Cooking and Judaism; Unpacking Jewish food & identify with Sivan's Kitchen

Tanya is joined by the incredible Sivan of Sivan's Kitchen. Listen to this episode where they talk all things Jewish food and identity. Guaranteed to leave you feeling hungry.

Sivan’s Kitchen is the brand and online platform of Sivan Kobi, a popular Israeli-American recipe developer, food influencer, and content creator known for her viral kosher and traditional Jewish recipes. 

Based in Los Angeles, Sivan was born in Israel and raised in a family deeply rooted in the food industry. Her father and grandparents were bakers who owned well-known bakeries (such as Sherman's Bakery) in the LA area. She rose to prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic when, at her daughter's suggestion, she began sharing her family's traditional Iraqi and Ashkenazi recipes, Shabbat meal prep, and daily cooking videos on social media. 

Today, she has built a massive community across Instagram and her official Sivan's Kitchen Website, where she shares approachable comfort food, baked goods, and tablescaping ideas. You can follow her cooking journey and find her recipes directly on the Sivan's Kitchen Instagram

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:06

Hi everyone, it's Tanya and welcome to the Highly Joyce podcast in association with Joyce. I am so fangirling over here right now. Everyone in my family and my girlfriend's family has been like her biggest fan. So um yeah, and I got lucky enough to get some of her food. So I'm so excited to take that home and to eat that. I brought her straight from my kitchen of pickles and cookies. I don't know how I got so lucky, but thank you, God. I appreciate it. Um anyway, I just wanted to let you know that we are having our usual conversations, just getting to know who she is behind the scenes, um, and yeah, get a little glimpse of her life outside of the kitchen. So I just wanted to let you know that aside from being a biggest fan, meeting you a few weeks ago, yeah, I thought was amazing actually, because I got to meet your husband too. Yeah, and I had a daughter and your daughter, and I learned that you guys have been high school sweethearts.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

And um, yeah, so and he actually went to prom with me. He never went to his prom, but he went to my prom.

SPEAKER_02 1:13

Oh my god, wow, that's so cute.

SPEAKER_01 1:15

Yeah, so we're celebrating uh we're coming up on 33 years. Oh my god, wonderful. So, and we were together three years before, so it's it's it's 35 years of being together. Wow, and your families were always like supporting them. Yeah, yeah. My mom was very my parents were supportive. At the beginning, it was like you know, shocking. Like, why does my 15-year-old or why does my 17, 18 year old want to go get married? What's wrong? Yeah, she's so young. Yes, but um, when they realized like the guy, great family, great, you know, hard worker, all these great things about him, that it was just like, you know, and my mom used to always tell me, you know, you were always young, you were even when you were a young girl, you ought you would always say you want to get married at a young age, you want to have children at a young age. So I guess the universe heard you, and it just turned out that way. So and how many kids do you have? We have four children and two grandchildren and one on the way.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

I don't understand. You have you've had four children and you cook, and the like you're in better shape than anybody in this country.

SPEAKER_01 2:11

That's crazy. Well, listen, it's all about balance. Yeah, and really it's all about um I love to exercise, I love to hike. You see all these streets here, like I'll go hiking all the time. Um, I love being in the outdoors, and um, it's really all about balance, but I try everything, I eat everything. Are you kidding? Friday night's Shabbat, it's like I go crazy when it's time time to the chalot and um the cakes and everything that I make. It's always, you know, just enjoying it all. Yeah. I love that. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 2:40

New York looked so sick. It was really fun. It was really fun.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

Did you guys get any feedback from him? Did you guys like did anything happen with that whole thing?

SPEAKER_02 2:48

I mean, listen, I think that visibility matters. That's I've always believed that. 100%. Now I've always felt that like, you know, why that's why I love being in this country. I believe in the right to protest. I don't believe in like rioting and building, you know, burning buildings. Of course not. You know, but I think that having like this was literally a scene, like around like a thousand people of all denominations. We're talking like Muslims, Jews, Christians. I saw them incredible. Yeah, it was such a diverse amount of people and different Yeah, with different backgrounds, different everything. I loved it. But the only thing that was like the tying force was being proud Americans, and then in such being proud Zionists. Because to me and like to everyone in the crowd, it's one and the same thing. Right. You know, like if you want to feel safe and and and good in this country, protecting Israel is part of I mean, it it it's it's to me, it's like so simple and it goes beyond just being a proud Jew. You know, like it's just yeah, the simple survival, like when the world is in a war, who is your ally, who's gonna be there, and who's gonna protect just the same ideology that you have. So it just seems it seems crazy for people to not be on that side. And it also seems crazy that so many Jews in New York voted for Ramdani, and so we're either completely blinded. Yeah, I I don't really know, but like to me, it's so obvious that he's trying to ruin this country. Like it's so obvious. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 4:12

But yeah, in any case, it was so anti.

