Holiday 2023 / Winter 2024 Issue

Salteñas from Tunkas food truck. Photograph by Dany Krom.

When I was a child, my Uncle Ugo’s house was the most interesting place on our street. A photographer by trade, he was always building something, making his own pasta, sketching out the solar system to explain how we would all be able to get to Mars.

Unlike our house, his was full of books and that’s where I first saw The Family of Man. Leafing through its pages filled with hundreds of photos, I saw a child standing at a chalkboard in Palestine, a flute player in Peru, a sad-looking farm girl around my age in Oklahoma, people standing stiffly on a landscaped hillside in Indonesia, a schoolboy playing marbles in India. There were faces from every corner of the world, of all ages and means. I wanted to know more about the people who looked back at me from the pages.

The book resurfaced in different places throughout my life—in a college bookstore or on a friend’s bookshelf. I eventually learned that The Family of Man was considered a seminal, and sometimes controversial, masterpiece when it was published in 1955 by Edward Steichen to accompany an exhibit of the same name at NY’s Museum of Modern Art. Its title came from the book’s prologue, a poem written by Carl Sandburg. I didn’t really care about the details, though. I just wanted to see the pictures and contemplate those lives. As years passed and I traveled to places like Israel, South Africa, Morocco, China and beyond, as well as around our own state and country, I came to further appreciate the individual beauty of people and to realize that we are all so much more alike than different.

As I write this letter on a late October day in 2023, the family of man is hurting in so many places around the globe. It seems the world has tilted and it’s hard to find the right words to express my feelings as we head into the holiday season.

In reading over the stories in this issue before sending it to press, I notice the word community constantly surfaces throughout our text. Community means so many things: coming together, sharing, helping each other. Living in communion with family and friends; getting to know strangers who become one and the same. These are the acts that make us human and fill our lives with light.

I’ve long believed that food and community go hand in hand. Sharing a meal together lays the groundwork for discovering common ground and unity; it helps us know and understand each other.

To the individuals and businesses featured in these pages, and to all who contribute to our food community, and to you, our readers: I thank you for enriching our lives in the Garden State. I wish you and yours good community this holiday season and peace, health and happiness in the new year.

Sincerely,
Nancy Painter, Editor & Publisher

“There is only one man in the world
 and his name is All Men.
 There is only one woman in the world
 and her name is All Women.
There is only one child in the world
 and the child’s name is All Children.”

—Carl Sandburg

• EDITOR’S NOTE: As of press time, many worthwhile organizations are working to aid the countless people impacted by the crisis in Israel and Gaza. We recommend World Central Kitchen who is working to provide meals there as well as in other regions in need throughout the world. Learn more and donate at wck.org.

HOLIDAY 2023 / WINTER 2024 FEATURES