By Rachelle Cano, Special to the Independent
Our parents and grandparents hand down family traditions around the table of greater value than holiday baubles. Why wait for the end of the year to reflect on them? Being in touch with our family roots through food should not be limited to November and December. Keep the joy and memories alive with their recipes.
Three chef owners recently shared how loved ones achieve a measure of immortality by recreating their recipes and traditions.
Chef-proprietor Vince Crivello of Ristorante Rumari in Laguna Beach turns to a seafood tradition.
Chef Vince Crivello of Laguna’s oldest Italian restaurant, Ristorante Rumari, cannot forget his grandmother’s recipe in his hometown of Porticello, Italy:
There is no doubt in my mind that my grandmother and my parents definitely instilled the value of food and family, making them interdependent and an absolute necessity for keeping the family together. This memorable dish was prepared with love, and I have shared this recipe with my family throughout the years as a way of remembering my grandmother and childhood years in Italy. I don’t wait for holidays to make the dish and find it comforting when I do prepare it and loving memories flood in. My daughters love it, and it too reminds them of their great-grandmother Vincenza.
Chef Azmin Ghahreman of Sapphire Laguna serves up holiday traditions made by many hands:
I do believe it’s very important for the family to be together during the holidays no matter what. We do our best to teach our four children that family is the most valuable thing, as well as keeping traditions within the family. Every year for the past 16 years, I host a holiday party for my friends and family at my home. This year I hosted over 130 people and I prepared my holiday eggnog made to order.
On Christmas day I serve a prime rib roast for my family. After everyone gets done opening their presents, the standing rib roast goes in the oven and when it’s ready we pray together and give thanks for our daily bread. My wife Laura loves to bake and passes on her family tradition of baking gingersnaps with the children. It was her mother and grandmother’s recipe, and we love to get everyone involved. Because kids have different size hands, the cookies come out in all sizes as they are made by little hands, big hands, etc., and we have to sort them on different cookie trays to time them right. And, when they come out they are gone in no time! It’s great family fun!
I personally prepare dinners for people in the community like emergency room doctors, and children in need. It’s very important to make sure that everyone has a meal to eat for the holiday and that every kid has a toy to play with that brings joy and hope. In my culture we have an old belief about how to take care of your neighbors. In the old Iran when you come out of your house you ‘Look left, look right and if everyone is alright then move forward.’ It’s a way of making sure that we watch out for each other and invite your neighbors to share in our bounty. Coming into this New Year, I feel blessed in my life, as every day is better than yesterday.
Barbara Lazaroff, co-founder of Spago and the Wolfgang Puck brand, describes a childhood food memory:
Everyone has early memories related to food. The sense of smell is our most primary sense from the earliest experience as the infant finding sustenance through its mother, and then through family meals or favorite memorable scents. Certain suntan lotions remind me of my childhood in New York at Jones Beach and then in the Catskills. My dear mother Ellie’s perfume still makes me feel safe even now after she has passed away. Her culinary skills were excellent and she was meticulous about latkes. Latkes in our home are associated with my mother and grandmother, who handed down her recipe. Because of them, making latkes is a given in our home and a wonderful way of remembering holidays spent together with my parents and grandparents. My mom always hand-grated the potatoes, which results in a more textured and crispier potato pancake. She squeezed out the excess water and carefully added just enough salt. Mine are just not as good as hers, but with every bite I smile, remembering her and how much she enjoyed the holidays and celebrating the New Year.
We have also made latkes at our restaurant Spago, in Beverly Hills, for the annual charity Passover Seder even though they are typically made for the festive Hanukkah celebration of lights. I have served them with our turkey on Thanksgiving when the two holidays coincided. My children were raised around group effort in the kitchen, and food has always brought us together as a family. I make the simplest version most often, but I have on occasion made a few where I add pignoli (pine nuts) or walnuts on top the potato pancake with smoked salmon or a few raisins, or even some sliced fruits on the side. I canned some peaches and my own applesauce this year so I served that together, and depending on taste preference, some people like them with sour cream or crème fraîche.
My younger son Byron Lazaroff-Puck graduated from the Cornell School of Hôtel Management and aside from his work in the Spago kitchen Beverly Hills, he has been interning in great kitchens around the world. This year he made many of the latkes at home, and unlike his mom he didn’t burn any! One thing is certain; none of us can prepare a latke and not think of my mother Ellie. We keep her spirit alive in so many ways; one way is by using her recipes that make us feel close to her all year long.
For the New Year Byron has come up with a modern latke, an innovative, cannoli-style rolled latke filled with crème fraîche and distilled green apple caviar, topped with Osetra caviar and fresh micro basil. It’s definitely a cutting edge latke!
The author, who worked professionally as a singer-songwriter and recording artist, currently works in real estate and writes freelance articles. She co-chairs the Laguna Beach chapter of the American Association of University Women. Reach her at [email protected] .
