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Sharon Lebewohl co-owner of the famed 2nd Ave Deli (and daughter of legendary founder Abe Lebewohl) is not your ordinary Deli Diva.  First, the Zagat Number One-Rated New York City Kosher Deli is not only a Lower East Side landmark, it is famous beyond Manhattan environs shipping its coveted corned beef and pastrami, chicken soup, cole slaw, potato salad and even pickles to regular customers from Maine to Monterey.  Second, Sharon (45 year-old mother of three) wears more hats than a millinery mannequin: culinary instructor; food arts demonstrator/lecturer; restaurant operator; co-author (of the 2nd Ave Deli Cookbook) and French Culinary Institute graduate.

In addition to her work at the deli, Sharon finds time to perform cooking demonstrations on NBC-TV’s TODAY show with Katie Couric; Martha Stewarts’ Kitchen; various TV Food Network shows (i.e., FoodNation with Bobby Flay) and makes guest appearances on national PBS-TV programs and numerous local network affiliate news shows.

Sharon (educated and trained as a registered nurse) grew up at the 2nd Ave Deli doing homework after school at one of the restaurant tables getting help from waiters and waitress who seemed more like family than employees.  The daughter of the beloved restaurant entrepreneur learned the food business from the ground up - from bussing tables to working as a cashier, hostess and kitchen aide, to ultimately designing and testing recipes: all the while attending college and working as a nurse. 

When (on March 4, 1996) Abe Lebewohl was murdered on his way to the bank, Sharon put her part-time culinary skills into action; leaving nursing and taking over the run of the 2nd Ave Deli (along with her father’s then-lawyer brother, Jack Lebewohl). 

Since then Sharon hasn’t looked back and in 1997 co-authored the famed 2nd Ave Deli Cookbook (Villard, $24.95) written to honor the memory of her father.

“After my father was shot my job was keeping his spirit alive, first by giving up nursing to help run the business and, next, by writing the cookbook my father always talked about writing himself,” says Sharon, who infused her father’s two passions in the book:  good food and good friends.  Recipes in the 2ndAve Deli Cookbook include all the deli specialties: the decadent chopped liver, the cold-curing chicken soup with matzah balls, kasha varnishes and cholent.  The book is also peppered with personal stories like the one about restaurateur Drew Nieporent (of Nobu) who when hosting a party for French chef Paul Bocuse asked celebrity chefs to create their signature dishes.  According to Bocuse, his favorite dish, hands-down, was Abe’s life-like bust of Bocuse sculpted from the Deli’s world-famous chopped liver.  The book also has favorite recipes from family and friends including some of Abe Lebewohl’s favorite people (and customers) like Bobby Flay who contributes his yellow corn pancakes with smoked salmon and mango-serrano crème fraiche.

“After my father was shot, when the family was sitting Shiva, one of his regular dining companions came up to me and said: ‘I had lunch with Abe the day before he died.  It’s such a pity; he was on a diet, and he hardly ate anything.  I know he would have wanted his last meals to be spectacular.’  “I told him not to feel bad.  He was the fourth person to tell me he had lunch with Abe that day.  And I believe every one of them was telling me the truth.”

Proud mother of Ayalah, Tzvi and Eliyahu, Sharon lives in New York City and is currently working on her second cook book.

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