Gail Simmons's Rosh Hashanah Menu

Want a guaranteed "shana tova"? Get Top Chef: Just Desserts host and longtime Top Chef judge Gail Simmons to host a Rosh Hashanah lunch and dinner.

Esquire says the Food and Wine editor is teaming up with her mother-in-law Noreen Abrams in the kitchen. Gail enthuses, "I'm lucky that my mother-in-law loves to cook and is amazing at it, too."

Good thing Gail's husband Jeremy Abrams knows how lucky *he* is the women in his life get along so well: "I'm definitely fortunate, not only that my mother and my wife are such amazing cooks, but that they manage to cook together without wanting to kill each other." And Jeremy's role? Selecting music, cleaning up, tackling last-minute errands, and "greeting and schmoozing."

Gail and Jeremy had ten friends and family members over at their Manhattan apartment last night, the first night of Rosh Hashanah. Their mouth-watering repast updated classic holiday dishes with upscale twists: gefilte fish with horseradish, Romanian-style smoked and roasted eggplant dip, three homemade soups, Portuguese-style marinated chicken, braised anise-clove short ribs with mushroom gravy, root vegetable puree, and sautéed rapini with chilies and toasted pine nuts. For dessert, Gail and Noreen are offering a honey cake with baked apples, crème fraiche, and salted caramel sauce (a fave recipe from Johnny Iuzzini, perhaps?).

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