Save the Jewish food

In a weekend of July 2010, I had the pleasure to guide through Bucharest and surroundings the Canadian journalist David Sax (author of Save the Deli, left) and the US photographer Landon Nordeman (right), who came to record Jewish Romania's gastronomic heritage.

Besides having visited Jewish sites in the Romanian capital, we went to restaurants and popular markets, seeking traditional culinary phenomena which gave birth to alimentary habits deeply rooted within Jewish emigrants communities in the Americas.

The main character of this gastronomic travel was the pastrami, a Romanian dish brought by Romanian Jews to the other shore of the Atlantic and transformed into a delicatessen that can be tasted in famous restaurants in New York.

The highest moment was the Romanian Jewish meal we have organized for our guests at Fernando's Hideaway in Fierbinti, 40km from Bucharest. Cooking was signed by Silvia Weiss, who offers catering services known as Silvita's Kitchen.

In the issue # 134 (December 2010) of the magazine Saveur it was published the article signed by David Sax, with photos by Landon Nordeman, under the title Roots of Deli - in which the author seeks in Budapest and Bucharest the authentic origins of today's Jewish food.