Chef Beejhy Barhany “Gursha” Cookbook + Tasting

“Harlem’s queen of Ethiopian Jewish cuisine knows that the histories of Jews and Africans are inseparable” — The Forward

Beejhy Barhany is the founding owner and executive chef of Tsion Cafe, an Ethiopian and Israeli restaurant in Harlem’s historic Sugar Hill neighborhood. Born in Ethiopia and raised mostly in Israel, she moved to New York in 2001 and in 2003 founded BINA Cultural Foundation, a cultural organization dedicated to the empowerment of the Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jewish) community in the United States. Tsion Cafe is an Ethiopian Israeli fixture in New York City, known for its tangy injera, piquant shakshuka, piping hot malawach anointed with pats of butter and rivulets of honey. It’s kosher fusion cuisine is pathbreaking and unique, and a fan favorite.

Named for the Amharic word for “mouthful” and the practice of feeding those you love with your hands to their mouths, “Gursha” is Barhany’s first cookbook. It begins with essays, family stories, and photos illustrating her childhood in Ethiopia and temporary stay in Sudan where her family had to hide their Jewishness but took risks to observe Shabbat fully, and their ultimate, hardwon entrance to Israel.

The cookbook’s mouthwatering recipes follow that journey and eras in her life, from her childhood eating dabo bread to a taste for spices and sweets and yeasted doughs she developed as a young person new to Israela home she longed for as a girl but candidly discusses the exclusion and suspicion she faced as an Ethiopian arriving in Israel. Recipes range from classic Ethiopian classics like chickpea flour stew to Shabbat chicken dishes like doro wat and Israeli staples like babka and shakshuka. Most surprising are her desserts, a decidedly unexpected combination of African American and Israeli styles fused with Ethiopian flavors. “Gursha” is a welcome reminder that Jewish food exists beyond hummus and matzo ball soup, and celebrates the constant, global fusion of flavors specific to each place Jews have called home. Barhany will demonstrate one of her favorite recipes (red lentil stew, which has a connection to ancient Hebraic traditions) for audiences to taste.

Ethiopian coffee ceremony + tasting.
Additional cookbook sales and signing after the program.

In partnership with Jewish Book Council.

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