Given my insatiable passion for all things related to Israeli food, I recently had the great pleasure of co-organizing a special culinary evening in Toronto featuring Tel Aviv-based cookbook author and chef Adeena Sussman. A sold-out crowd of 180 people, many of them Israeli-Canadians, attended the event at the Schwartz Reisman Centre as part of the JCC Reads Series.

Adeena proved an engaging speaker during her live cooking demonstration and while sharing highlights from her new book, the widely acclaimed Sababa: Fresh, Sunny Flavors from My Israeli Kitchen. There was also a lively Q & A with Adeena, conducted by Shai Deluca, an Israeli TV personality in Toronto.

Adeena, who grew up in California and worked for many years in New York, now spends most of her time in Tel Aviv. She lives footsteps from the city’s Carmel Market, where she shops and explores daily, taking inspiration from her adopted country’s seasonal and cultural culinary rhythms. She previously wrote a book about tahini and co-authored 10 cookbooks including helping Instagram influencer and model Chrissy Teigen write two cookbooks over the past three years.

Sababa, which has received extensive media attention in recent weeks, is a love letter to her relatively new home country and its culinary offerings. In addition to presenting many recipes for Israeli dishes in the beautifully designed book, she discusses her great affinity for Israeli cuisine and why it has become so popular far beyond its borders. This is her first book to focus on Israeli food, a subject she’s previously written about for Food and Wine, The Wall Street Journal, Epicurious, Gourmet and many others.

Adeena was a pleasure to work with in connection with our event with her. I greatly enjoyed getting to know her and appreciated her deep love and extensive knowledge of Israel and its culinary fare.