Most people know Joan Nathan for her award-winning cookbooks and expertise in Jewish cuisine – but her connection to her craft goes deeper than the ingredients.
Nathan, 81, lives in Washington, D.C., and is a member of Adas Israel Congregation. As a culinary author and food journalist, Nathan sees the story behind the recipe.
For as long as she can remember, Nathan said she’s had a knack for the stories of others.
“When I was two years old, I used to like to tell my friends’ stories when I was at nursery school, so clearly it was something from within,” Nathan said. “It’s been sort of the gift of my life to be able to elicit … these stories from people and have Jewish food survive for the next generation.”
The most recent story Nathan told was her own with “My Life in Recipes.” Nathan wrote the cookbook memoir with 100 recipes side-by-side with stories because, “Food is what I am and the stories about food – it’s part of my life,” she said.
Nathan grew up celebrating Shabbat with her parents, an American-born Jewish mother with Polish and Slovakian heritage and a German-born father.
Her parents encouraged her to pursue her passions to the fullest – this included sending her to France at 17 years old.
“I just couldn’t believe how great the food was,” Nathan said.
Nathan returned to France for her junior year of college and graduated from the University of Michigan with a master’s degree in French literature.
Nathan shared that while she had a “wonderful childhood,” she was always aware of her Jewish identity – and the encounters that come with it.
“I remember having a boyfriend, in the first grade, who said ‘I hate Jews’, and I thought, well, I’m your girlfriend,” Nathan said. “It made a big impression on me.”
But where Nathan says she really learned about being a Jew was in Israel. She lived and worked there for three years from 1970 to 1972. Nathan left Israel for personal reasons and moved to New York City and then to D.C.
“You didn’t have to live in Israel, but Israel taught you how to live,” Nathan said. “Nothing is promised in life, you never know what’s going to happen.” Nathan said she learned this life lesson from the death of a friend, a young man who was killed during the Yom Kippur war.
“It just really stuck with me about how precarious Israeli life is. I think it makes them live more intensely,” Nathan said.
Since she returned to the United States, Nathan has lived an intensely passionate life – championing food culture from books to stories to television shows, kitchens around the world and even to the streets by co-founding the Ninth Avenue Food Festival in New York City.
Recently, Nathan wrote a children’s cookbook with her grandchildren.
“We have such a good time and they’re taking it very seriously, being in a cookbook,” Nathan said. “I hope they learn a love of doing things rather than having people do it for you – a love of family.”
Nathan built her family with Allan Gerson. Together, they raised their three children in D.C. Gerson died in 2019; they were married for 45 years.
“My husband taught me this: good morning is sort of like God’s gift to you every single day and just looking at the sky and the clouds and the sun, just take advantage of it,” Nathan said. “It could be taken away so quickly and there’s so many wonderful things you can do with your life.”
