Exploring the intersection of history, food, and culture
Upcoming events
Princeton university
New Jersey
September 3rd 2026
4:30pm
The greatest archive of Sephardic Jewish culinary history was created not by Jews themselves, but by the institutions that sought to eradicate Jewish identity. Paradoxically, the records of the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions preserve an unparalleled account of the foodways they were intended to suppress.
This lecture explores how, from fifteenth-century Spain to the early modern Atlantic world, food became a powerful marker of religious identity and an instrument of political control. Inquisition trials reveal how everyday culinary practices—avoiding pork, preparing dishes associated with Jewish tradition, and observing Sabbath and festival meals—could lead to denunciation, prosecution, and even execution. At the same time, these records document the resilience of Sephardic Jews, whose culinary traditions endured through migration, adaptation, and cultural exchange across Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Curaçao, and the Americas.
By examining inquisitorial records as unexpected archives of cultural memory, this lecture argues that they provide the richest surviving evidence for reconstructing the evolution of Sephardic culinary heritage across the longue durée. They reveal how food functioned simultaneously as a means of persecution, a vehicle of cultural resistance, and a lasting expression of Jewish identity whose legacy continues to shape culinary traditions on both sides of the Atlantic.
Miami
Florida
November 21st 2026
college of Charleston
South Carolina
November 22nd 2026
10am
Curaçao
Passover
April 2027
12th-22ND
JEWISH MUSEUM
Philadelphia
June 8th-12th 2027
har zion
scholar & Chef in Residence
Come together to explore the rich flavours, stories, and traditions of Sephardic Jewish heritage. Through inspiring lectures, lively discussions, hands-on cooking classes, interactive workshops, festive Shavuot meals, and wellness activities inspired by Maimonides (the Rambam), you'll experience how history, food, and community are deeply connected. Whether you're discovering centuries-old recipes from medieval Spain, sharing the diverse Shavuot customs of the Sephardic diaspora, or preparing traditional dishes together, every gathering is an opportunity to learn, connect, and celebrate our shared cultural heritage. Everyone is welcome—from curious beginners to lifelong learners, individuals, families, and community groups.
Past events
Exploring the intersection of history, food, and culture
Philadelphia
APRIL, 3th 2026
Mikveh Israel Passover Shabbat talk
A few words for the 2nd Seder
Join us for a special evening celebrating Jewish food, history, and storytelling with Dr. Hélène Jawhara Piñer and Chef Michael Solomonov.
Inspired by Dr. Jawhara Piñer’s cookbook Matzah and Flour, this conversation will explore centuries of Sephardic culinary heritage and how food carries memory, resilience, and meaning in Jewish life.
✨ Monday, April 6
📍 Temple Hillel – The Rosen Center
🍽 Kosher & Kosher for Passover dinner included
5:30 PM Reception & Schmooze
6:30 PM Program with Dinner
7:15 PM Dessert & Schmooze
🎟 Tickets start at $100
👩🎓 Free for students
Tickets 🎟️: https://www.hillelattemple.org/2027-cookbooks-convos-w-chefs
Every ticket helps support Jewish life and student programming at Temple University.
Come for the conversation. Stay for the community. Support the students who make Hillel a home...
Philadelphia
APRIL, 6th 2026
at TEMPLE UNIVERSITY
Hillel
zahavrestaurant In honor of our upcoming Chai birthday (18th!) this May, we are hosting a Shabbat Dinner Series on the Zahav Patio, kicking off Friday, April 3rd with a Sephardic Passover Dinner featuring @helenejawharapiner 💫 Dr. Hélène Jawhara Piñer is a leading scholar of Sephardic Jewish cooking—with a PhD in Medieval History and the History of Food—and is a three-time cookbook author. Hélène resides in France.
The Shabbat Dinner Series this Spring & Summer will feature a roster of collaborators joining @mikesolomonov and the Zahav culinary team in the kitchen one Friday per month, with the meal taking place on our Zahav Patio.
Menu highlights for April 3rd with Hélène Jawhara Piñer include Dirty Bread Matzah with Labneh and Huebos Hammados, Sweet Lamb with Chestnuts and Apricots, Burnt Basque Cheesecake with Marzipan, and @drinkgalia to pair (optional).
And in the spirit of Shabbat, this will be a phone-free evening, with communal seating.
Philadelphia
APRIL, 3th 2026
at ZAHAV
Syracuse university
18- 19 February 2026
Charenton-le-Pont
librairie la vie immediate
10 decembre 2025
17h -19h30
Rencontre avec Hélène Jawhara Piñer pour son livre de cuisine sur l'histoire des Juifs Séfarades : Séfarade : Une histoire culinaire des Juifs d'Espagne et de la diaspora en 55 recettes (éditions du Rouergue, 2025).
Gratuit
gradignan
Librairie le vrai lieu
8 novembre 2025
17h30 - 19h30
Rencontre avec Hélène Jawhara Piñer pour son livre de cuisine sur l'histoire des Juifs Séfarades : Séfarade : Une histoire culinaire des Juifs d'Espagne et de la diaspora en 55 recettes (éditions du Rouergue, 2025).