SPEAKER_02 4:14

And yesterday, the whole thing with the Israel parade, you saw? Yeah, he was the first mayor in 61 years that didn't attend. And it's like every mayor, they New York has had Democrat mayors. Of course. Like, is this this isn't a re a political issue. This is not an issue of just like supporting your ally. I mean, it's it's really it's beyond it's very strange. We said left. I agree. So um, yeah, it's it's and it's also an insult to New York that has such a high population of Jews.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

The second biggest, the second biggest um the place. Yeah, population of Jews outside Israel. That's what I'm trying to say. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That makes a lot of so yeah, so um it's unbelievable.

SPEAKER_02 4:56

But it was definitely empowering to see everyone beside you. You know, like when you when you realize that there are so many people that feel the same way you do, and that you know, are standing up for the same values, it does make you feel more proud. And I think that that helps. Like I've always said that you know, the reason we got to a place of having marriage equality in this world or in this country, I should say, is because people were willing to be proudly themselves. If they like if we as gay people continue to be halfway closeted or like don't ask, don't tell, or like didn't live loudly, we wouldn't have the same rights. It's the same thing with being proud Jews and proud Zionists. If you want to have a place in this world, put your foot down in it. Absolutely. You know, so that's why I love what you do. Like I you could so easily just hide behind your talons and perhaps be even more popular. Uh you're right. If you were not so proud of it. Because I get a lot of heat.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

I get a ton of heat.

SPEAKER_02 5:54

I I imagine it happens daily.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

Daily. Daily, daily on all platforms, on all the people.

SPEAKER_02 5:58

Like even on like things that she posts that are unrelated to like Jewish have nothing to do with it.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

Have nothing to do with it. Right away. It's like, you know, do you do you like I was I just shared yesterday a video of me eating a popsicle with my grandkids, and I got a comment do you care for the Palestinian babies too? Do you even have a heart for them? Oh you know, and what does that have anything to do with it? First of all, yes, I do. I care for all the children, all babies, all cultures, all religions. I have no hate for any culture or religion, period. I just don't. I have Arab friends from all parts of the Middle East, I have Christian friends, I have Muslim friends, I have Armenian friends, all different kinds of friends, everything that you can imagine. But you just you don't you just don't go saying those things. And unfortunately, in a war, there are no winners, and there's always gonna going to be casualties from both sides. Well, we can't say that about our children, our babies. Of course we can. Every side is gonna get hurt. That's the that's the sad thing about it. Yeah, but to go and like attack me, what am I doing? I'm eating a popsicle with my grandkids, so like, come on. No, you can't go in the bother being out. Um, so yeah, so but it's constant. And I'll tell you what, after I was always a Jewish page, I was always a page that you know cooked. I I loved always cooking for Shabbat, hosting for Shabbat, sharing that I'm cooking, always making stuff for the holidays. But after October 7th, something switched in my page. And I basically took to camera, it was a Saturday, obviously we remember that day. That dreadful morning. It was a Saturday morning. I usually never go on Saturday on my camera ever. And I took to the camera and I just said, like, our you know, everything we were watching, I we were shocked, you know, just like couldn't believe what we were watching. And I just took to camera and I said, Listen, guys, no matter how big or how small your page is, we need to support Israel. We need to get out there and we need to talk about it. So here I am. Our country is, you know, going through hell right now. We can't even believe what we're looking at. Let's be there, let's support, and that's it, you know. And it kind of just evolved from there, you know, and you know that did you even think that when you went to do that, there might be a problem?

SPEAKER_02 8:10

Well, like, did you pause?

