On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Jeremy Kneller Hernandez, owner of Kneller’s Delicatessen & Appetizing in Tucson, Arizona.
“[A good deli] is like a barbershop with food; everyone knows each other by name and it's just cozy,” Hernandez says. “When I have people in the deli here, who are literally hanging out all day eating breakfast and lunch and talking to people … it warms my heart.”
Hernandez - whose father is Hispanic and from East LA; his mom is Jewish from Queens - would spend summers with his grandparents in New York, where family gatherings were never missed and his bubbe's cooking was non-stop in the kitchen.
“The aroma of brisket, kugel, rugelach, and schmaltz - so much schmaltz - would fill the air with a sense of warmth and a lot of love,” he says. “My grandpa and I would hit a delicatessen almost every morning before Oyster Bay for a day of fishing or the Shea Stadium for a Mets’ game.”
After working in the world of food since age 15 - and feeling as if the deli was a second home - it was finally time for him to open his own place. He wanted to bring the deli vibe to the desert.
Jeremy Kneller Hernandez shares his love of deli, his dual-cultural upbringing (“ I'm very grateful to have had both experiences,” he says.), and the role of music in his life and in the kitchen. He talks about some of the ways he “spices up” traditional deli food and his take on his great aunt’s knish recipe, which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.
“There's something about the flow of making knish,” he says. “It's a beautiful melody that comes together with just perfect timing; it's fun to make and it's really fun to master.”
Learn more about Jeremy Kneller Hernandez and Kneller’s Delicatessen & Appetizing at knellersdelicatessen.com and follow @knellersdelicatessen on Instagram and Facebook.
For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.
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