|
 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 Bo cuse,
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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Copyright ©
2005 Sharon Lebewohl, All Rights Reserved