For many Jews, the words “gefilte fish” conjure two things: the Passover seder or the beloved children’s book, “The Carp in the Bathtub.”
In many homes, the ground-fish delicacy is treated as a divisive once-a-year guest — arriving with its flat friend matzah, and leaving just as quickly.
But for Jeremy Yoskowitz, co-founder of Gefilteria, gefilte fish deserves a far bigger place in Jewish cuisine. For nearly 15 years, he has been on a mission to show why gefilte fish and many other Jewish foods deserve a place at the table all year ‘round, rather than simply being confined to holiday nostalgia.
Founded in Brooklyn in 2012, Gefilteria began as an artisanal food company reinvigorating Old World Jewish dishes — most notably gefilte fish — with high-quality ingredients and contemporary flavors. Over time, it has expanded into a cultural project, offering pop-ups, tastings, cooking classes, and a cookbook that celebrates Ashkenazi cuisine in a fresh, joyful way.
“Food traditions are folk traditions,” Yoskowitz told Unpacked. “They connect people to family, to place, to a sense of identity and belonging…. Food is what connects them to the spirit of the holiday more than the stories or the laws.”
Defining Jewish food
However, Yoskowitz said, there’s a gap between what Jews believe is “authentically Jewish” food and what history tells us. Many dishes beloved in Jewish communities didn’t start as Jewish foods at all.
“It’s how we eat them that is Jewish,” he explained, noting how corned beef is just as fitting at an Irish pub as it is on rye at a kosher deli. For Yoskowitz, ritual, timing, and meaning — not just the recipe — shape culinary identity.
“Many foods that we consider Jewish are associated as such because of migration and commerce,” he added. Pickles, herring, and, yes, gefilte fish, became staples for Jews traveling across Europe and later to the United States. Meanwhile, some foods were adapted specifically to fit Jewish needs or customs, including those brightly wrapped, questionably flavored Passover candies that are manufactured each spring.
Jeremy Yoskowitz and Liz Alpern (Lauren Volo)
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Though many foods marketed for Jewish consumption are now mass-produced in giant factories far from Bubbe’s kitchen — let alone her bathtub, where live carp once famously swam before becoming gefilte —, Yoskowitz and his business partner Liz Alpern take a different approach. At Gefilteria, they handcraft their culinary creations with care and an ever-expanding menu of workshops, publications, and presentations, ranging from discussions on the history of Jewish food to cooking and cocktail-making classes that feature traditionally Jewish flavors. Many of these offerings, Yoskowitz said, are deeply inspired by his grandmother.
“My grandmother brought home-cooked foods for Jewish holidays,” Yoskowitz recalled. “Her apple strudel was my first taste.”
And while strudel may not be officially Jewish either, for Yoskowitz, if his Bubbe made it, it counts. It’s no surprise, then, that this same beloved Bubbe set him on the path to reviving gefilte fish.
“That same grandmother also made gefilte fish fresh when I was a kid,” he confirmed. “It was my favorite part of the holiday meal!”
Ground fish isn’t uniquely Jewish, Yoskowitz pointed out; many cultures have their own versions of it.
“Many Asian communities eat similar fish cakes,” he noted, drawing on his acclaimed book, “The Gefilte Manifesto: New Recipes for Old World Jewish Foods.” “And in French cuisine, you can find quenelles.”
That “manifesto” was what started Gefilteria in the first place.
“It was just four paragraphs,” Yoskowitz explained. “As we saw how the idea for our work excited people, we realized we needed to extend that.”
How Gefilteria is redefining Jewish classics for a new audience
So why does gefilte fish get such a bad rap in America? For many, he explains, it’s the smell — or the memories. “For the average American,” Yoskowitz suggested, “gefilte fish constitutes stinky food, and it reminds many Jews of their ethnic, immigrant pasts.”
“The Gefilte Manifesto”
As many Jewish immigrants did all they could to leave Eastern and Central Europe behind and assimilate, some traditional dishes faded from the weekly table. Yoskowitz suggested that gefilte fish might have disappeared too, had it not been for a dedicated few who clung to the carp and passed down their beloved recipes, keeping the tradition alive long enough for a new generation to discover its flavor — and its story..
The act of extending — of building on inherited wisdom — has defined Yoskowitz’s path from the very beginning. The love of Jewish food that started at his grandmother’s holiday table eventually pulled him fully into the culinary world.
Before leading a Jewish food renaissance, he wrote about food for various publications, imported boutique olive oil from Israel’s Negev Desert, worked at farmers’ markets, trained in pickling and fermentation, and worked in catering on an organic farm — a winding route that taught him the craft behind tradition.
“We…noodled on the idea of reimagining Ashkenazi Jewish foods since late 2010,” he said, “[and] launched The Gefilteria in 2012.”
(Lauren Volo)
Initially, the business was conceived as a modern appetizing shop offering Jewish classics in a way that was “new and culturally relevant to young New Yorkers.” But as excitement grew, Yoskowitz and Alpern realized they weren’t simply selling food; they were reviving cultural memory. So they pivoted from retail to creating culinary experiences.
Today, their signature offerings include lectures on the shtetl kitchen and Jewish immigrant food in the U.S., hands-on demonstrations in pickle-making and fermentation, challah braiding workshops, and, yes, lessons on making gefilte fish from scratch. Yoskowitz and Alpern have taught Jewish food history and techniques to organizations including the James Beard Foundation, BBYO, ezCater, Moishe House, and OneTable, and have presented at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and last year’s Borscht Belt Fest.
“I work to make Jewish food learning and history fun, dynamic, informational, meaningful, and tasty,” Yoskowitz said. “Connecting all those dots has been my recipe for success.”
And what success he has had.
The Gefilteria’s gefilte fish
In addition to being named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 and The Forward’s Forward 50, Yoskowitz has been labeled a leader of the Jewish Food Renaissance. When asked what that movement means to him, he describes it as “a focus on celebrating, popularizing, and innovating Jewish food culture and Jewish foods by a new generation of food industry professionals.”
For much of the mid-20th century, he explained, the Jewish food scene had grown “stagnant,” with declining interest and little innovation.
Now, though, there’s been a dramatic shift.
Yoskowitz has seen a “rise in interest” in food in general and “a deeper interest” in people celebrating their heritage through food. That trend has created new opportunities for Jewish food — not as a museum piece, but as something vibrant, creative, and proudly rooted in heritage.
He sees himself and Alpern as part of a new generation of chefs, writers, and food lovers who are proudly sharing their love for the cultural foods on which they were raised.
“Many folks are bringing in their background and heritage from other parts of the Jewish world, as well,” Yoskowitz said, noting colleagues who trace their roots to Ethiopia, India, and beyond. “I’m honored to have been at the forefront of that movement.”
