If I were finicky, I might take umbrage with the BBC choosing the American spelling of Hanukkah over the English Chanukah on their website. It won’t, however, stop me gathering my doughnuts before sitting down to watch next Sunday’s Celebration Kitchen.
Nor will it overshadow the pleasure of seeing another Jewish festival being highlighted on the Beeb’s Saturday Kitchen daytime cooking show. On December 29, a lineup of Jewish chefs and celebs plus regular host Matt Tebbutt will be serving up a Chanukah-themed special.
Vegan Instagrammer, Ben Rebuck; former Bubala executive chef Helen Graham; and Rich Myers (from Leeds-based bakery, Get Baked) will be cooking traditional (and slightly less seasonal) dishes.
Actress and comedian Jess Robinson will be sharing her stories while Saturday Kitchen regular Rob Rinder explains the history of Chanukah and demonstrates a few of our festive traditions — expect dreidel spinning and singing.
Production company, Cactus TV, is behind all the Jewish-related Celebration Kitchen show — festive versions of regular cooking show Saturday Kitchen. They have also produced specials for Eid, Diwali and Sikh festival, Vaisakhi.
Amanda Ross, co-founder and CEO of Cactus told me “I do the Celebration Kitchens out of a wish to spread the joy of celebration in other religions. It’s great, it’s enlightenment.”
The south London-based production company has already ticked off Pesach and (slightly randomly) fast day, Yom Kippur. And now Chanukah is now having its moment.
Previous Celebration Kitchens have included one to mark Yom Kippur Photo: BBC
“What’s always been so brilliant about all the Jewish festivals we’ve done is that there’s always so much joy — and they always revolve around food, so it makes perfect sense to spread enlightenment through sharing that food” said Ross who shared that the decision to make the show was also driven by the current climate.
“We felt it was important, especially at this time to be celebrating the Jewish religion and celebrations and not to shy away from it.”
Momentum has been helped by previous shows being well-received. “We’ve had so much great feedback from all over the world to our previous Jewish Celebration Kitchens that we felt it was important to keep going and to continue shining a light on the Jewish festivals.
Keen not to get things wrong they employed freelance television producer, Emma Davies — who is Jewish and has vast experience listing shows like This Morning and Clarkson’s Farm on her CV — to ensure no cultural clangers dropping.
Judaism-related advice also came from Rob Rinder and, because you can always rely on a Jewish mother, from his mum, Angela Cohen. Ross explained Cohen “is a fountain of knowledge” on all things Jewish and has assisted on all their Jewish specials.
The sensitivity shown by the production company meant that guests like Helen Graham, who admitted to being slightly terrified at discussing being Jewish on national television, felt safe.
“Amanda Ross, who isn’t Jewish, made a speech to everyone saying how happy she was to be doing this and how important it was for them to do the show and to celebrate Jewish culture. That means so much now when they didn’t have to do that.”
Despite admitting to being nervous, Graham said it felt important to her to have visibility as a Jew.
“It’s not something I scream from the rooftops, but I love being Jewish and it’s a big part of my cooking and of who I am. It also gave me the chance to celebrate Jewish joy. At a time when people are hating us and Israel it was a nice opportunity to say what we’re about and how joyful and celebratory our festivals are. People connect via food.”
So what food can we expect to see the guests tucking into? Helen Graham’s flavours are always next level so no surprise that her contribution is a delicious-sounding latke burger — a traditional latke sandwiched in a brioche bun served with garlicky sour cream and Baharat-spiced apple butter.
If you’re not familiar with Rich Myers, he became an internet sensation for his range of cakes and cookies that he dispatches nationwide from his West Yorkshire store — in particular, the insanely huge 24 layer rich chocolate Bertie and Bertha cakes. No surprise that his contribution was a sufganyot-inspired bread and butter pudding made with white chocolate and raspberry coulis.
And vegan chef Ben Rebuck’s contribution was some Chanukah-inspired cocktails including a whisky-based sufganyot old fashioned and gelt and tahini martini plus a slightly less obvious Chanukah main course.
“We wanted something warming and hearty that wasn’t doughnuts or latkes” explains producers Davies who said his Middle Eastern spiced tzimmes with apricots was delicious with a Chanukah-appropriate sweetness.
Viewers may be less taken with Helen’s angle on Ashkenazi food. “I told them it’s all beige — it’ll be interesting to see what people think” she laughs, adding that Rinder was quick to defend our Eastern European-inspired monotone nosh.
Look out also for Rebuck sharing some exciting news for northwest Londoners.
BBC Celebration Kitchen: Hanukkah Special will air on BBC1 at 10.55am on December 29.
