Modern Ashkenazi Cooking: A Taste of Shabbat

Join us for the hands-on cooking class where we will re-imagine all the Shabbat comfort foods for a vegetable-forward modern table. Alissa will draw inspiration from the cuisines of Eastern Europe to create a menu that is comforting, seasonal, familiar yet excitingly new. In this class you will learn to make broths, dumplings, stews and tray-bake, and gain an understanding how to create maximum flavour with minimum ingredients and most importantly how to put vegetables in the starring role! No prior cooking skills required, as the class is accessible to all levels.

This class is limited to 15 participants.

The menu

Vegetarian chicken soup (alternative: potato and caramelised onion kreplach in a fennel and lemon broth)

Umami-rich mushroom stew

Paprika and rye potato babka

Sweet apple and rice kugel

About Alissa

Alissa Timoshkina is a London-based food writer, cookbook author and historian specialising in the culinary culture of Eastern Europe.

Born in Siberia into a rich Eastern European heritage of Ashkenazi and Eastern Slavic roots, her family history is a defining ingredient in her cooking and writing.

Alissa moved to the UK in the late 1990s to study, later completing a PhD in Soviet culture and Holocaust history at the University of London, where she also worked as a lecturer. Ultimately, her love of cooking pulled her away from academia, and in 2015 she founded the supper club and catering company KinoVino, which she ran until 2020.

She is the author of Salt & Time (2019), Kapusta (2025) and Lozhka (2026), and writes the Substack newsletter In Her Hands.

In response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Alissa co-founded the global fundraising campaign #CookForUkraine with her friend, chef and writer Olia Hercules, raising over £2.5 million for humanitarian relief and receiving multiple international awards.

Alissa lives in North London with her partner and their two children.

Follow Alissa on Instagram and Substack: @alissatimoshkina