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Nov. 2, 2007
Adding flavor to Jewish life
Elka Yarlowe and museum combine Judaism, music, cooking.
OLGA LIVSHIN
Over the last few Sundays, Vancouver gourmets met at the King David High School to learn the essence of Jewish cooking from an expert Jewish chef and historian, Elka Yarlowe. Yarlowe's series of seminars about Jewish cuisine is called Jewish Epicure.
Organized by the Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia, Jewish Epicure introduces the participants to the traditional ingredients and kosher recipes of many Jewish dishes. Greg Robinson, the education co-ordinator of the museum, considers food the quintessence of Jewish culture.
"Food reflects the nation's worldwide geographical spread, religious rituals and tragic history," he said. "Everywhere the Jews settled, they brought their food quirks with them. On the other hand, they absorbed the local food fares, seamlessly integrating them into their meals, creating the almost bottomless variety of the modern Jewish cuisine. Jewish food is an organic record of the Diaspora."
When Robinson conceived a series of demonstrations and lessons dedicated to Jewish food, he first consulted B.C. Kosher, where Rabbi Eli Lando suggested Yarlowe as a possible lecturer. After a 15-minute telephone conversation with Yarlowe, Robinson knew she would be the one to do it.
Yarlowe is a colorful figure, she is not only an expert on Jewish cuisine but also a musician, opera singer, music scholar and impresario. A truly renaissance personality, Yarlowe grew up in New York, in a Jewish family steeped in music and culture. Her family background is rooted in the soil of many European countries.
While her father owned a general store in a lower-class neighborhood of Long Island, her mother spoke of Alexander Pushkin and Sholom Aleichem, read Leo Tolstoy and taught her daughter Russian operas by Tchaikovsky and Borodin.
After high school, Yarlowe studied music and opera singing at the Cleveland Institute of Music and at the Curtis Conservatory in Philadelphia. Receiving her master's degree in opera history and ethno-musicology from Tel-Aviv University, she played her first opera role in the production of Jacques Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffman with Israel's National Opera.
Yarlowe performed as an opera and recital singer, taught music and worked in musical production in Israel, Turkey, the United States and Canada. Besides a musical career, Yarlowe also had a family career as a wife and mother. In conjunction with those two paths, each of which could be enough for a lesser person, Yarlowe also developed a profound interest in Judaism and cooking. Having been inspired by her national heritage since her youth, she grew from a fascinated dilettante to an accomplished expert in both religion and food. "I stand with one leg in Judaism and cooking, another in music and opera," she said.
In 1987, Yarlowe and her family moved to Toronto, where she carved her niche in the Toronto artistic scene. She kept on singing and teaching; started her own artistic management company and all the while Judaism and the food domain continued to enchant her, interwoven inseparably in the universe of national cuisine.
Yarlowe's spirituality, love of music and adventurous nature merge in her cooking. She had always loved experimenting, drawing on the recipes from both Ashkenazi and Sephardi traditions to create her own menus. She started catering as a favor to a friend, and slowly gained a reputation as a marvelous gourmet kosher cook. She catered to the Jewish women organizations, arranged Jewish food demonstrations and had her own music and cooking shows on TV. Around the Jewish holidays, she frequently held classes on traditional Jewish cuisine, meanwhile researching the more creative, modern trends in kosher food preparation.
A fountain of energy, Yarlowe is very passionate about her multiple associations: music, religion and food. "I'm a musician and a New Yorker, a Jew and a cook. And now I'm a Canadian," she said proudly.
Yarlowe moved to Vancouver only two years ago, but her passions wouldn't let her be still. She supervises her talent agency and recently started her own opera company, Opera Beyond. She is thinking about opening a kosher restaurant. "I'm disappointed in the scarcity of kosher food on the Vancouver food scene," she said.
According to Yarlowe, everyone has a purpose in life. Her purpose is threefold: music, Judaism and food. "I want to share my passions with the Vancouverites. The Jews of this city are asleep, assimilated among the many other cultures. I want to wake them up. I want my tribe to be excited about our heritage, religion, food and music."
The series Jewish Epicure is the first step on Yarlowe's road to awake the Jews of Vancouver. Her demonstrations are simultaneously fun and educational, stuffed with deep knowledge and performed with the flare of a leading lady. Men and women, Jews and gentiles all share in Yarlowe's warmth and expertise. During her classes, students learn to cook, laugh and enjoy delicious food with lots of Judaic flavor.
Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer.
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