Is traditional Jewish cooking under threat of extinction?

Latkes

In March of this year the government introduced a “Responsibility Deal”, a voluntary scheme to encourage healthy living and healthy eating. The deal comprises core commitments for action on food, alcohol, behavioural change, physical activity and health at work. Diet-related illness places a huge burden on the NHS. Direct costs are thought to be over £4bn a year and rising. The deal states: "public health is everyone's business. We aspire to good health and yet we persist in behaviours that undermine it".

As part of the deal, restaurants are being encouraged to clearly display calorie counts for each meal on their menu, so that diners can make informed decisions about their choices. Some restaurants are already doing this, and more and more are being encouraged to introduce it, as it has been met with considerable success already in the States, where consumers are choosing the healthier options. The truth is that having seen this done in a restaurant last week, the actual calorie count was quite shocking and certainly influenced my choice, opting for something that I didn’t really want.

However, the question is, are we being made to feel guilty about one of life’s pleasures? We often go out to a restaurant for a meal for a celebration or special occasion and there are many people who enjoy a special treat, having something they might not ordinarily eat and don’t want to think about the calories. There are of course those who eat unhealthy food all the time and are not concerned how calorific their choices are, and you could argue that these people won’t care whether the calories are marked on the menu or not.

Is this just the thin end of the wedge? Food plays such a large part in Jewish life. On Rosh Hashanah we eat honey cake, on Shavuot we eat cheesecake and blintzes, Friday night we eat chicken and chicken soup, Purim we eat Hamantashen and don’t forget the latkes, bubbalas, kreplach – the list goes on, but none of it jumps out as the healthy option. Are we going to be made to feel guilty about handing down the recipe for these traditional foods to our children? Will these recipes die forever as we are told to use low fat ingredients and don’t deep fry?

Lisa Roukin, a regular cookery workshop teacher at the LJCC thinks not "Just because a recipe uses lower fat ingredients or healthier cooking methods, should not mean that it will be any less delicious and a pleasure to eat. There are lots of recipes that you can use for every day cooking and use for special occasions that are not high in fat, but I still believe that the traditional recipes will continue to be used - they're just too tasty to be forgotten."

Attendance at last year’s Gefiltefest, our celebration of Jewish food, which is now set to become an annual event, illustrates how popular our traditional recipes still are and we don’t think they will be given up easily.

How do you feel about this new introduction into restaurants of calorie counting? Will it make you feel guilty? Do you think it will influence your choices?

Don’t miss Lisa’s next workshop on 25^th September entitled “A Healthy Start to the New Year” featuring delicious and healthy recipes to serve your family for Rosh Hashanah