Gratuit
Tel Aviv
21-23 October 2025
FESTIVAL SEfarad
NEW YORK
Cooking Sephardi History
Date: Friday, June 6, 2025
Time: 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
Location: TriBeCa Synagogue
49 White St, New York, NY 10013
About the event
Join Festival Sefarad with culinary historian, celebrated chef, and cookbook author Dr. Hélène Jawhara Piñer as she reflects on ways food can tell stories about Sephardic Jews. The workshop will feature a cooking demo as Hélène will demonstrate the preparation of Sephardic summer recipes from her cookbooks.
Books available to purchase there.
It will followed by a book signing.
Tribeca Synagogue
49 White St, New York, NY 10013
ONLINE & In person
Holiday Tables, Ladino Voices: Sephardic Traditions Across Generations
september 26th 2025
10:10-11am PT
Join us for a hybrid talk and cooking demonstration! Celebrating holidays has always been a powerful way to pass traditions from one generation to the next—through prayer and ritual, through stories and objects, and of course, through food. For Sephardic Jews, preserving their cuisine was not always easy, given the complex history of displacement and diaspora, but they managed to keep it alive. We find Ladino words for beloved dishes in old documents, proof of how deeply food anchored Sephardic identity. This session invites you to discover how holiday celebrations shaped the lives of Sephardic Jews in 16th-century Spain, and to taste a piece of that history with a Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) recipe from Dr. Jawhara Piñer’s cookbook Matzah and Flour: the delightful pasteliko
1229 Dwinelle (A Level)
Light snacks and refreshments served!
Free
Tours
11 septembre 2025
18h30 - 20h
Rencontre avec Hélène Jawhara Piñer pour son livre de cuisine sur l'histoire des Juifs Séfarades : Séfarade : Une histoire culinaire des Juifs d'Espagne et de la diaspora en 55 recettes (éditions du Rouergue, 2025). La rencontre sera suivie du verre de l’amitié.
Résumé : « À la croisée de l’histoire, de la mémoire et de la gastronomie, ce livre de cuisine retrace l’histoire des juifs d’Espagne et de la diaspora à travers leurs traditions culinaires. Ouvrage singulier, il est le fruit de plusieurs années de recherches et d’analyse de sources anciennes et originales. Des premières recettes juives mentionnées dans un livre de cuisine daté du XIIIe siècle, aux manuscrits de l’Inquisition, en passant par les traités de médecine rédigés par les plus grands savants séfarades, Hélène Jawhara Piñer préserve et transmet un héritage culinaire et un pan méconnu de l’histoire juive ».
Gratuit
Exploring the intersection of history, food, and culture
FESTIVAL SEfarad
NEW YORK
Inaugural Festival Sefarad Shabbat Dinner
Date: Friday, June 6, 2025
Time: 7:00 pm
Location: TriBeCa Synagogue
49 White St, New York, NY 10013
About the event
Join award-winning scholar and chef Dr. Hélène Jawhara Piñer, who is flying in from France, to inaugurate Festival Sefarad with a celebratory Shabbat dinner. As a culinary historian of Jewish Spain, Dr. Hélène Jawhara Piñer mines the rich and varied history of Sephardic cooking from the records of Inquisition trials, medical treatises and medieval cookbooks written in Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, Occitan, Italian and Hebrew. Hélène Jawhara Piñer received her PhD in Medieval History and the History of Food from the University of Tours and the University of Bordeaux. Winner of the Gourmand World Cookbook Award for her 2021 cookbook, Sephardi: Cooking the History, she is also the author of Jews, Food, and Spain (2022), a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. Piñer’s latest cookbook, Matzah and Flour, is a collection of 125 meticulously crafted recipes showcasing the transformative power that flour from grains like barley and chickpeas had in sustaining Sephardic families throughout history.
MENU
Soup: Modern Ḥarīra: Tomato and Flour Soup (M&F)
Meat: Harisa: wheat grain and chicken stew & Roasted eggplant(M&F) p.229
Fish: Mexican converso fish stew for Shabbat & Roasted spiced potatoes (Sephardi)
Dessert: Neulas encanonadas: Brik pastry rolls with almonds and honey (Sephardi)
Manjar blanco p.71 (M&F)
Tribeca Synagogue
49 White St, New York, NY 10013
Exploring the intersection of history, food, and culture
NEW YORK
SEPHARDIC JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL
El Museo del Barrio
1230 5th Ave, New York, NY 10029
June 8, 2025, 7:00 - 10:00 PM EDT
Join us for Opening Night of the 27th New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival at El Museo del Barrio — an unforgettable evening of joy, artistry, and community.
I will give a talk on the richness of Sephardi culture during this opening night ceremony.
We will present the 2025 ASF Pomegranate Awards to honor vibrant Sephardi voices for outstanding achievements on stage & screen, in literature, music, and cultural preservation:
🌟 Yael Naim — Pomegranate Lifetime Achievement Award for Music
📚Roya Hakakian — Pomegranate Lifetime Achievement Award for Literature
🎭Michel Boujenah — Pomegranate Lifetime Achievement Award for Stage and Screen
🎶Fortuna — Pomegranate Lifetime Achievement Award for Preservation of Sephardic Culture
The Pomegranates are sculpted with love by world-renowned, Baghdad-born artist Oded Halhamy.
Palma de mallorca
I am inviting as a guest speaker to the Ahlan of the European Union of Jewish Students (EUJS) seminar scheduled to take place from the 13th to 16th of June in the city of Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
I will be leading two sessions on the Sephardi food heritage during the seminar.