Iron Chef Latkes: The American Latke Experience

On Dec 11, 2011, our guest Chef Dottie Hubbard Deitch taught us about the cultural history and culinary artistry of the latke. Students split into groups and invented flavor combinations for latkes and sauces that reflected their own American Jewish cultural mix.

Chef Dottie developed their ideas into recipes and collected the ingredients.

On Dec 18, the students created their masterpieces. Twenty teenagers with knives and hot oil - not one mishap. Not even a burned latke. The results were amazing: creative, beautiful, and delicious.

Student cleanup awards go to Kaitlyn Graham and David Glanzman, who judge whether they need to keep working not by how much they have done but by how much there is left to do. And of course we could not have done it without the incomparable Steve Smith.

Find links to the five purely American new latke recipes at the right.

Red, White, and Blue Latkes with Buffalo Sauce
Inspired by Elan Nash, Maia Mesyngier, David Shore, and Noah Arnold
Prepared by Maia, Elan, and Elan’s friend Peter

Thanksgiving Latkes
Inspired and prepared by Thomas Fogel, Michael Fackenthall, David Glanzman, and Mo Cohen

South West Sweet Potato Latkes
Inspired and prepared by Alex Brown, Jeffrey Himelstein,and Steven Schwartz

Caribbean Latkes
Inspired by Ashley Hoyle, Emily Wainfan, Rachel Ernest, Alyssa Graham, Kaitlyn Graham
Prepared by Ashley, Alyssa, and Kaitlyn

Pizza Latkes
Inspired by Avery Brown, Seth Fein, Ethan Fein, Jason Glanzman, Daniel Kaplan, and Alex Petrescu
Prepared by Seth, Ethan,Jason, Daniel, and Alex