Jake Cohen
Jake Cohen Wants Us to Stop Taking Jewish Food So Seriously
Jake Cohen’s debut cookbook, Jew-Ish, is a delight. Subtitled “reinvented recipes from a modern mensch,” the book is dedicated to the increasing popular food writer’s husband, Alex, because “this book is nothing short of our love story,” detailing their shared Jewish journey and different Jewish upbringings. Jake is Ashkenazi and Alex is Mizrahi, and along with the delicious recipes — seriously, rose water and cardamom challah French toast, anyone? — the book explores how they’ve figured out what it means to be Jewish in 2021. Jew-Ish takes the reader through a bevy of foods around Shabbat dinner, with bonus chapters for Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur break fast, Hanukkah, and Passover.
Cohen, 27, studied at the Culinary Institute of America and began his career working at New York City restaurants before transitioning to food media, working at Saveur magazine, Tasting Table, and The FeedFeed. Last year, he transitioned to full-time freelance and content creating — something he can do because of his large and engaged following on Instagram and TikTok, where he has amassed nearly 900,000 combined followers across both platforms. Following him on social media makes you feel like you know him — Cohen is warm and inviting, and breaks down his recipes in accessible and fun ways.
And what you see on social media is exactly who Jake Cohen is: There’s no phoniness, no putting up a picture-perfect mask for his followers (though his food photos — especially his cheese boards — are quite literally picture perfect). Speaking to him proved to me that the Jake Cohen of TikTok is exactly the Jake Cohen of New York City, the one who lives with his husband, Alex Shapiro, and loves baking challah.
In a long conversation that spanned favorite Shabbat dinners, Jewish grandmothers who don’t cook, and how challah changed his pandemic experience, I chatted with Jake about all things, well, Jew-ish.
