Inspired by their profound love of food and culture, Sydney Warshaw and Kat Romanow founded The Wandering Chew in 2013 to share their excitement about the diversity of Jewish cooking from across the diaspora. In 2018 they were joined by Gillian Sonin, who brings her enthusiasm for Jewish food traditions to the project.
The Wandering Chew preserves and revitalizes Jewish food traditions. At our events, we tell the history behind beloved Jewish food. Some recipes may be more familiar, such as bagels and smoked meat, and some may be less well known, such as Gefilte a la Veracruzana from the Mexican-Jewish community and Iraqi-Jewish sambusaks dipped in amba. Our events will introduce you to the vast world of Jewish cuisine.
Events offer participants the opportunity to feast on delicious recipes while engaging with new and interesting aspects of Jewish culture. We collaborate to create unique and immersive events, which include pop-up dinners, cooking workshops, holiday celebrations, cookbook launches, and more. Sharing a meal is such a powerful way to bring participants together, and our events foster a sense of community among participants from diverse backgrounds, all while celebrating the traditions of Jewish food and culture.
Sydney is an activist, mother, and Intellectual Property lawyer at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP in Montreal. Her background includes a degree in media and gender studies, work experience in community organizing and criminal justice reform, and academic research in feminism and technology, safe spaces, food law, and developing tools for building alternative legal frameworks that are creative and just. Sydney is passionate about the unique power of food to tell stories that allow us to both question and reaffirm our identities and collectively held truths.
FAVOURITE JEWISH FOODS
Chopped liver, potato knishes, and her mother’s rugelach.
Kat is a Jewish food historian, a recipe developer and food photographer in Montreal. Her background includes an MA in Judaic studies and food studies, a position as the Director of Food programming at the Museum of Jewish Montreal where she created the walking tour Beyond the Bagel, and founded Fletchers Espace Culinaire, a restaurant serving modern Jewish food. She is passionate about using food as a medium to teach people about Jewish culture and history, and hopes to create a more inclusive Jewish community through her work.
FAVOURITE JEWISH FOODS
Bagels, sabich and chopped liver.
Gillian is a women’s rights activist and communications professional based in Montreal. She is passionate about the oral history traditions that surround food, particularly how Jewish culture is passed down from generations of women through the recipes they share. Gillian’s background is diverse: she’s been a Juno Awards judge, participated in the successful campaign to have the Canadian Government remove the tax on menstruation products, worked at Just For Laughs and Pop Montreal, and was the National Communications Director for the Women’s March.
FAVOURITE JEWISH FOODS
Chopped liver and salade cuite.
