The cover of “The Gefilte Manifesto.” Photo: Flatiron Books.

JNS.org — Two emerging young chefs are on a mission to reclaim and revolutionize Ashkenazi cuisine for the millennial generation.

Liz Alpern and Jeffrey Yoskowitz both fell in love with Eastern European Jewish cooking early on in life, and they have used that passion to start a revolution — starting with a makeover of gefilte fish. In 2011, they founded The Gefilteria with partner Jackie Lilinshtein, their response to the packaged glass jars of ground fish patties on supermarket shelves. The business sells a signature gefilte fish dish and hosts pop-up dining events. That venture has grown into a mission to revamp all the Ashekanzi classics, resulting in The Gefilte Manifesto: New Recipes for Old World Jewish Foods, a cookbook that puts modern and lighter twists on traditional fare– and even includes a chapter on “choosing your own leftover adventure.”

As an undergraduate student at McGill University, Alpern had baked and sold challah out of her home because there was no kosher bakery in her neighborhood. Yoskowitz, raised in New Jersey, would go on field trips as a child with his father to New York’s Jewish food institutions, and even studied the kosher industry for his senior thesis at Brown University.

Alpern and Yoskowitz, who were featured in Forbes’s 2014 “30 Under 30” list for food and wine, are drawing praise from prominent chefs for their efforts to save the foods of their heritage.

Jewish food writer and cookbook author Leah Koenig praised The Gefilte Manifesto in her latest book, Modern Jewish Cooking, for digging “deep into our Ashkenazi ancestors’ recipe boxes.”

“It pulls out time-tested favorites and lost gems, and finds ways to make them taste at once fresh and innovative, and utterly authentic,” Koenig told JNS.org.

“We Jewish mothers can be collectively entranced, inspired and proud,” Mollie Katzen, bestselling author-illustrator of vegetarian cooking classics, told JNS.org. “It’s no small feat to retain the character of an old, emotionally held culinary culture while imparting fresh life to the standards. Jeffrey and Liz nailed it, not only with outstanding recipes but also with history and stories and context, impeccably written.”