Recipes Lost And Found

The cover and a page from the Fenyves family recipe book. (U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum)

A recipe can be more than a guide to making food. On this week's show, we meet culinary detectives who are using recipes to unlock the past. We begin with the inspiring story of humanity preserved through recipes from the time of the Holocaust. Chef Alon Shaya joins us to share the story of a family cookbook he encountered while visiting the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and how it led to a collaboration and friendship with Steven Fenves, a man who survived the horrors of that time. Through their Rescued Recipes project, Alon and Steven have raised over $500,000 to benefit the same museum that brought them together.

Chef Alon Shaya speaking at a fundraiser benefiting the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. (Rush Jagoe)

Then, we speak with culinary historian Gerald Patout, whose lifelong obsession with cookbooks led him to uncover a nearly forgotten tome: "The Lafayette Cookbook." As Gerald explains to us, there's really nothing typically Cajun in the century-old recipe collection. Due to his efforts, the book has been reprinted, and is now available to order via UL Press or First United Methodist Church of Downtown Lafayette (information is located at the bottom of the page).

Finally, historian Miki Pfeffer joins us with tales of New Orleans' own Grace King, whose life spanned the period from before the Civil War to the Great Depression. She describes how this celebrated literary figure relished the art of dining and had a lifelong fascination with food. Miki's latest book is "A New Orleans Author in Mark Twain’s Court: Letters from Grace King's New England Sojourns."