Cara De Silva
{{Short description|American food writer (1939–2022)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Cara De Silva
| image =
| caption =
| birth_name = Carol Eileen Krawetz
| birth_date = {{birth date|1939|03|03}}
| birth_place = Manhattan, New York, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|2022|12|07|1939|03|03}}
| workplaces =
| education =
| alma_mater =
| awards =
}}
Carol Eileen Krawetz (March 3, 1939 – December 7, 2022), known by her pen name Cara De Silva, was American writer and food historian. She was known for her writings on food and for editing In Memory's Kitchen: A Legacy from the Women of Terezin, a collection of recipes from the women in Terezin concentration camp.
Early life
De Silva was born on March 3, 1939, in Manhattan. Her parents were Jewish immigrants; her mother was a sculptor. Her father immigrated to the United States from the area near the Polish and Russian border,{{cite interview |last= De Silva|first=Cara |subject-link= |interviewer= Christa Whitney|title=Cara De Silva's Oral History |work= |date=September 18, 2014 |publisher=Yiddish Book Center |location= |url= https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/collections/oral-histories/interviews/woh-fi-0000618/cara-de-silva-2014|access-date= February 11, 2023}} and worked for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. As a child she participated in Yiddish theater,{{Cite news |last=Gussow |first=Mel |date=December 10, 1975 |title=The Stage |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/12/10/archives/the-stage-purification.html |access-date=January 31, 2023 |issn=0362-4331}} and adopted the stage name Cara De Silva that she used as her pen name while writing as an adult. De Silva received her undergraduate degree from Hunter College, and then a master's degree from the City College of New York in 1996. She also studied medieval English literature at Rutgers University.{{Cite news |last=Risen |first=Clay |date=December 30, 2022 |title=Cara De Silva, Food Historian Who Preserved Jewish Recipes, Dies at 83 |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/30/books/cara-de-silva-dead.html |access-date=January 31, 2023 |issn=0362-4331}}
Career
De Silva was known for her writing that reported both on the food at restaurants and the experience of being at the restaurant itself.{{Cite news |last=Kuras|first=Peter
|date=January 12, 2023 |title=Das Kochbuch aus dem Konzentrationslager |language=de |pages=16 |work=Die Welt, Ausgabe Berlin; Berlin [Berlin]}} She wrote first for Newsday{{Cite news |date=September 20, 1995 |title=Globe's Julian wins food-writing award |pages=71 |work=The Boston Globe |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/117624848/globes-julian-wins-food-writing-award/ |access-date=January 31, 2023}} where she wrote a column focusing on small and relatively unknown places in New York. She went on to report for a variety of publications including Saveur and The New York Times.
De Silva is best known for editing the book, In Memory's Kitchen: a legacy from the women of Terezin, which gathered recipes from women in the Terezin concentration camp.{{Cite news |last=Crea |first=Joe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cGRPAAAAIBAJ&dq=cara+de+silva&pg=PA39&article_id=6735,2772144 |title=Unfinished recipes are piece of history |publisher=Toledo Blade |date=December 8, 1996 |language=en}} The recipes were compiled by Mina Pachter. Before she died of starvation in 1944, she entrusted the roughly 70 recipes to her friend to bring to her daughter Anny Pachter Stern, who before the war had emigrated to Palestine. The original recipes were written by hand in German and Czech, and were translated into English. She first wrote about the collection of recipes in 1991 in Newsday, a Long Island newspaper.{{Cite news |last=DeSilva |first=Cara |date=April 15, 1991 |title=A Collection From a Tragic Past |pages=[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/117624280/a-collection-from-a-tragic-past/],[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/117624351/],[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/117624415/] |work=Newsday |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/117624280/a-collection-from-a-tragic-past/ |access-date=January 31, 2023}} De Silva was turned down by 32 publishers before the book was accepted for publication by the publishing company Jason Aronson in 1996.{{Cite news |last=Martin |first=Chuck |date=May 5, 2003 |title=Writer's persistence led to publication |pages=26 |work=The Cincinnati Enquirer |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/117625621/writers-persistence-led-to-publication/ |access-date=January 31, 2023}} The recipes serve as a historical document of the Holocaust,{{Cite book |last=Irina Dumitrescu |url=http://archive.org/details/0d485404-68e5-4f24-83e8-e993093f5f1d |title=Rumba under Fire: The Arts of Survival from West Point to Delhi |year=2016 |publisher=punctum books |isbn=978-0-692-65583-2}} and DeSilva noted that the book was not a cookbook, as the recipes could be incomplete or confusing, but was a Holocaust document and a record of what she called "psychological resistance".