Cooking alla Giudia with Benedetta Guetta

Today I’m chatting with Benedetta Guetta, whose name is arguably the most fun to pronounce in Jewish cooking, but it’s also plastered across Cooking alla Giudia: A Celebration of the Jewish Food of Italy. She’s also the owner of Café Lovi in Santa Monica where she's serving up a slew of signature challah sandwiches amongst other noshables.

 

Before we get to our chat, allow me to throw out a shameless plug for an upcoming Forward event where I’ll be chatting alongside Rukhl Schaechter, editor of the Forverts, food scholar and chef Eve Jochnowitz, as well as folklore and food scholar Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett. The online event is called “What did our great-grandparents eat for breakfast? Exploring the food traditions of our East European Jewish heritage.” And that’ll stream live on Monday, August 7th at noon EST.

 

Now onwards to Benedetta! We first spoke some time ago for a story and recipe I was working on about caponata. But for this conversation, I asked Benedetta if she could start off by painting us a picture of Jewish life in Italy.