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www.symphonysq.com and Jewish holiday cooking, and after university I
worked on a magazine and then got a job working
for [cookbook author] Joan Nathan,” Alpern said. “I
did recipe testing for her, and she got me a job in a
pastry kitchen and on a food truck. Then I crossed
paths with Jeffrey and we both were super on fire
about Jewish foods.”
After hitting it off, Yoskowitz and Alpern would
go on to launch The Gefilteria.

Raised in New Jersey by parents who loved Ash-
kenazi culture, Yoskowitz attended a Jewish day
school and became well-versed in traditional Jewish
cuisine from a young age.

“My dad took me to the Jewish delis and kinish-
eries and the Jewish food institutions of New York
when I was a child,” he said. “I was always interested
in food and even studied the kosher food industry
for my senior thesis [at Brown University]. When
I graduated I became a farm fellow and moved to
Adamah Farm, a Jewish organic farm.”
At Adamah, Yoskowitz became a pickle appren-
tice, falling in love with the art of lacto-fermen-
tation — a style of pickling and preserving that
does not involve vinegar and is the classic style of
making the Jewish deli pickle.

Pickling helped Yoskowitz discovered the wis-
“Growing up eating a pastrami
sandwich with a full sour pickle
next to it, wow, it’s the best way of
helping digest that fatty pastrami
sandwich.” Philadelphia
Corporation for
Aging (PCA)
26 THE GUIDE 2017/2018
JEFFREY YOSKOWITZ
dom that is inherent in Jewish cooking.

“Not only does the pickle have a lot of flavor, the
method of making it relies on a natural occurring
bacteria — acidophilus, what’s in yogurt — which
is very good for your digestion and is probiotic,” he
said. “Growing up eating a pastrami sandwich with
a full sour pickle next to it, wow, it’s the best way of
helping digest that fatty pastrami sandwich. That’s
when I learned this tradition has a built in wisdom
to it. This inspired me.”
“It was an awakening, where food comes from,
the experience creating it,” Yoskowitz added. “Then
I got into writing.”
Now an entrepreneur, consultant, cook and
public speaker, Yoskowitz’s writings have been
published in The New York Times, The Atlantic and
Gastronomica. Reviving ‘lost gems’