SPEAKER_01 8:12

Not even, not even for a second. Not even for a second, not even for a second. I don't even care. Even today, I'll share things and I'll talk about it, and I don't care. And I've done things before on my page, just even this past year where I said something or I did something, and I lost instantly five, ten, fifteen thousand followers in like a heartbeat. And I was like, great, no problem, go ahead. You know, it's not true anyway. Like it's nice to do a clean out every once in a while because those people needed to be cleaned out and filtered out somehow. Yeah, and they did and they got out, and it's better, so it makes room for more better, for more people and for the better people to come on the stage. So if 15,000 left, 150 will join. So I'm I that's kind of how I look at it. I love it. And it's all good, yeah. Um, so I don't I don't I don't really care much. I do what I need to do, I continue sharing what I do, and um yeah, it's all about really standing behind what's true. That's that's kind of for me. Be before anything, it's like, what do I really believe in? You know, Israel's my homeland. It's the place I was born. Where your kid and your kids are born. My kids, all kids were born here in America. Um, but yeah, it's like it's the place where I was born, my husband was born there, my kid, my kids all hold dual citizenships, they all have Israel citizenships.

SPEAKER_02 9:23

I made sure to get how are they feeling now?

SPEAKER_01 9:25

Like, do they ever wish they were in Israel based on like the anti-Semitism he's so believe it or not, my youngest daughter who's a junior right now in high school, she has one more year to go. She wants to enlist into the idea. I love that. So for me, as a parent, there's nothing that makes me more proud than somebody like that. Listen, things can change. You know, I don't need to tell you all teenagers are, they change their mind a billion times in one minute. They shift all the time. But if she wants to do it selfishly, we I I like if I could hold it back and not let her go, of course I wouldn't. I would want her to stay close to home. All my kids all stayed close to home. No one left a w left after high school. They all like stayed in the area. Oh, it's great. Yeah, one did high school, the other went to work, but they were all in the area.

SPEAKER_02 10:10

I said I left and traveled all over, and then my mom got to me at some point. She goes, Look, travel when I'm dead for now, come back.

SPEAKER_01 10:17

Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_02 10:18

You know, you can't really argue with that.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

Listen, moms want our kids, we all want our kids close to us, but it would be selfish of mate to hold her back. And if this is something she wants to do, and all her friends are doing it, and even this year, all of her senior friends, you know how many are enlisting to the idea? From here? From here. Oh my god. These are kids that were born here, these are kids that were raised here, have no, like, yeah. So they're gonna be loud soldiers. They used, yeah. They used to go to Israel like in the summertime, visit their family, whatever summer trips to Israel, all good. But none of them have that like close, deep connection to Israel, and yet they still find themselves wanting to go there, enlisting in the IDF, and who knows? From there, most of them go to like IDC, which is like a high um uh university in El Salia. So many of them go and start school there, some come back home. It depends. Everyone has their own path, you know. But for the most part, just the fact that they even want to go is amazing. You know, it makes me so proud. Same year, same here. I would have never thought. So let's see. I mean, we have another year, who knows? But I'm yeah, whatever, whatever God that I I have such a belief in God that um whatever path you're taking, whatever path you're gonna go on, it's all from Hashem.

unknown 11:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

So it has nothing to do with us, we can't control it, and we just have to accept what it is. Yeah, that's how I look at it.

SPEAKER_02 11:34

I completely agree.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

Yeah, completely agree with that.

SPEAKER_02 11:36

Yeah, yeah. So I think that you know, having that faith really helps us propel forward and whatever. From original perspective, whatever we do, despite whatever. Absolutely. Absolutely. So I mean, I feel like your food is such a big thing that brings people so much closer to their Judaism, you know, because I think when I heard you speak, like it you could see the people around because I don't cook at all. I will eat everything of what you just gave me, but I will not cook it. But even off of Sivan's kitchen page, you want to do that? I mean, mate, listen, if you try it, for I'll try it. You know what I will try. It's easy. I'll do it. I'll do it. Honestly, I will say, like, I'm I'm obsessed with hala, and the my favorite hala ever, and I'm giving the shout out publicly, is my my friend Meshi. I don't know what she does. I've enjoyed it, but it's like it's a drug, it's incredible. That's amazing. Um, and I but I watch what you do, and I've always just been like, oh god, like I really want to try this, so maybe I will try it. Okay, good. Try to make it and see see what she can do with it. I'll I'll let you know. Yeah, you should definitely you have you make it in a in a special way where it doesn't take like 20 hours, right? No, not at all.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

