Kubba Bamia with the Sephardic Spice Girls
The Kitchen Radio podcast brings listeners to the table of communities from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia for intergenerational stories of community life and ritual practices from guests who are part of a rising renaissance of creative food projects exploring their oft-overlooked Jewish history and heritage.
Keep listening with hosts Regine Basha (Founder of Tuning Baghdad) and Nathalie Basha (The Travel Muse), each episode will feature a specific dish and a conversation to introduce the still little-known Jewish culture of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and re-seed Jewish life into a cultural space where their contribution was forgotten, rendered invisible or white-washed. Episodes will feature: Tannaz Sassooni, Rafram Chaddad, and Claudia Roden!
Find out more here and listen now to the full season of the Kitchen Radio podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify Podcasts, Goodpods, YouTube or wherever else you get your podcasts.
Follow along with the Kitchen Radio Companion Cookbook, a guide for cultural education and conversation. Cook along with each guest by following the featured recipes, learn more about where these dishes originate from by digging into each region’s cultural history, gain some fluency in the kitchen with the Kitchen Radio Dictionary, and find out where you can read more to continue your culinary journey! Fill out the form to download:
Regine Basha
Independent curator, writer and producerRegine Basha is an independent curator, writer and producer whose work often focuses on issues around diaspora and placed-based story-telling. Her curatorial projects over 20 years can be found on bashaprojects.com. Basha’s digital archive about Iraq’s Jewish musicians and the parties she grew up around, Tuning Baghdad, has been the generator of short films, writing, radio programs, live concerts and dinner /story-telling events in cities such as Dubai, London, Berlin, Fez and Los Angeles. She is currently based in Madrid but can often be found in her former home, New York, and is currently researching the food history of Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews.
Nathalie Basha
Award-winning broadcast journalist and producerNathalie Basha is an award-winning broadcast journalist and producer, and is the co-creator, host, and co-executive producer of the streaming show #TRAVEL on Roku. Nathalie has produced and reported stories from around the world, including a women’s prison in Colombia and a sacred Māori tattoo ceremony in New Zealand. She’s uncovered the abuses of elephant tourism in Southeast Asia, trekked to an isolated mountain town on the Georgia-Russia border to report on local life, and visited Pablo Escobar’s mansion-turned-theme park in Colombia.
Nathalie is currently a multimedia journalist with Spectrum Networks in Los Angeles, with a beat in food and food politics. She shoots, writes, and edits her own work.
Sephardic Spice Girls
Rachel Sheff and Sharon GompertsRachel Emquies Sheff was born in Casablanca to a Spanish Moroccan family that emigrated to Los Angeles when she was seven. She learned to cook from her mother. From precious pearls of couscous to spicy mouthfuls of Moroccan fish, from slow-cooked dafina to crispy, paper thin galettes, Rachel has mastered the art, spice and spirit of the Moroccan kitchen.
Sharon Gomperts was born in Tel Aviv to a family with roots in Baghdad and El Azair, Iraq. Her family emigrated to Sydney, Australia and then to Los Angeles. She learned to cook the classics of Iraqi Jewish food—from the sweet and sour wonders of Kubbah bamia and Kubbah sh’wander to the mouthwatering delights of T’bit and Sabich—from her mother and grandmother.
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