L ifestyle /C ulture
Philly Faces: Amanda Shulman
P H I LLY FACES
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
night while she was in high
school. Her epicurious skills honed
through spells as a chef at Amis
Trattoria — once part of the
Marc Vetri restaurant empire
— and The Bakeshop on 20th,
Shulman grew her desire to
feed others.

The prototype of a full
dining room on Shabbat
evolved into a supper club she
hosted in her tiny University of
Pennsylvania apartment, then
a pop-up concept and now
the semi-permanent Her Place
supper club with its home at
1740 Sansom St.

family making that really
stuck with you?
Every Friday night we would
make roast chicken — roast
chicken with vegetables.

It was also all about the
holidays: my great aunt’s
stuffed Cornish hens — like the
craziest thing ever. I remember
eating them once a year at her
house for Rosh Hashanah with
apple cake.

What else? And my grand-
ma’s baked salami — kosher
baked salami covered in
sugar-mustard glaze.

AMANDA SHULMAN, 29,
grew up eating Shabbat dinner
with her family almost every
week. It was such a sacred time
that her parents imposed a
rule: no going out with friends
on Friday nights. Instead, as
a loophole, Shulman and her
siblings would invite friends
over to their “revolving dinner
table.” Learning to cook Shabbat
meals with her grandmothers
Have you found that the way
in the kitchen, Shulman
you ate growing up has influ-
quickly fell in love with feeding
enced how you cook?
others, and she began cooking Was there a dish growing
up that
you remember
your Definitely.

It’s abundant,
dinner for her family every
Amanda Shulman
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM Courtesy of Amanda Shulman
JEWISH EXPONENT
and it should make you
feel good, and [it’s] not too
complicated. I’m one of four kids;
everyone besides me had a
picky-eater phase. So my mom
would have to make three
different things, and there was
always just so much concern
that there was never going to
be enough, so that’s definitely
something I have taken.

I really love spreads and
a lot of things on the table
at once, just to give everyone
some options.

Cooking with your family
growing up, cooking in restau-
rants under chef mentors,
what are some lessons you’ve
learned? Work ethic is inherent not
necessarily learned, but just
how to put your head down
and learn and just listen, really
how to listen. How to soak up
everything you can from an
opportunity. Recognizing you can liter-
ally learn from every single
person, whether ... it’s a sous
chef, whether it’s a dishwasher
... you can learn from every-
body. You just have to be like
a sponge.

It’s also a relationship
business. So don’t burn a bridge
and be respectful. Just know
that everyone is connected.

That’s really important. And
just being nice, constantly. Just
being kind can go a long way,
especially in today’s kitchen
culture. expectation, really — in a good
way. Because how many restau-
rants have you been to where
there’s a set of rules: You go
in, you sit down, you order;
you act in a certain way? You
expect an appetizer, an entree,
a dessert and a side, and we are
just, like, ‘Nope, that’s not how
we play.’
By not calling ourselves
a restaurant, it gives us a lot
more freedom and flexibility to
bend the rules.

What are some ways in which
you bend the rules?
We’re open basically four
days a week maximum. We
don’t do dietary substitutions.

There’s plenty of food; if you
don’t like something, eat more
of something else, or come
another time.

The menu changes every
two weeks, but it really changes
like every day, based off of what
I can get or what I’m excited
about. A conversation I have
will literally change an entire
menu. We only release reserva-
tions every two weeks, and
it’s definitely crazy to say this,
but we basically run this entire
restaurant off of social media.

Who would your dream
dinner guest be?
My grandma passed away
two years ago. I wish she could
come. She’s probably my No. 1
person who I wish I could feed.

It’s not just being like a
dinner guest. I want to cook
for you ... but it’s just such
a different environment than
a regular restaurant. It’s kind
of like a dinner party. You’re
walked through your whole
meal, so you can’t just be a
food person, you have to be a
good time — are you adding to
the atmosphere? My grandma
checks all the boxes, so she’ll
be my answer. l
You are pretty adamant about
making a distinction between
a supper club and a restau-
rant. What are the differences
between those two concepts?
Honestly, the real truth is
by not saying I’m a restaurant,
I have a lot more flexibility. By
not defining myself as really
anything, I can kind of change
the rules.

It gives the customer a srogelberg@jewishexponent.com;
different expectation — or no 215-832-0741
FEBRUARY 3, 2022
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