In 1492, an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 Jews fled Spain rather than convert to Catholicism. They carried no cookbooks, no written recipes—only memory, habit, and a palate shaped by eight centuries of Muslim Iberian rule. That palate, forged in the convivencia of Al-Andalus, would travel across the Mediterranean, adapt to new lands, and survive for over five centuries as a living culinary archive of a lost world.
Today, Sephardic cuisine remains largely overshadowed by Ashkenazi food, the Eastern European tradition that came to define ‘Jewish food’ in the American and Israeli imagination. But the Sephardic table—with its olive oil, eggplant, saffron, and sweet-and-sour sauces—tells a different story of Jewish survival, one marked by expulsion, adaptability, and a profound connection to the tastes of medieval Spain.
The Expulsion That Started It All
On March 31, 1492, the Alhambra Decree ordered all Jews out of Spain. Within months, whole communities packed whatever they could carry—and for cooks, that meant recipes carried in the head, not on paper. Dishes had to be adaptable, using whatever local ingredients presented themselves in the Ottoman Empire, North Africa, or the Balkans.
Olive oil remained a constant in the Mediterranean basin, but in colder climes like Amsterdam, Sephardim switched to butter. This flexibility was key to survival. A recipe for a Sabbath stew might swap lamb for beef, or add local vegetables like potatoes, which didn’t exist in Spain until after the Columbian exchange.
A Cuisine Born of Convivencia
Before the expulsion, Jews had lived under Muslim rule in Iberia for nearly 800 years, in a period of cultural exchange known as convivencia. Arab and Berber cooks introduced ingredients that would become Sephardic staples: rice, eggplant, spinach, citrus, almonds, sugar, and saffron. They also brought techniques like slow-cooking and the art of combining sweet and sour in the same dish.
This Moorish influence is unmistakable in Sephardic cooking. Dishes like albondigas (meatballs in lemon-egg sauce) and pollo con tomate (chicken with tomato) show a love of bright, tart flavors. Desserts like dulce de membrillo (quince paste) and honey-soaked pastries echo Arab sweets. The result was a fusion cuisine long before the term existed.
The Sephardic Pantry: A World in Ingredients
A Sephardic kitchen relies on a distinctive set of ingredients that set it apart from Ashkenazi cooking:
- Olive oil, not schmaltz, as the primary fat
- Legumes: chickpeas, lentils, and fava beans
- Vegetables: eggplant, spinach, zucchini, and artichokes
- Fresh herbs: parsley, cilantro, mint
- Spices: cumin, coriander, cinnamon, allspice, saffron
- Citrus: lemons, oranges, and their preserved peels
- Dried fruits and nuts: dates, raisins, almonds
This is a cuisine of the Mediterranean sun, not the Eastern European shtetl. It favors freshness and brightness, with a characteristic sweet-and-sour profile that shows up in agridulce sauces and honey-based desserts.
Sabbath Stews and Holiday Traditions
At the heart of Sephardic practice is hamin (or adafina), the slow-cooked Sabbath stew that parallels Ashkenazi cholent. On Friday afternoon, families would seal a pot of meat, chickpeas, potatoes, and eggs and carry it to the communal baker’s oven, where it would cook slowly until Saturday lunch. The result is a deeply flavorful, tender dish that defies the prohibition against cooking on the Sabbath.
Holidays also have their own culinary signatures. On Passover, Sephardic Jews eat kitniyot—rice, legumes, and corn—which Ashkenazi Jews traditionally avoid. This divergence reflects different interpretations of Jewish law and different historical circumstances: Sephardim lived in places where rice and beans were dietary staples, not luxuries.
The Time Capsule Effect
In the Ottoman Empire, Sephardic communities remained relatively insular, preserving their Spanish-Jewish dishes for centuries. While Spain itself moved on, the exiles kept cooking medieval recipes that had long disappeared from the Iberian Peninsula. This created a culinary time capsule: linguists and food historians now use Sephardic recipes to reconstruct what Spanish food was like in 1492.
For example, dishes like borekas (filled pastries) and fritadas (vegetable-egg casseroles) have no direct Spanish equivalent today, yet they clearly descend from Moorish and medieval Spanish cooking. The language of the kitchen also preserves this heritage—many culinary terms remain in Ladino, the Judeo-Spanish dialect that Sephardim carried with them.