Not at all. I put all the ingredients in one bowl, basically, I mix it all up together in the mixer. You can also do it by hand, very simple, and then you give it its first rise, which is about an hour and a half, separate it into little balls, give it another little rise, make it into the shape, give it last final rise, and that's it. I mean, listen, at the end of the day, you simplify something that makes it it's gonna take a little time because it is dough at the end of the day, and you're working with yeast and dough, and these things need to take time. As I say, TLC, give it its tender love and care, and you'll see what the the magic that you give to it. Yeah. But um, for the most part, yeah, it's not it's not very difficult, you know. Right. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:20

So is that is that what you think I should start with? Like if someone's watching that has never cooked before but is willing to try, what's the what's the first recipe that you should buy?

SPEAKER_01 13:28

I is not the easiest, I have to say. It's only because when it comes when you're working with dough, you kind of have to have a touch when you're working with dough. Okay, yeah, dough is not like for everyone. Right, it can be, but it's also something that you you need to kind of learn how to like work with dough. You need to know how to feel the dough. Is it good? Is it soft enough? Should I add more water to it? So, dough is something that I would probably say you need to progress into. Okay, but like a sheet pan dinner, you know? That's a simple one. I just shared last week, two weeks ago, an easy chicken, fajita, sheep pan dinner. Okay, boom, you put it on. Easy spices, mix it up, throw it into the oven, grab a tortilla, slap some guac on there. If you want to buy store-bought salsa, whatever you want to do, make yourself a dinner. It's easy, it's healthy. That's what you want, you know.

SPEAKER_02 14:14

All right, okay, Batty, do you hear that? We're gonna be doing that. I'm gonna, I'm literally going to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_01 14:18

Think about think about like you know, the money you're saving eating out, the calories from unwanted ingredients that they put into all the foods, you know, preservatives, whatever it is that you're making. You're making good, fresh, wholesome, you know, good meals at home, and that's what we want, you know.

SPEAKER_02 14:33

So and how many people do you cook for on a typical Shabbat?

SPEAKER_01 14:39

Uh, I would say probably anywhere between 12 to 18 people, sometimes more, depending, 22 people. It depends. But we're always a minimum of 12 to 15, like that's like the base, that's usually my family, my kids, grandkids. Um, sometimes my kids will bring a friend over, or you know, whatever it may be, the the boyfriend of the daughter. I you know, someone's always coming, maybe another friend of ours. My husband always likes to call me Friday afternoon. Yeah, you know, this one and this one are joining just so you know, okay, cool. I mean, thanks. I add a few more plates on the table. Um, but for the most part, yeah, it's uh that's usually what it is. But I love it, and there's always enough food for 30 people. You know, we have leftovers and more leftovers, and we enjoy it the next day and the next day, and then I give it away to my daughter for food for during the week, and she's in heaven, she's happy.

SPEAKER_02 15:29

Oh my god, not me.

SPEAKER_01 15:30

Yeah, I have leftovers, I don't have to cook today. You know, she's happy. Do any of your kids cook? Yeah, of course. My daughters love to cook. Um, my husband is an incredible cook himself. So they my kids grew up, my kids really grew up eating a lot of different kinds of foods and just seeing both of us in the kitchen all the time and cooking, and yeah, and my son is amazing in the kitchen too. He loves to like smoke meats and stuff like that. He's incredible on that, like actually amazing.

SPEAKER_02 15:56

So we should open up the family restaurant.

SPEAKER_01 15:58

I know. I keep on thinking about that, but I don't know. LA LA is like as much as I love LA, it's really been my the place I've lived my entire life for the past 45 years, for 46 years. I've never lived anywhere but LA. Wow. Like I've never moved out of LA. Wow, okay. Never lived anywhere, it's always been LA. I met my husband in LA, we had our kids in LA, so everyone's always been we've always been in LA. But as much as I love LA, I just don't know if that would be the place I would open up my restaurant if I were to open one up. You know? Okay. What why? I don't know. I just feel like it's like I don't know, like there's just not, it's when it comes to like food scene and kosher food scene, it's kind of dead, you know. It's just not you know, it would be I guess like the East Coast is popping, you know, when it comes to like to like kosher food and no, I will say too, I was that when I was there last. Yeah, you were just I so they gave me, I I didn't even. If you go up there, then it might get a little trafficy. That's what you can go up there if you want. I just don't want you to get too much traffic out there. So go through here, we'll turn it on again.

