided then I would never do that. It’s our job to make food inviting, not stressful. Meals should be something people want to come to.
