Sold-Out, but viewable online – Russ & Daughters: Reflections and Recipes from the House That Herring Built
Russ & Daughters: Reflections and Recipes from the House That Herring Built
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 6:30-8 PM
Elebash Recital Hall
CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue at 34th Street
When Joel Russ started peddling herring from a barrel shortly after his arrival in America from Poland, he could not have imagined that he was witnessing the birth of a gastronomic legend. Here is the story of this “Louvre of lox” from its humble beginnings through the Great Depression, the food rationing of World War II, the passing of the torch to the next generation just as the flight from the Lower East Side to the suburbs was beginning, the heartbreaking years of neighborhood blight, and the almost miraculous renaissance of an area from which hundreds of other family-owned stores had fled. Filled with delightful anecdotes about how a ferociously hardworking family turned a passion for selling perfectly smoked and pickled fish into an institution with a devoted international clientele, Mark Russ Federman’s reminiscences combine a heartwarming and triumphant immigrant saga with a panoramic history of twentieth-century New York, a meditation on the creation and selling of gourmet food by a family that has mastered this art, and an enchanting behind-the-scenes look at four generations of people who are just a little but crazy on the subject of fish.
Reservations for this Forum are FULL. There may be some standby seating available at the event on a first-come, first-served basis. A live stream of the event will be available at the Graduate Center’s Video Commons.