SPEAKER_02 16:58

I didn't even like go to any particular bakery. This is like someone ordered some kosher cookies and we had a group get together. That's cool. I'm sitting here and like, why is this like the best cookie I've ever had? And it's like in New York, they're cooking. I mean, they'll just it's the same on another level. I don't want to hate on LA for this, but like it's there's something wildly different with the way the cookie, all the baked goods, everything, everything baked goods, cooked food, everything.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

Even the lit, the amount of restaurants there. There's such a huge variety of all kinds dairy, this, that, meat, this, yeah, so many different restaurants, so many, you can go straight, so many different places to eat that you we lack it here, you know. And it's funny because there's so many Jewish people here, there's so many Israeli people here, there's so many people that keep kosher here. Why is there such a small, limited amount of restaurants? There's like you know, it's like so I don't know. I mean, a friend of mine just opened up this incredible deli.

SPEAKER_02 17:54

Okay. It's not kosher, okay. Uh, but it's a when I'm talking about I am blown away. I'll have to say do you you keep exclusively kosher? I do, yeah. Okay, I do in there. So then that you might that would be a problematic. But uh for those that do not, this was I mean, it was absolutely incredible. It's called Mesh Deli. Um and it's yeah, it's close by and there it was, it's just so great to see more Jewish food. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 18:21

You know, like it's up there's something that's so nice, and it's really cool. And honestly, at the end of the day, Tanya, I think food brings people together. Absolutely. That's what that's what brings us together, you know. When you when you do a gathering at home, are you not offering anything or are you offering food? You have to have food, right? So it brings people together. You have to have drinks, you have to have appetizers, even if it's not a full-blown meal. You're having apps, right? So you're having appetizers, whatever it may be. Food brings people together, not just Jewish people, every single culture. Yeah, we come together with our food. So it's so nice to be able to share Middle Eastern food, all kinds of food. And even if it's a Middle Eastern dish and it may come from a different part of the Middle East, you know, you people can't forget that we have we have history, we have ancestors, we have family that came from Syria, from Turkey, from Lebanon, from all different Morocco, from Yemen, from all kinds of places. And you know, it's it's like we're allowed to also make these foods.

SPEAKER_00 19:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

And yeah, it we're not necessarily calling it Israeli, but if an Israeli woman is standing on screen and making this dish, why write away hate on her because she's Israeli? Exactly. You know, it's like you you I I sometimes you it can go if you want to really turn around again. I I that's why I just feel like it's such a shame that food that brings people together and is such a nice warm thing sometimes brings out hate of people, yeah. Okay that's that's the one thing that really bothers me, you know?

SPEAKER_02 19:44

Yeah, no, I I completely agree. And I I I think that I mean for me it's funny, and like I said, I don't cook, but my and I don't get why, because both my parents at this point are like competing on who makes the better. I love that. And they're Russian, so we're talking like Russian George. You know, so good. So good, such good food. I love it. It's so good. So young. Um, and so yeah, like that's it's like the eating Olympics for me. I have no interest in like, but I don't know, maybe with with your ingredients, like now you're inspiring me to cook. So I feel like you know what, if I I mean do you eat out every day?

SPEAKER_00 20:17

How do you no I'll say it'll take care of my parents, they'll eat their food, and I'll eat their food.

SPEAKER_02 20:22

My girlfriend cooks and she'll cook for us all the time. There you go. I'll make a I'll make like a Sunday brunch, and I'll make French toast and I'll do things like that. But uh, but otherwise, yeah, like I'll I'll eat out or I'll go grab sushi. Yeah. I'll you know, but I it it just seems so like to me, I feel like I could probably execute one dish. Like if you were to give me like a a tutorial or you're like you just give me a little you know instruction, I I'll give you one dish. But when you're telling me that you're cooking for 12 to 18 people and it ends up being enough for like 30, and I know that you have like 19 different dishes, I don't know how you manage that. I have I I it the the it's a lot doesn't, or like even like my girlfriend, she'll make me a dinner and it'll have like a salad and a vegetable and a this and a that, and I'm just like by the time I'm done cooking one of the items, everything else is cold. Like nothing, like I don't, I just it's so overwhelming.

