DECEMBER 10 • 2020 | 33
W
illiam Shakespeare wrote King
Lear, Macbeth and Antony
and Cleopatra during the
bubonic plague of 1605. During the cur-
rent pandemic, Oak Park mother of three
Vera Newman, 28, wrote,
styled and photographed The
Marblespoon Cookbook.
Released in time for
Chanukah by Menucha
Publishers, it is a stunning
anthology of recipes and
a tribute to her childhood
growing up in the vibrant Sephardic
Jewish community of Panama City,
Panama. It also contains an eclectic mix
of dishes inspired by cuisines around the
world.
Though all the recipes in Marblespoon
follow the laws of kashrut, it is not labeled
as kosher or Jewish cuisine and can com-
fortably find a spot within anyone’s
culinary book collection.
“This is not a traditional Jewish
cookbook,” Newman said. “You
will not find your bubbie’s gifelte
fish or traditional chicken soup
recipe in here. But what you will
find is how to make salmon avo-
cado burgers or a sofrito, which
is spicy chicken soup built with a
flavorful broth base of corn cobs
and sauteed herbs and garlic.”
Born in Panama to
Panamanian and Israeli par-
ents, Newman was raised in a Sephardic
family where she was exposed to cuisines
with roots in Central America, Morocco
and Israel. She was born to a family of
engineers; one of her grandfathers was
the founding dean of the Technological
University of Panama. Newman mar-
ried her husband, native Detroiter Jacob
Newman, in 2012, and they have lived in
Oak Park ever since.
Since her teens, Newman’s family and
friends looked to her as the meal planner,
putting her in charge of making the gro-
cery lists and selecting ambitious recipes
to prepare for weekends away at the beach
or large family gatherings for Shabbat or
holidays.
Though she said her recipes were
not shaped by the pandemic, she pairs
essential pantry staples with fresh ingre-
dients to create “unpretentious and fami-
ly-friendly” meals. Between the recipes are
tips on how to purchase the perfect plan-
tain, build a meat or cheese charcuterie or
arrange flowers for a centerpiece.
Favorite family recipes in the cookbook
include her mother’s walnut wine chick-
en, meat empanadas that are a popular
Panamanian street food, and dulce de
leche cookies for dessert.
Newman dedicated Marblespoon to her
grandmother, who died two years ago. An
artist as well as a great cook, her grand-
mother created carved platters, such as the
wood challah board photographed at the
end of the book.
MULTI-TALENTED
Newman is an ambitious self-taught cook,
photographer, and marketer. To produce
the cookbook, Newman set out some
goals beginning in the fall of 2019, all
with the hopes of finishing the book and
Vera
Newman
@MARBLESPOON
ARTS&LIFE
BOOKS
Kosher
and
Exotic
Oak Parker
shares Sephardic-
inspired cuisine in
The Marblespoon
Cookbook.
STACY GITTLEMAN
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
@MARBLESPOON
continued on page 34