1 - Hello Alain Cohen, please tell us about you and what took you to the USA and to Los Angeles

Cinema! I have always been a fan of American movies and I wanted to learn how to make them here.  I got accepted in the American Film Institute thanks to 2 documentaries I made for the French television about the Jews of Djerba.  Along the way I got married, had a child and my life took a turn.

 

2 - Why with such a background did you decide to go in the Food business ?

 I was born in the food business.  My father owned a famous kosher restaurant in Paris called Les Ailes next door to the Folies Bergere.  One of my brothers still operates it.  I was 9 year-old when I started bussing tables, then became a waiter, a bartender, a chef and a manager at age 15.  I did it all.  But of course “the grass is always greener on the other side” so I came to the States to make movies and do something else than my father wanted me to do . 25 years later I am doing exactly what my father was doing but at an American scale.

 

3 - Please explain to us your plan and vision for Got Kosher and Neshama sausages

Neshama started when I met my partner, Evelyn, who challenged me to make gourmet kosher sausages.  The first thing that came to my mind was the Merguez which a beef sausage all North African grew up on and now the French have adopted it.  We also made sausages for the American palate with apples and walnuts and cranberries or with cilantro  and tomatillos and even a Smoked Andouille which is interesting because it is a French sausage to start with which was imported to Louisiana at the time Louisiana was French and incorporated into Cajun cuisine  by the Black slave.  Now a French Tunisian Jew made a kosher version of it.    

Later on we opened Got Kosher? a wholesale pre-package sandwiches and salads for Universities, colleges, hospitals, airports, etc.  It quickly became frustrating because although our sandwiches could be considered gourmet compared to the competition (we make some our sandwiches on La Bra Bakery breads and make our own condiments and dressings) I could  not fully offer the range of cuisines I am accustomed to from French to Tunisian, Morroccan, Lebanese, Israeli, but also Italian, Ashkenazi, Japanese, Thai, Chinese, Syrian, American, etc.  So Evelyn and I recently opened a place on Pico to reflect all of this passion for good food that’s kosher with no apologies.

 

4 - What does sephardic food represent for you and for your customers ?

When my family immigrated from Tunisia to France my father opened a restaurant first in Belleville then in the Faubourg Montmartre.  It quickly became a center for all these immigrants from our culture and a way to stay connected and reminiscent of their culture.  That’s where I grew up and learn not only about food and business but also about being Tunisian and Jewish.  When I came to the states by myself there was nothing like it nowhere.  So I always wanted to re-create this community feeling but restaurant was not in plans for a long long time.  The way I did get a taste of it is when I made Passover Seder for 50 people (and cooked myself) inviting all the Jews I could meet during the year that did not have roots anymore.  So I introduced all my friends to Sephardic food and made them converts.  I believe that American Ashkenazi Jews are secretly in love with our food even if they don’t know it.  As soon as they taste it they know what they have been missing all their lives.

 

5 - What is your favorite food and what do you like to cook when you cook ?

It is very true the fact that you love what you have eaten when you were a kid (granted that you had parents that knew how to cook.  SO I am happy when I eat a couscous with Merguez or a Tunisian sandwich or breiks or an entrecote with arissa sauce.  When I eat boutargue it is like eating gold.  I spent the last 25 years trying to import or re-create these foods of my childhood. Now I am happy because I have them around me at any time and they are for share.

Store Location:

Got Kosher? Provisions

8914 West Pico Boulevard,
Los Angeles, CA 90035
Phone:               (310) 858 1920       
Fax: (310) 858 1109
info@gotkosherinc.com

Catering Office:

1410 S. Livonia Avenue,
Los Angeles, CA 90035
Phone:               (310) 858 3123       
Fax: (310) 858 3122

http://www.gotkosherinc.com/