If festival participants in Krakow were used to seeing the world-renowned cantor Ben Zion Miller as a cantor who in recent years has appeared frequently on the stages of performances and concerts at the local festival, this year they are in for a big surprise.
As part of the festival's programs, Cantor Ben Zion Miller led the Jewish culinary workshop, in which he spoke about his family's culinary tradition and the food and flavors of his childhood, which over the years have become history and tradition in his Hasidic family.
The festival website states: "Among other things, the cantor will share his family's special recipes in the workshop, from his mother's hamburger recipe to the special burnt potatoes recipe. With an intimate and personal story about Ashkenazi cuisine, combined with tastings of traditional dishes specially prepared by Cantor Miller.".
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The idea of including Miller in the workshop is related to the fact that, in addition to being one of the greatest cantors to emerge in the last generation, he is also known for his unique culinary skills.
Cantor Miller's Polish Cholent
Prof. Haviva Pedia from the Department of Jewish History at Ben-Gurion University traveled to Krakow in 2010 to conduct research on Polish Hasidism. She wrote about her impressions in a long article in Haaretz.
In Krakow she met a cantor who was both Hasidic and a Shalan, and this is how she describes it:
""In the small hotel called "Eden" we are staying with the family of Cantor Ben Zion Miller of the Babov Hassidic. He and his family will hold a tish based on the tunes of the Babov in front of the audience who came to the festival, mostly Polish. And on Shabbat evening, the Babov Hassidic also held a tish in the Polish hotel itself, dressed properly in a kapota and shtreimel. The clever Ben Zion with the angelic voice is also a great cook. He passed before me with a tray loaded with four golden-brown, puffy pies with a good filling, and the smell of sweet meat seasoned with cinnamon, onions and raisins rose from them.
""What's in cholent? Ben Zion's great-grandfather could easily have met the brave soldier Schweik, who was roaming around Galicia during World War I, and competed with him and his occult cook who was fond of cooking cholent based on stuffed goose. Ben Zion Miller himself purchased rooms in the district and upon arriving at the festival he revealed himself to be an excellent chef who prepared a similar Polish cholent, and the sounds of the tish rang out on Saturday evening from the hotel located near the cemetery.
""All those with a Jewish point of view gathered at the table from every direction. The phrase "social sector" does not exist here. In this imaginary point of quasi-redemption for a moment. Even I was not singled out, and Ben Zion spoke to me enthusiastically and openly, even though I am a woman. But now emptiness and emptiness are not a mystical, occult formula, as in Schweik's cook, but the central socio-historical fact of the Jews in Poland, and the cholent served here in glory has become the symbol of full presence," Fedya summarizes the experience.
