The processing and preparation of food can transform a kosher item into a non-kosher item.

Food is never static; culture is never static.

The knish is a classic example of peasant food evolving into comfort food and even sophisticated fare.

To me, that aspect of life that most touches the everyday and celebrations is food.

A Jewish food is one that is almost sanctified, either by its repeated use or use within the holidays or rituals. So food that may have not been Jewish at one point can become Jewish within the cultural context.

In Judaism, almost every ritual entails either food or the absence of food. Yom Kippur, for instance, is the absence of food. Part of it is Talmudic, part of it is custom. So much of Judaism was bound up in dietary laws. So everything you ate - the very act itself - was part of religion.