Why Was It Forgotten?
Several factors conspired to push Sephardic cuisine to the margins. The massive wave of Ashkenazi immigration to the United States from 1880 to 1924 made Eastern European food the default ‘Jewish food’ in the popular imagination. Cookbooks, restaurants, and delis celebrated bagels, gefilte fish, and matzo ball soup, while Sephardic dishes remained largely unknown.
The Holocaust dealt a devastating blow: Sephardic communities in Greece and the Balkans were nearly wiped out. Salonika, which was 60% Jewish before World War II, lost roughly 96% of its Jewish population. The living chain of culinary transmission was severed in those places.
Later, when Sephardic Jews emigrated from Arab lands to Israel in the 1950s and 60s, they found a society that often suppressed their culture in favor of the Ashkenazi mainstream. Sephardic food, like Ladino and other traditions, was pushed aside in the melting pot ethos of the early state.
A Revival on the Horizon
In recent decades, food historians, chefs, and home cooks have begun to rediscover Sephardic cuisine. Cookbooks like Claudia Roden’s “The Book of Jewish Food” and the work of organizations like the Sephardic Sisterhood have brought these recipes to a wider audience. Restaurants in Israel, the US, and Europe now feature shakshuka, borekas, and other Sephardic dishes, often without diners realizing their origins.
The revival is not just about nostalgia. Sephardic cuisine offers a model of adaptability and resilience—a reminder that food can carry identity across generations and continents. As more people explore this forgotten table, they find not just recipes but a story of survival, creativity, and the enduring taste of a lost homeland.
The cuisine of the Sephardic Jews is not a relic of the past but a living tradition that has survived expulsion, assimilation, and near-erasure. It reminds us that food is more than sustenance—it is memory, identity, and a bridge across time and place. As Sephardic dishes find their way onto modern tables, they carry with them the flavors of medieval Spain and the resilience of a people who refused to forget who they were.
Summary
- The 1492 expulsion from Spain forced Sephardic Jews to carry their cuisine in memory, adapting it to new lands.
- Sephardic cooking is rooted in the convivencia of Muslim Iberia, blending Arab, Berber, and Spanish influences.
- Key ingredients include olive oil, legumes, eggplant, citrus, and spices like saffron and cumin, setting it apart from Ashkenazi food.
- Dishes like hamin and the Passover allowance of kitniyot reflect distinct Sephardic practices.
- The cuisine was marginalized by Ashkenazi dominance, the Holocaust, and Israeli assimilation policies, but is now experiencing a revival.
FAQ
Q: What is the difference between Sephardic and Ashkenazi cuisine?
A: Sephardic cuisine uses olive oil, vegetables, legumes, and spices like saffron and cumin, while Ashkenazi cuisine relies on chicken fat (schmaltz), root vegetables, and heavier dishes. Sephardic food is lighter and more Mediterranean, with a characteristic sweet-and-sour flavor.
Q: Why did Sephardic Jews eat rice and legumes during Passover?
A: Sephardic Jews traditionally allow kitniyot (rice, legumes, corn) during Passover, a practice that Ashkenazi Jews forbid. This difference stems from distinct historical circumstances and rabbinic interpretations—Sephardim lived in regions where these foods were dietary staples.
Q: What is hamin?
A: Hamin (also called adafina) is a slow-cooked Sabbath stew, the Sephardic counterpart to Ashkenazi cholent. It typically contains meat, chickpeas, potatoes, and eggs, and is cooked slowly from Friday afternoon until Saturday lunch, allowing Jews to enjoy a hot meal on the Sabbath without violating the prohibition on cooking.
Q: How did Sephardic cuisine survive the expulsion?
A: Recipes were carried orally, primarily through women, and adapted to local ingredients. In the Ottoman Empire, Sephardic communities remained insular, preserving Spanish-Jewish dishes for centuries. This created a culinary time capsule that survived even as the originals disappeared from Spain.
Q: Why is Sephardic cuisine considered ‘forgotten’?
A: Ashkenazi food became the dominant ‘Jewish food’ narrative in the 20th century due to mass Eastern European immigration. The Holocaust destroyed many Sephardic communities in the Balkans and Greece, and later, Israeli assimilation policies suppressed Sephardic culture. Only recently has there been a revival of interest.