David M. Gitlitz (1942–2020)

I was excited when I first heard about this book, but when I got a copy, i was disappointed.

First what is good: the recipes produce tasty dishes.

But they are not the recipes of Spain's Jews, secret or public. They were invented by the authors with a minimum of supporting evidence, or, much of the time, none at all. They are based for the most part on the testimony of people who turned in Conversos for being "secrect Jews". The mere mention of, oh, say, chick peas and honey, has led the authors to invent a recipe that includes these ingredients.

If you are truly interested in the history the food eaten by Spain's Jews, you will learn only a very limited amount from this book. If you want some nice Spainish-style recipes actually eaten by Jews, you'll probably do better skipping the sad tales of betrayal and torture and buying a modern Sephardic cookbook.… (altro)