An interview with Edyta Bracik a teacher trainer from Radom

Click on the link for an audio version of the interview (mp3 file 1.9Mb)

I understand you spent some time in London with a Jewish family - could you tell us something about their food and their eating habits?

I was offered some kind of job with a Jewish family and at the beginning I didn’t realise what kind of family it was. Then I found out it was a real orthodox Jewish family - it was a real culture shock for me. I was introduced to some rules and principles of their food habits. The lady told me they have two kinds of kitchen, one of them was the dairy kitchen one of them was the meat one … so the first thing that I saw was two dishwashers, two sinks, two sets of cutlery … So they had different forks for meat products, different forks for dairy products, it was very confusing … I did not know which forks and which knives to use for … I don’t know … cheese, fruit and so on. Once I made a mistake - I did not know that the forks the children used should be put in the dairy dishwasher … and there was a whole ritual connected with it … her husband actually had to kosher it again …

Were you cooking, preparing meals?

Actually I was to look after the children but she asked me also to prepare some breakfast. She didn’t ask me to do the cooking, she used to prepare the dishes … the only thing I was to do was not even to clean or wash them but to put them into the dishwasher and to eliminate or select where to put the things when they were already cleaned ad washed … but it was for at least two weeks when I had to distinguish which ere which … so that was the main problem.

And the children understood the context?

The children understood it … they were just born with it. But they were very helpful so whenever I had a problem I just asked them what to do with a thing.

What happened when they had guests?

It’s very difficult to say because actually I didn’t see them have any guests at all. I remember when the szabat (Sabbath) started they usually went out so they didn’t have any guests in their home at all. They probably did during the weekend holiday but I was not at home then. I only saw and observed some preparation process for the evening. But no guest at all.

So how did it differ from what you expected from a non-orthodox Jewish family?

Honestly speaking I had no idea about being among Jewish people. At the beginning I thought they were just the same people as we are and I only heard about orthodox Jewish families and nothing else, and then I realised how different it is. It really wasn’t much different from the Polish tradition, the only difference was connected with this difference in the kitchen. The food was very similar to Polish food – the only thing that was different was the use of onions which was definitely much bigger than they use in Polish cuisine.

So kosher food does not mean the food but the way it is prepared?

I would say so … yes, I would say so … it was just the way they prepared it. Even in the case of flavour it was very similar to Polish food in a way.