SPEAKER_01 21:16

So that's and everyone's got their own talent, you've got yours. Yeah, cooking. It's not gonna be it. You have an awesome podcast, you're uh you know, a politician, you're a leader, you're a fierce woman. You have your talent, I got mine, everyone's got their own, everyone stays, I guess, in their own lane, and yeah, you know, it's just I can't be you, you you know, not to say that you can't be me, but like everyone's just got like their own way and their own rhythm and something I don't forget, I've also been doing this for so many years. I've been married ever since I was 19 years old. I've been cooking, hosting, you know, doing all this for so many years that for me it's like you know, it's like I do it with my eyes closed.

SPEAKER_02 21:52

Are you self taught?

SPEAKER_01 21:53

I'm self taught, self taught, but luckily with um really the blessing of having such incredible women around me for. My late mother-in-law, my sister-in-law, so taught me so much. Um, my own family, my mom, grandmother, my so I've I've just I absorbed so much as a young girl that I would literally just like everywhere I would go, I would learn something, write it down, bring it home, make it, prepare it. Sometimes even better than the way I learned it. Um, as even my my mentors and teachers would tell me, like, wow, you even passed me. Um, but really, you want to make it right? Or yeah, and um and so, yeah, so I was lucky to really have such amazing women around me, and even my own husband who taught me so much. He actually was the one who taught me my first stuffed pepper dish. I remember calling him on the phone when he was at work. I'm like, Abby, I have these peppers, tell me how to make it. He literally, you know, led me step by step. Take this, do that. I was so proud of myself when I made stuffed peppers for the first time.

SPEAKER_02 22:50

Oh my god, yeah, that's not an easy dish. For me, I love cabbage. I heard that's a cabbage. I heard that's really hard.

SPEAKER_01 22:57

That's a real no, not at all. Literally, no, not at all. You you boil the cabbage, you peel, you know, you get the leaves, make your filling, roll them in. It's actually one of the easier ones to do.

SPEAKER_02 23:06

Okay, I'm gonna have to tell everyone who's said it.

SPEAKER_01 23:09

Oh, that's no, it's not hard at all. And it's very, it's a very popular Russian dish, too. What do you guys call it? Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:17

Okay, yeah, and that we we love it.

SPEAKER_01 23:20

And we call it an Hebrew Kov Memoulet. Oh, Kov Memulé. Kov memoule. Memule is a stuffing, so anything that's stuffed. And um cool, cool, kov is uh cabbage.

SPEAKER_02 23:32

Love it. Yeah. So what's your favorite dish ever? Do you have one?

SPEAKER_01 23:36

Uh I have so many that I love, but I really do love like a baked crispy rice. I like like the crispy rice with the baked salmon on top. That's like one of my favorite like hosting dishes, one of my favorite things to make. My kids love it. Um, I just like the way it looks, it looks beautiful, it tastes delicious, it's crispy, it's filling, and I love sushi, so you know it's it's got like that nice like sushi flavor in it, too, you know.

SPEAKER_02 24:02

So it's awesome. Yeah, I could eat so much, and the funniest thing though is I'll have I mean a huge amount of sushi rolls, and then an hour later I I'm still hungry.

SPEAKER_01 24:14

You're hungry. I know you felt like it didn't do anything to you. Yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 24:17

So funny, right? Right. So, how often do you do these podcasts? Um, usually it depends on everyone else's availability, but sometimes I'll do like four in a week. Wow, and then I'll take a lull because by the time you add, I don't really see once a week. Yeah. Um, or like once every two weeks. Okay, that's cool. So, yeah, so it depends. So now I had just got off of a lull, so now getting back to it, I had the last person that was on it was Steve Hilton. Oh, that's cool. He was great. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 24:46

Um, they're mostly people from LA?

SPEAKER_02 24:49

Um most of the time, yeah, because that just logistically. Yeah. Um, but if someone who's not from LA happens to be in town, so you catch them, I catch them then. Then um, yeah, mostly just out of convenience. And if there's ever a time that I'm somewhere I thought I'll do it. I'm thinking of ways to to maybe expand it beyond the car, but it's it's such a different thing, and not that many people are doing it, and I always get feedback that doing it in the car is like so great. So cool. So it's so cool.

SPEAKER_01 25:18

The first thing I said to you when you told me it's in the car was like, wait, like carpal karaoke.