{{Cite news |last=Innes |first=Charlotte |date=July 23, 1997 |title=The Food of Memory |pages=[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/117625227/the-food-of-memory/],[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/117625309/] |work=The Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/117625227/the-food-of-memory/ |access-date=January 31, 2023}} The book became a best seller{{Cite news |date=December 1, 1996 |title=Best Sellers: December 1, 1996 |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/01/books/best-sellers-december-1-1996.html |access-date=January 31, 2023 |issn=0362-4331}} and was named to the New York Times list of notable books of the year in 1996.{{Cite news |date=December 8, 1996 |title=Notable Books of the Year 1996 |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/08/books/notable-books-of-the-year-1996.html |access-date=January 31, 2023 |issn=0362-4331}} After the publication of the book, De Silva gave lectures about the book and its origin in places throughout the United States.{{Cite news |date=January 15, 1998 |title=Authors chat about the Jewish experience |pages=10 |work=The Central New Jersey Home News |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/117640836/the-central-new-jersey-home-news/ |access-date=January 31, 2023}}
Selected publications
- {{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/70998659 |title=In memory's kitchen : a legacy from the women of Terezín |date=1996 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |editor-first=Cara |editor-last=DeSilva |isbn=0-7425-4646-2 |edition=First |location=Lanham, Md. |oclc=70998659}}Reviews for In Memory's Kitchen
- {{Cite journal |last=Kaufman |first=Rona |date=2004 |title=Testifying, Silencing, Monumentalizing, Swallowing: Coming to Terms with "In Memory 's Kitchen" |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20866632 |journal=JAC |volume=24 |issue=2 |pages=427–445 |jstor=20866632 |issn=2162-5190}}
- {{Cite news |last=Dickstein |first=Lore |date=November 17, 1996 |title=Hell's Own Cookbook |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/11/17/books/hell-s-own-cookbook.html |access-date=January 31, 2023 |issn=0362-4331}}
- {{Cite news |last=Green |first=Michelle |date=December 2, 1996 |title=In Memory's Kitchen: A Legacy from the Women of Terezin |volume=46 |pages=3– |work=People Weekly; New York |issue=23 |id={{ProQuest|}} }}
- {{Cite news |last=Mack |first=Patricia |date=September 11, 1996 |title=Sustenance for the Soul |pages=[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/117624066/sustenance-for-the-soul/],[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/117624127/] |work=The Record |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/117624066/sustenance-for-the-soul/ |access-date=January 31, 2023}}
- {{Cite book |last=De Silva |first=Cara |chapter=Fusion City: From Mt. Olympus Bagels to Puerto Rican Lasagna and Beyond |editor-last=Hauck-Lawson |editor-first=Annie |url=https://cup.columbia.edu/book/gastropolis/9780231136532 |title=Gastropolis: Food and New York City |editor-last2=Lomonaco |editor-first2=Jonathan Deutsch Foreword by Michael |date=2008 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-51006-6}}
Awards and honors
De Silva was twice honored by the Association of Food Journalists for food feature writing, in 1992 she received first prize{{Cite web |title=Cara De Silva - Welcome |url=https://www.caradesilva.com/ |access-date=February 11, 2023 |website=www.caradesilva.com}}{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable (WP:NOTRS).|date=February 2023}} and in 1995 she received third prize. In 2000 De Silva was nominated by the James Beard Foundation for her writing A Fork in the Road Letters on Traveling and Dining.{{Cite web |title=Awards Search {{!}} James Beard Foundation |url=https://www.jamesbeard.org/awards/search?year=2000 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230102041059/https://www.jamesbeard.org/awards/search?year=2000 |archive-date=January 2, 2023 |access-date=January 31, 2023 |website=www.jamesbeard.org |language=en}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/collections/oral-histories/interviews/woh-fi-0000618/cara-de-silva-2014 Oral history with Cara De Silva] - Yiddish Book Center interview on September 18, 2014
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Category:Hunter College alumni
Category:City College of New York alumni
Category:American women food writers
Category:American cookbook writers
Category:20th-century American women writers
Category:Yiddish-language writers
Category:20th-century American historians
Category:Jewish American historians
Category:American women historians
Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent
Category:American people of Polish-Jewish descent