Gil Marks

One of the keys to Jewish culinary history is that the Jewish role was not so much innovation but transition and transformation.

Preparing foods from other Jewish communities is broadening. It's interesting to sample the foods of other Jewish communities and see what they developed.

The Passover experience is an incredibly pedagogic one.

People remember the different variations of stuffed cabbage based on their mothers and grandmothers. It's not just about food. Eating something as traditional as this is a cultural experience, one that is spiritual and nostalgic. It manages to transcend time; it's food for the soul.

To me, that aspect of life that most touches the everyday and celebrations is food.

The knish is a classic example of peasant food evolving into comfort food and even sophisticated fare.

Food is never static; culture is never static.

Food is sort of like the Jewish sense of humor, a defense mechanism. It is one of the things that helped the Jews survive through 2,000 years of an often very harsh Diaspora.

I don't understand a mentality that will accept eating something that doesn't taste good just because it's low-fat or is made with matzo or whatever.

The kosher community tends to follow often several years behind the general societal trends.

To know a community is to know its food.

In the New York metropolitan area, you can find Jews from just about every Jewish cultural community in the world.