Interview with Eliana Rudee
Interview with Eliana Rudee
Our Pre-Applicants are stellar! Meet one of our pre-applicants and get to know her, before we even start!
"There was no better way to honor our ancestors’ lives than to cook together, make new connections, and enjoy the proverbial fruit of what our families chose to pass down to us – all at one table in Israel.”
Pre-applicant Eliana Rudee grew up in Seattle, finally settling in Jerusalem, where she fell in love with her new home in Israel. During her journey, she spent seven months in Brazil and began working as a journalist. Her work can be found in many top global publications, including Forbes, USA Today, the Jerusalem Post, Jewish News Syndicate, and countless outlets worldwide. Her passion for the culinary world shines through in her writing, which focuses on the intersection of Israel's food, wine, culture, history, politics, and identity.
In addition to writing, Eliana offers guided culinary tours of the Machane Yehuda market in Jerusalem. She is the founder and organizer of Jerusalem Cooking Club, a social skill-sharing club for young Jerusalemite foodies. She also organizes the food retreat, Jerusalem Mix: Exploring Israeli Cuisine. We sat down to get Eliana’s thoughts about our program – and her inspiration when it comes to the world of food.
As a pre-applicant to The GCI Rosenfield School of Culinary Arts- what excites you most about the program?
I am most excited about the potential of the interdisciplinary approach. I believe that it could result in well-rounded chefs who not only know how to cook but who could also use their culinary strengths (individually and collectively) as a tool to inspire and create positive change.
Where and when did you have a life-changing culinary experience?
In 2019, I inadvertently planned a cooking club event on the eve of Yom HaShoah. The plan was to learn about pickling vegetables – a common preservation method of Eastern Europe – and my co-organizer Miriam would teach us to make coconut bao buns with pulled chicken, caramel chili sauce, and pickled cucumbers and radishes. I debated changing the date of the event. But, instead, I chose to make it a meaningful experience in the context of global discussions about how to engage the next generation in Holocaust education.
As the granddaughter of survivors, Miriam told the group about her late Zaida Felix, who, as a young teenager, ran away to the forest to join the Polish partisans and lost all his family in the war. Felix would not often talk to his family about his wartime experiences – the way he chose to connect to them was through sitting down to eat meals together.
“We were brought up believing that no matter what life brought you, you should always eat good and healthy food,” Miriam told the group. “Even when times are tough, you make sure that you find a way to eat like a king. Even more so, you never leave any food on your plate; you savor every bite.”
Many of us at the event began to share about our grandparents and great-grandparents who survived the Holocaust and how, for each one, food was the way they connected to their family. We shared about how they chose to pass their traditions and identity onto future generations. There was no better way to honor our ancestors’ lives than to cook together, make new connections, and enjoy the proverbial fruit of what our families chose to pass down to us – all at one table in Israel. At this event, I truly understood the power of food in transmitting memory, identity, and the importance of coming together in a meaningful way through food.
When you hear the words: Israel, Galilee, Food, Culture, Innovation, what comes to mind?
A sense of pride comes to mind, as well as hope in the great potential for synergies, connections, and the opportunity to create widespread positive and inspirational change.
What does culinary leadership mean to you, and how do you best express it in the work that you do.
Being a culinary leader means reflecting on the change I wish to see in the world and then actualizing that change using my strengths and interests. Currently, I aim to express this through culinary storytelling in my work as a journalist, culinary tour guide of the Machane Yehuda market in Jerusalem, and at my culinary events and retreats. More specifically, I aim to highlight Israel’s many residents’ lives, cultures, challenges, successes, and stories through their food. In the future, I hope to highlight these stories to educate and inspire a more global audience.
What's a fun culinary fact about you?
The culinary arts are in my DNA. My great grandfather owned a restaurant on the beach in San Francisco, and my dad has won awards for several self-developed dishes and mar-tea-nis (martinis infused with tea - who doesn't love a good food pun?). Family friends call us the Foodie Rudees (hence, my Instagram handle @foodierudee).