by Lisa Richmon

After The Flavor of Jerusalem was published, she wrote The Jewish Holiday Kitchen. Now 20 years old, the book was inspired by Joan's curiosity about the rituals of Judaism, particularly around the holidays.

"I think one reason people let me enter their homes is because by recording these stories, they become immortal," like Ada Baum Lipsitz whose recipes appear throughout The Jewish Holiday Kitchen.

"She was amazing," writes Joan, in the book. "She said she was born making challah, beginning at the age of 10, preparing the dough every Friday before going to school. While she was in class her father would punch down the dough and store it in a cool place until she returned. She continued making challah for years, combating insomnia and arthritis, all the way up to the age of 84. On the week she died she made challah and gave it to the doctor in the hospital.

"She told me that baking actually helped her arthritis. I remember going to see her and watching her knead the dough with fingers in pain from arthritis, they would spring back to life. ... With her story, we have kept her alive for her children."

A subsequent book written in '94, Jewish Cooking in America, received the James Beard and Julia Child award for cookbook of the year. Here, too, Nathan is both hunter and gatherer, sharing anecdotal recipes handed down from Jewish immigrants.

The book became the inspiration for, and companion to, the public television series, Jewish Cooking in America. The premier season aired in the top 10 markets nationwide. More than 80 percent of all stations aired or are airing the series.

Based on the book, the series uses food to explore Jewish culture and history in the U.S. Crisscrossing the country, Nathan visits the kitchens of celebrities, chefs and other great Jewish cooks. The most colorful guest, Joan recalls, is 94-year-old Dora Solganik.

"She's our gefilte fish lady," says Joan. "I met Dora in Cleveland. She's from Kiev and a real gefilte fish guru who always made her own fish and never used a food processor. We weren't sure how it would work, but she really wanted to do TV. She wouldn't trust us, so she flew to D.C. with her gefilte fish. 'I've been waiting 93 years to become a star,' she said in her heavy Yiddish accent, rolling up her sleeves. We launched her career," says Joan affectionately. "After our show she was picked up to do 'Regis and Kathie Lee,' not once but twice!"

In addition to television, Nathan tours and lectures about the subject of food and culture, but mostly to women.

"Unfortunately, men rarely show up when I give speeches," Nathan says. "I don't think they take what I do seriously. It's funny but when I speak, I never talk about recipes. I talk about food as a manifestation of culture, and I use food to talk about culture and history. Then the women come up to me at the end and say, 'My husband would have loved this."'

But Joan's husband takes her seriously. She makes the marriage of Jewish history and culinary arts appealing on a physical and intellectual level, he says. She links families, "taking my mother's recipes and connecting her to her grandchildren. I think it's terrific."

According to Barbara Fairchild, executive editor of Bon Appetit magazine, "there is nobody as prolific as Joan in this niche of Jewish cookbooks. She makes the whole concept of Jewish cooking accessible to the average home-cook and the preparation not at all daunting."

tv talk
Joan spices her text with recipes of seasoned American Jewish chefs like Anne Rosenzweig. Jewish Cooking in America contains Rosenzweig's Mollases Roast Quail with Savoy Cabbage and Kasha. In the tale of the quail, Nathan talks about Glatt Game Gourmet, a company conceived by an Israeli ex-kibbutznik whose mission was to blend old biblical game with today11s low-fat sensibility. Rosenzweig is the chef and owner of The Lobster Club Restaurant in New York and appears as a guest on her series.

Other stories found in JCA inform and entertain by giving readers the scoop on companies like Híagen-Dazs kosher ice cream, the love affair between Jews and Chinese food, Wolfgang Puck's Jewish pizza made just for Joan, designer potato latkes across America and Texas brisket served to Lyndon Johnson. One need not be Jewish to devour her books. Not that it hurts.

carving a niche
Tastes are changing, says Bon Appetit's Fairchild, and that works in Nathan's favor.

"The home-cooking revival has benefited from this trend because supermarkets are leading the way, stocking the ingredients from Thai to regional Italian."

Vital Vayness, a brand-name consulting and licensing agent in Ridgefield, Conn., is working with Nathan to expand her franchising to consumer products beyond television and books.

"What we're looking to do is create a Joan Nathan line," Vayness says. "We want consumers to see the products in the stores, and when they read the promotional materials, to get the sense of warmth that she feels making the foods." This includes frozen foods, baked goods and gefilte fish.

Martha lite
When she entertains at home, the guest list resembles a small state dinner. For Nathan and Gerson entertaining is a way of life if not a way to experiment with recipes.

CNN's Wolf Blitzer, a frequent dinner guest, met Nathan when she worked for Kollek in Jerusalem. He was the correspondent for The Jerusalem Post. Blitzer says that her passion for the subject of Jewish cooking is contagious.

"She's a very dynamic person who was in the right place at the right time and did something about it," he says. "It doesn't hurt that she's always been a great talker and a great writer. Joan's always experimenting with new recipes and I'm happy to be one of her guinea pigs."

Already thinking about her next big project, Nathan says it will be the last really big thing she'll do, divulging that it will be a book and television show together - that's after her newest book on the foods of modern Israel is released in spring 2001.