And then there is the problem of the fate of French Jews under Nazi occupation. Not good.
Mais oui, Nathan says.
France now has the third-largest Jewish population in the world (after Israel and the United States), she notes, and Jews traveled with the Romans into France when it was Gaul. So the recipes are there, she says, but prying them loose from people who would rather keep a low profile was not easy.
"That's why the title emphasizes my search," she says.
This is the 10th in Nathan's shelf of books that present up-to-date recipes in their cultural and historical contexts. At the First Person Arts Festival last month, Nathan spoke about her work as listeners munched on hummus with laffa from Zahav restaurant, and restaurant Argan couscous, a dish brought to France by Jews from North Africa.
Appropriately, Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous offers eight quiches and kugels, among them a pear and prune kugel from the Alsace region, where Jews cooked with goose fat they learned about in Poland, while their southern counterparts in Provence used oil and garlic they brought with them from the Mediterranean and North Africa.
For Hanukkah, which began Wednesday evening, the book features four latke recipes. There's Potato Chremslach, made with mashed potatoes; Palets de Pommes de Terre, which start with raw russets; Gretchenes Latkes, with buckwheat groats; and Brandade potato latkes, a recipe from a young Parisian chef Nathan met, who adds fresh cod to the mix (see recipe).
What sets Nathan's cookbooks apart in the crowded field is the human touch she finds in food history.
"I wouldn't call myself a food historian necessarily," she says. "But I do look for hints of the background in what a chef cooks."
