Gil Marks

Gil Marks combined the work of a food historian, cookbook author, rabbi, and founding editor of Kosher Gourmet magazine. Olive Trees and Honey explores vegetarian cooking across Jewish communities in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Wiley issued the book as Olive Trees and Honey: A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities Around the World. It combines hundreds of recipes with notes on ingredients, customs, migration, and regional variations, and received a James Beard Foundation Award. Marks studied history and social work at Yeshiva University and received rabbinical ordination there. Among his related works are The World of Jewish Cooking and Encyclopedia of Jewish Food. He approached recipes as historical records, showing how communities adapted local foods while maintaining religious practice and family tradition.