You’re unlikely to find kimbap or banchan on most Passover tables, but chef Sunny Lee’s Seder had both. Last Thursday, Lee, who opened her tiny but buzzy Chinatown restaurant, Sunn’s, late last year, hosted a Passover celebration with the Jewish Food Society and accessories brand Susan Alexandra. Elbow Bread baker Zoë Kanan made foot-long matzo boards for the dinner, and cookbook author Alison Roman’s matzo-ball recipe served as the foundation for Lee’s avgolemono-inspired matzo-ball soup. Guests also included Naomi Fry, Marisa Meltzer, Andy Baraghani, Liana Satenstein, and Sierra Tishgart.
“Sunn’s was the first place I thought to host our Passover this year,” says Susan Korn, founder of Susan Alexandra, who has co-hosted a Seder with the Jewish Food Society for the past three years. “Sunny’s food is so special and sparkly and flavorful and vibrant … and it turns out that she’s Jewish.”
This was Lee’s eighth time cooking the Passover meal. She used to work as a private chef for a Jewish family, but it wasn’t until she married a Jewish man—the artist Michael Siporin Levine—that she started bringing Korean influences to the table. “I love a meal that has rules,” Lee says, noting the rituals surrounding a traditional Seder, such as eating a Hillel sandwich made of matzo, horseradish, and charoset, a mixture of chopped apples and spices, to represent the bitterness of slavery combined with the sweetness of freedom. “With those parameters, it’s really fun to deviate from the script.”
Lee’s menu combined Jewish traditions with Korean flavors. The kimbap was made of smoked whitefish and bitter herbs. One of the six banchans featured lemon-braised fennel from the Jewish Food Society’s cookbook, The Jewish Holiday Table. Brisket braised in a porcini-pine-nut broth came with sides of steamed rice.
“Recipes aren’t just about food. They’re about where you’ve been, who you’ve loved, and what you want to pass on,” said Naama Shefi, founder of the Jewish Food Society. “That’s why we were so excited to share Sunny’s story, where Korean and Jewish flavors come together.”
“Tonight had everything I love in a Seder,” said cookbook author Jake Cohen—complete with Rabbi Samantha Frank’s impressive rapid-fire recounting of the holiday’s highlights.
“I heard recently that Judaism is a great product with bad marketing,” Sascha Seinfeld, a 24-year-old screenwriter and the daughter of Jerry Seinfeld, said after leading the Four Questions, typically sung by the youngest person at the Seder.
“The Jews need a rebrand, and who better to do it than Sunny Lee and Susan Korn?”
Nina Friend is a New York–based writer and editor who covers food, drink, and lifestyle