L ifestyle /C ulture
Thirty Years: A Match Made by the Exponent
F OOD
KERI WHITE | JE FOOD COLUMNIST
“IT WAS BASHERT!” said
Sherri Leon, co-proprietor of
Noshes by Sherri, describing
the journey to find her husband
Michael. While a student at pharmacy
school, Leon placed a personal
ad in the Jewish Exponent.

“My roommate and I just
did it for the heck of it — we
literally said, ‘2 SJFs seeking
2 SJMs.’ We got, like, 50
replies through the P.O. box
— remember this was 30-some
years ago — we went on a ton
of dates. Michael’s letter stood
out because he was a pharma-
cist, and he loved skiing and
tennis, just like me, but it took
months to meet just because of
scheduling conflicts.”
Sometime in those two
months, Leon went to her travel
agent’s house to pick up airline
tickets and destiny loomed.

“She was a yenta so, of course,
she asked me who I was dating.

I told her about the personal
ad thing and that there was
one guy who I hadn’t met yet
but seemed really promising,”
she said. “She asked his name,
I said, ‘Michael Leon’ and she
shrieked. She ran out of the
room, popped a video into her
VCR and showed me Michael.

He was the best man at her
nephew’s wedding.”
Leon liked what she saw, so
she called her future husband,
then later went on a date to
Bennigan’s. “It was an instant connec-
tion. We talked nonstop, ended
up closing the place down; they
asked us to leave,” she said. “We
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kept talking in the parking lot,
and we are still talking!”
Michael Leon proposed
sometime later.

“We were going skiing up
to Killington. He insisted on
stopping at a hardware store
on the way. I was, like, why?
We finally got there. It was a
foggy, gray day, and Michael
raced off the lift and whizzed
down the hill. I was yelling,
‘Where are you?’ He yelled to
come down, and when I got
there he had written in blue
contractor’s tape, ‘Sherri, will
you marry me?’ That’s why
he stopped at the hardware
store. It was beautiful from
day one.”
Thirty years, three kids
and two successful pharmacy
careers later, the two launched
a food business. Michael Leon
is retired now, but Sherri Leon
still works full time behind
the pharmacy counter. The
kids help with the business
— although they are all profes-
sionals in their own right.

The business grew out of a
social media quest. A woman
was searching for Jewish apple
cake for her brother’s birthday.

She was referred to Sherri
Leon, whose apple cake was
legendary. She made the cake,
was informed that the birthday
boy, a renowned foodie and
apple cake aficionado, deemed
it the best he’d ever had, and
pretty soon a business was born.

Their motto is “Love at first
bite.” “The first time we served up
a knish to a customer, he took
a bite and said, ‘This is love!’ so
it kind of stuck,” Michael Leon
said. “Everyone wants more,
they’re addictive. Our knishes
are lighter and smaller than
the typical ones you might see
in a deli, which, to me, can
sometimes be like lead.”
Many of the recipes are
passed down from the family.

Michael’s mother, “Bubbe,”
was known for the best matzah
balls, sponge cake and all sorts
of traditional Jewish fare. His
JEWISH EXPONENT
Sherri and Michael
Leon Photos by Rebecca and
Alexis Leon
grandmother lived in Israel,
and he fondly recalls enjoying
her poppy seed cookies on
the family’s annual visits. The
cookies are now on the menu,
along with a variety of other
sweet and savory items that vary
with the season and holidays.

The couple uses local
produce whenever possible and
even picks their own at nearby
orchards and farms during
harvest time.

Noshes by Sherri is a regular
fixture at many local farmers
markets and recently joined
the Sisterly Love Food Fair, a
consortium of women-owned
food businesses that banded
together to sell their wares
collectively around the region.

The baked goods also are avail-
able to order via their website
noshesbysherri.com. The following recipe is
Bubbe’s kugel and is still kept
on a 3-by-5 card in the metal
file card box with the other
recipe cards from their mothers
and grandmothers. This one
was typed by Bubbe herself on
her manual typewriter.

BUBBE’S NOODLE KUGEL
Serves 8-10
6 eggs
1 pound thin egg noodles
8 ounces Philadelphia
cream cheese
16 ounces Breakstone
cottage cheese
16 ounces Breakstone sour
cream 1 ½ cups of sugar
¼ cup cinnamon/sugar mix
Cook the noodles and drain
them. Combine the eggs, sugar,
sour cream, cottage cheese and
cream cheese in a mixer.

Add that into the noodles
and top it with the cinnamon
sugar mix.

Bake at 350 F for 1½ hours. l
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