SPEAKER_02 25:21

Exactly, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:22

And you were like, Yeah, exactly. I was like, that is what what a genius idea. It's honestly how did it come about? It's cheap, it's true. Like that's you don't need a studio. Like, I don't have to pay for a studio. You just need a nice camera setting system like you have here, which is awesome.

SPEAKER_02 25:35

So if you just get the cameras, and thankfully, you know, like I I'm partnered with Joyce Global, so it that made it possible. That's awesome. Um yeah, like I I don't have to, you know, pay for the studio, I don't have to worry about like lighting and all of this. No, it's a huge thing, yeah. And then it's always different, like mics, all different kinds of stuff that you don't have to deal with. Yeah, exactly. So that makes it easy, and this also makes it literally mobile. So if I do, you know, if someone is in Orange County or San Diego, I've done you know, I did with Stella Esco, you know, Escobane. No, I didn't drive her, she's out, you know, yeah in San Diego. So I did that drive when I was with Steve Hilton. He happened to be in town in Orange County. So I drove. So if there happens to be someone in San Francisco or even like Vegas or Arizona, so I mean I'm sure if someone's worth it, I'll go to you know, I'll fly somewhere and then just assemble the cameras on the car that I rent. But it's easy to move around, you know. That's so cool. And so that part makes it so genius idea.

SPEAKER_01 26:32

Really?

SPEAKER_02 26:32

It's like Yeah, a friend of mine, I was talking to him, his name's Kevin, and we were just like going back and forth, and he was like, might as well just do what you already do. Make a life. Because all of my content has always been in the car.

SPEAKER_01 26:41

That's yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_02 26:43

There you go. It's like, yeah, if I'm already thinking it, I might as well just if I'm already doing it online and that's what's working, there you go. Continue. So yeah, so it's nice. Um, I'm pretty it's fun this way because I would all of the people that I have in the car or people that I would have coffee with, hang out with anyway. Right. God, I'm so excited to try it. You have no idea. My girlfriend's gonna flip.

SPEAKER_00 27:05

No, that's so cute. I'm so excited. How old are you? I'm almost 40. Wow, no way. You look so much younger. Oh, thank you. You wouldn't have thought that. Really? And your girlfriend? She's 35. Oh, 36. So, what does she do?

SPEAKER_02 27:17

She's a talent agent. Nice. Um, and so she does a lot of like brand deals for um for influencers. Okay, cool. And yeah, so it's great. That's great. It's yeah, it's really nice. Very cool. And she's a Lithuanian Jew. Oh, I love it. Uh yeah, which is great because I for so long in my past I had dated non-Jews. Uh-huh. And it's you know, and I certainly make no judgments on folks that do. I think everyone, the blended people's were beautiful. Um it became like a non-negotiable, specifically after October 7. Yeah. Um, and it's such a big part of our lives. 100%. The way that we want to raise our feet for kids, yeah, families, even like the way that we relate to our parents, you know, there's so it just it it feels so aligned and how it should be, you know. Absolutely. So yeah, for me, it makes a big difference. Um, so yeah, so it's it's I love the fact that she's Jewish. And actually, her I think it's her great aunt came has a um a Jewish cookbook. No, yes. The great aunt? Her great aunt. What's the name of the book? Um Jewish, it's called like the Jewish cooking. I actually don't have to pause. I'll look at the name, but it's like in our in our kitchen. I love that. That's cool. Do you have you have a cookbook, right? Not yet. Okay. Are you replanting it? I am, I'm working on it, yeah. Yeah, because I think everyone will buy it.

SPEAKER_01 28:46

I hope so. It'll be two years though, so 2028.

SPEAKER_02 28:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 28:50

Um God willing.

SPEAKER_02 28:52

And uh yeah, we'll see. We'll see. Do you know like the amount of recipes you plant to have in it?

SPEAKER_01 28:57

Somewhere close to a hundred. Wow. Yeah, between eight and a hundred.

