JOY OF COOKING

For Daniel Asher, Hanukkah is synonymous with his mother’s cooking. “My mom is amazing in the kitchen,” says Asher, the chef at year-old Middle Eastern–inspired restaurant Ash’Kara in LoHi. “And Hanukkah was always a time when she would embrace her love of feeding us with reckless abandon.” But reminiscing about childhood holidays is bittersweet for Asher these days: His brilliant, hard-working father, Maximo, died in August. “The only times when my father would pause and be present were when we were at the table,” Asher says. “Hanukkah has always symbolized a time when we were together and connected.”

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Serves 6 to 8 • Recipes begin on page 148

Root Vegetable Latkes

Moroccan Noodle Kugel

Roasted Carrots with Saffron Yogurt

Brisket-Style Braised Lamb

Challah

Fruit Salad with Tahini & Orange Blossom Water Sufganiyot

Miracle Punch

So, despite the increased levels of activity that restaurants (and their chefs) experience at this time of year, Asher makes sure to commune with his family—his wife, Steph; their children, Fletcher, Judah (pictured at left), Morgan, and Tulsi—and friends around the table during the Jewish Festival of Lights (December 22 to 30). Here, he shares a menu of lamb, latkes, carrots, jam-filled doughnuts, and more, based on the meals that his mother, Sheila, prepared when he was growing up—enhanced with the contemporary Middle Eastern flavors Asher is known for. “Food is my mother’s love language,” Asher says, “and it became mine, too.”

HOLIDAY TRADITIONS

“My mom would begin cooking for Hanukkah a week ahead of time,” Asher says, “and I’d help her. It was