Shira Barisaac

As a food enthusiast ever since she could remember, Shira saw food as the ultimate way to connect with her grandparents and family history. For Shira, food is a vital part of understanding cultural identity, in particular her own family’s blend of Sephardic, Jerusalem, Balkan, and Ashkenazic roots holding on recipes as what remains from the people and stories. For her, food performs as a living, ever-evolving DNA that runs through all of us, shaping and growing with every encounter.

Since high school she studied art, and for her bachelor’s continued to explore culture through fields of performance, philosophy, art, history, literature, and rhetoric – all while managing a famous Italian restaurant in Tel Aviv. The deep fascinating connection between food and art, and how they both rely on and reflect culture is what brought her to do a Master in the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo. Focusing on food as a system and its different practices and flavors around the world deepened her passion to further explore food relations with culture, while embracing the perspective of the Slow Food movement.

During her stay at Cerretino she followed the story of Sfratto, a famous local dessert derives from the Jewish local traditions and history. Today, the Sfratto is an important part of Pitigliano's heritage and identity. Through interviews with locals about this long, honey-filled pastry, she revealed how the dessert, its story, and its various preparations embody the community's complexities and strengths.