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baker spotlight
ALON SHAYA:

RECIPES LOST AND FOUND

IN MANY FAMILIES, A WELL-LOVED COOKBOOK PASSED DOWN FROM ONE

GENERATION TO THE NEXT HOLDS MORE THAN JUST RECIPES. WORKING

SIDE-BY-SIDE WITH HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR STEVEN FENVES, ALON SHAYA,

AWARD-WINNING CHEF AND FOUNDER OF POMEGRANATE HOSPITALITY IN PHOTO CREDITS: STEVEN FENVES FAMILY PHOTO
AND RECIPE BOOKS: UNITED STATES
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, IS LEADING A PROJECT TO RESTORE CHERISHED HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM,
COURTESY OF STEVEN J. FENVES
FAMILY RECIPES HOUSED IN THE U.S. HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM. WALNUT CREAM CAKE BY ALON SHAYA
ALON SHAYA PORTRAIT BY RUSH JAGOE

to the archive room to view recipes rescued subsequently sink down some while cooling.
during the Holocaust. I was fascinated reading What you are left with is a heavy and nutty

these recipes written in concentration camps. cake texture, which is then filled with a
People were risking their lives to memorialize sweet and rich chocolate walnut filling.

food memories on any scraps of paper they A walnut buttercream finishes the cake,
could get their hands on—which included making a delicious, walnut-laden dessert.

stolen bomb receipts. I was so emotionally The Old-World flavor of the cake comes
struck seeing that even in the most horrible from a Hungarian tradition to use walnuts
situations, food can provide a glimpse of hope in any way possible.
or a moment of comfort. Years later, my wife
The Fenyves family cookbook, prepared by and I embarked on a trip to the Holocaust
mother Klara Fenyves, was a very special Memorial Museum in D.C. to search for
book. Members of the Fenyves family, recipes lost, and on that trip, we discovered
thrust into wartime, were forced to leave Steven Fenves’s family cookbook. We were
their apartment in Yugoslavia in 1944. The able to form a direct relationship with Mr.
Fenyves family cook, Maris, saved their Fenves, and he joined me in translating the
prized cookbook from looters, returning recipes from Hungarian to English. It has been
the heirloom to the surviving family so important for me to bring these flavors to

members after the war. Klara—a victim Steven, who hasn’t taste them since 1944.
of a concentration camp—would not see
this book again, but the cookbook would
find its way back into the hands of her son,

Steven Fenves, who shared the cherished What does recreating recipes like this cake
book with the United States Holocaust mean to you?
Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. AS: I think that these recipes need to
Thanks to a project inspired by Alon Shaya, be saved and restored. By honoring
award-winning chef, cookbook author, and the accounts and memories in these
founder of Pomegranate Hospitality, these cookbooks, we can connect generations to
recipes are coming alive again for the world come with history in a positive way. History
to see. will continue to recount the terrible details

that come from that time, but I believe
How did you first hear about Steven that connecting people to the Holocaust

Fenves’s family cookbook? Tell us about the Fenyves family’s Walnut in a way that brings joy, like recreating a
Alon Shaya: In 2011, we took a trip to Cream Cake. recipe and sitting around the table and
Israel as a part of a culinary tour, and one AS: A flour-free cake, whipped egg whites eating that recipe, is a very important way

of the most impactful stops we made allow the crumb to soufflé up while baking, for us to be thinking of the Holocaust. This

was Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust but because all of the ground walnuts brings honor to those who went through
Remembrance Center. We were invited and chocolate in the cake, the layers this, showcasing the rich and beautiful lives
they led before the Holocaust and their
Your donations allow recipe restorations like this to continue. Visit ushmm.org to donate, and find story of loss and survival. •
the restored recipe for the Walnut Cream Cake at bakefromscratch.com.

19 bake from scratch