How to Make Matzo Ball Gumbo with Author Michael Twitty

With a rainbow knit kippah on the top of his head, Michael Twitty moves purposefully and purposefully through the LA Times test kitchen. He's here to make one of his classic Passover dishes, Matzoh Ball Gumbo, which combines two recipes from his food memoir “Koshersoul.”

The crimson stew adds vibrant, scallion-studded matzoh balls to a hearty okra gumbo, combining two main dishes from Jewish and Black Southern cuisine. Chicken broth and diced tomatoes give the finished gumbo its umami, with a Creole spice blend that gives it a gentle, buzzing heat.

Twitty, who is from the Washington, D.C. area, says he has always wanted to winter in Los Angeles. He has lived at the intersection of Beverly Hills, Pico-Robertson and West Hollywood since November and plans to stay until June after a short trip back to the East Coast in March.

After hosting a conversation at chef Martin Draluck's Black Pot Supper Club series in February, Twitty will be hitting the kitchen at Post & Beam restaurant on Wednesday, May 15, with his Koshersoul dinner pop-up of Baldwin Hills – back-to-back dinners using recipes from the book. The first service will draw on Twitty's Jewish background, with West African brisket and peach rice balls and matzoh ball gumbo. The second is a cookout with the same brisket, plus grilled chicken and lamb (all meat will be kosher), baked beans, and green salmon wraps.

“Koshersoul,” the sequel to his James Beard Award-winning “The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History,” details Twitty's journey as a black, gay and Jewish man and draws meaningful connections between Afro-Atlantic and global Jewish culinary practices, including contributions from Jews of color. It was named the 2023 Book of the Year at the National Jewish Book Awards, becoming the first Black author to win this honor. Twitty is currently working on a cookbook featuring essential recipes from the American South and plans to write another food memoir and story that will serve as a queer journey through the culinary world.

He credits food historian Marcie Cohen Ferris with the inspiring matzoh ball gumbo recipe. Published in 2010, Ferris's book “Matzoh Ball Gumbo” examines the historical eating habits of Jews in the South, particularly the influence of black Southerners and black women.

“When I make this dish, I think about how can we connect to this past and history and tell about the people who were often nameless?” says Tweety. He says that for European Jews assimilating in the Deep South in the early and mid-20th century, food, often prepared by black domestic workers, was a means of belonging.

Rather than creating a blend or “fusion” of different culinary styles, Twitty sees his matzoh ball gumbo as an act of preservation. It is a continuation of the food stories of the South and highlights the traditions that extend across the African and Jewish diaspora.

“You can compare it to soup and dumplings from Jamaica or Omo Tuo from Ghana,” he says. “In West and Central Africa, the main meal is often a soup, gravy or stew with starch – gravy and fufu, gravy and banku, gravy and millet or rice balls. There are so many parallels.”

He continues: “Jewish tradition is extremely fluid and flexible. “We eat foods that have their roots in very old ideas but bear little resemblance to their original concept.”

Twitty begins methodically chopping up the herbs and vegetables for his gumbo and matzo balls: parsley, scallions, garlic, and the “holy trinity” of onions, celery, and peppers.

Next he prepares the dough for the matzo balls. Cooking with Twitty reminds me of sharing kitchen space with my late great-grandmother Madea, who was born and raised in Mississippi. Like her, he measures in pinches, makes last-minute adjustments (like substituting salt for baking powder in matzoh ball dough), and gives deep, satisfied grunts when his taste tests produce the desired results.

Once the matzoh ball dough is ready, Twitty seals the bowl with plastic wrap and places it in the refrigerator to rest.

As he cuts the okra into paper-thin slices, our conversation turns from the Yiddish words for matzo ball and Pesach (Kneidlach or Pesach) to his experiences traveling to Italy and various countries in West Africa.

Passover is still weeks away, but the atmosphere is similar to that of a Seder Twitty host. The conversation is full of laughter, and topics normally avoided at the dinner table – namely religion and politics – are met with curiosity and understanding. Such discussions, Twitty says, are an essential part of the Passover spirit. He describes a long history of Seders that supported early labor movements, women's rights and the liberation of blacks and Jews.

“That is exactly what Passover is supposed to do, to open the gates of liberation and freedom to the rest of humanity,” he says. “It can be both a moment in the origins of the Jewish people and a story of human liberation for all of humanity. “That’s how it was always meant to be.”

Twitty pauses to give the roux his full attention. He stirs slowly and peers into the deep-bottomed pot to gauge what will happen next. The potato starch he uses instead of flour takes longer to brown, about 15 minutes. Twitty dips a spoonful into it to suit his taste; Its throaty purr tells us it's ready for more broth.

After adding the cooked vegetables, tomatoes, okra, thyme, and Creole seasoning, we let the mixture simmer and turn our attention back to the matzo balls. We fill a large pot with salted water and wait until it comes to a rolling boil. Twitty shapes the dough into walnut-sized balls.

One by one, the matzoh balls are added to the pot of boiling water. In a departure from the recipe in his book, Twitty pulls them out earlier and adds them to the gumbo, where he simmers them under a lid for another 15 minutes.

Finally, we pour the gumbo into bowls, at least two or three matzoh balls per serving. The okra retains a pleasant crunch and the matzo balls are hearty, a convincing substitute for rice or even chicken. Someone notices the rare silence that reigns in the kitchen – this gumbo is good.

There are several of us in the kitchen and Twitty's gumbo speaks to different parts of our heritage. For me, the okra and tomato broth is reminiscent of my maternal Mississippi roots, while the matzoh balls remind someone else of childhood experiences when they make them with their bubbe.

“We have to remember that we co-created the culture of the South with indigenous peoples, with white people, with immigrants from all over the world,” Twitty says. “And all of these stories need to be told to create a true, complete and honest account of how we got here and the mistakes we shouldn’t make in the future.”

Find Michael Twitty at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on Sunday, April 21, at Booth 410, where he will have signed copies of “Koshersoul” available for purchase, 2-3 p.m. Tickets are on sale for Twitty’s “Koshersoul” dinner pop-up on Wednesday, May 15 at Post & Beam and can be purchased through Eventbrite.

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