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Sharon,
culinary instructor, food arts demonstrator and guest
lecturer, is co-author of the
2nd Ave Deli Cookbook.
Sharon’s life kicked into high gear in 1996 when her
father was murdered on his way to make a bank deposit.
For the next ten years, Sharon,
along with her father’s brother Jack Lebewohl, took
over the run of the legendary East Village deli.
From 1996 until 2006 (when the 2nd
Ave Deli closed due to a rent increase)
Sharon juggled all
aspects of the deli’s management including recipe
development, menu selection, supervision of its 50-plus
staff, management of the dining room and deli counter
and customer service supervisor. In between,
Sharon performed
cooking demonstrations on the TODAY show, The Martha
Stewart Show, FoodNation with Bobby Flay, The Tony Danza
Show and appeared on PBS-TV and local news shows. She
also found time to co-author the
2nd Ave Deli Cookbook
(Villard, $24.95) written to honor the memory of her
father.
In
2004 Sharon left her mark on the culinary world by
launching the first annual
HANUKKAH HOTLINE 1-877-GO-LATKE
(1-877-465-2853) offering help for aspiring and
accomplished cooks. “The hotline honors the most
popular Jewish holiday when families from around the
world gather around the dinner table,” says Sharon who
personally responds to calls and emails (sharonlebewohl@aol.com)
and offers help and recipes at (www.sharonlebewohl.com).
When
the 2nd Ave Deli re-opened in 2007, on East
33rd Street, the timing was right for
Sharon to follow in
her father’s entrepreneurial footsteps. “In 2007 I
produced my first DVD, “In the
Kitchen with Sharon” with American and
Yiddish theatre actor Mike Burnstyn who I cook
alongside. I also began serving on the executive
committee of the Hazon International Food Conference,”
says Sharon who was honored by the American
Jewish Historical Society (the nation’s oldest ethnic
historical society) as guest speaker and presenter for
their Worlds of Our Fathers and Mothers exhibition.
“After
my father’s death, 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.”
Sharon’s
family includes sons Tzvi and Eliyahu, daughter Ayalah,
and five grandchildren. A French Culinary Institute
graduate, Sharon is
working on a book about her father and the birth of the
2nd Ave Deli and is spearheading an effort to
preserve “The Yiddish Walk of Fame” that honors 58
Yiddish actors whose names her father embedded into
Hollywood-like stars in the pavement on 10th
St and 2nd Ave (the original site of the 2nd
Ave Deli) in 1985.

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