SPEAKER_02 29:01

Let's say what um yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:03

Like have like all the holidays, a lot of holiday cooking, Shabbat cooking, of course, some staples that have been like, you know, obviously the staple ones on my on my food um on my Instagram. Um, and um obviously new ones too. You know, that's what's gonna make the cookbook unique and you know, and nice, and you know, so want people to buy it when you have new recipes in there. It's not just like the same recipes that they can get online, you know. Yeah. Even though I feel like buying a cookbook is not just always like, you know, just you you yes, you want the recipes and you want them print, you know, in front of your your eyes and not have to always look for them, you know, online and screenshot things. And a lot of people are always asking me for for printed versions of the of the recipes, you know. So many times I'll direct them to my website where they can get printed versions that way too. I love that because it uh we're almost going backwards if we want like people love people want that, especially my crowd. I have an older crowd of women. So my crowd are a lot of 50 plus women that they are used to holding a piece of paper, holding, you know, they actually want. You know how many women I know have made actual cookbooks already from my recipes. They've shown me pictures, they've shown me videos. Look at the cookbook I made. I printed out all of your recipes, and I made a cookbook, you know. Just take a quick PDF and just sell the PDF. I know, I know, I know. We're looking into that people, I know. In two minutes, you would sell out. Like it's crazy. People love that stuff, people really want it. So, yeah. So oh my god, yeah, like a principal version. Like oh my god. People want that, and that's it, and they're just happy having that, you know.

SPEAKER_02 30:38

Yeah, that's awesome. So I mean, I will say, I think that it um there's something more intimate about having it printed out too, like especially in a cookbook, because you feel like you're um there's a story behind it too, it's not just the ingredients, right? Um, and so I think which is so funny because I also know that people when they're looking for recipes online, they're like, Oh my god, can people stop talking and just give me the recipe? Yeah. Um, and so and I almost understand that more online, but in a book, you know, you have like one side that has like the story and the images, you have the other side that just has the recipe, like it makes it so much more digestible, exactly, and especially because cooking is in stages, so you one step this, this step, that step.

SPEAKER_01 31:19

People want it so that they can just go back to it like that and not have to scroll through this video again, watch it. I mean, it's great for us because it gives us views, right? But at the same time, like, yeah, I hear these people make a ride over here. I hear people where they're like, you know, like, listen, I'm I don't want a screenshot anymore. I wanna, you know, so yeah, that's good.

SPEAKER_02 31:37

Yeah, it is a very um, it becomes very annoying. Like it's an irritable thing to have to do.

SPEAKER_01 31:43

It is, yeah, 100%. I hear them. So don't worry, friends, I got your back. It's it'll come. Well, I love that you're listening to your audience. You see, you're looking at it. 100%. I always listen to them. They are my people, they are the reason I I am doing what I'm doing, you know. If not for my audience, then I would not be here. Right? So I'm blessed every day. I wake up and I just say thank you. Thank you, Hashem, for giving me this platform, for giving me this community, these amazing people, men and women that support me and that um, you know, love the stuff that I do because I love it even more than them. So it's it's just it's really been a blessing. So it's it's amazing. Thank you. Yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_00 32:21

Yeah, it's really cool. I'm so excited to try.

SPEAKER_01 32:25

You can pull in the driveway if you want.

SPEAKER_00 32:26

Okay, cool. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:31

I'm so excited right now.

SPEAKER_03 32:34

I love this.

SPEAKER_01 32:36

There's two cookies in here. There's a bisagati and there's a Moroccan sugar cookie. So the top ones are the Moroccan sugar cookies, and the ones on the bottom with the nuts are the biscotties in there.

SPEAKER_00 32:45

Which one should I? Try them both, but you try whichever one you want first.

SPEAKER_02 33:00

I am eating my new favorite cookie. Guess what?

SPEAKER_01 33:11

What are the ingredients? Uh what are the ingredients? There's sugar, there's vanilla, there's flour, there's non-dairy butter, there's a little bit of oil, all the good things, you know, everything that you really want in a cookie. And it's a kosher. And they're kosher and they're not and they're parbs, so which means they're non-dairy, which is amazing. Oh, there's coconut in there too. There's coconut and the coconut is what makes it so good. I'm the luckiest person alive right now.

SPEAKER_02 33:39

Yeah, really great.

SPEAKER_00 33:40

Right? How good? Try dipping it in like tea or coffee. Oh my god. So good. Yeah. It's really, really good.

SPEAKER_02 33:45

This is the sweetest thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:47

I feel like the Russians love pickles. Oh yeah, we put it on every I'm trying to do. I'm gonna have like a tuna sandwich later with this on the so good. Put it in here so it doesn't um fill for you. I don't want I mean, I tied it really good. Yeah, I tied it really good and then there yeah. Oh my god. This is so good. Thank you. You're welcome. Enjoy