An apple-and-honey snacking cake, not lengthy out of the oven, sat on the stovetop in Jake Cohen’s Lengthy Island Metropolis condominium. A couple of toes down the counter was a freshly baked challah blanketed with sesame seeds and flaky salt.
A customer was hungry however tentative. Mr. Cohen was apologetic however agency. The pastry and the bread had been accompanying him to “Good Morning America,” the place he can be discussing his new cookbook, “I May Nosh: Traditional Jew-ish Recipes Revamped for Each Day,” the follow-up to his 2021 New York Instances finest vendor, “Jew-ish: Reinvented Recipes From a Trendy Mensch.”
“However I all the time have baked items round,” stated Mr. Cohen, 29, opening the freezer to disclose the cookies and banana bread stowed for the advantage of visitors, each anticipated and never. “Individuals come by all the time.”
This explains why he and his husband, Alex Shapiro, a monetary advisor, maintain the eating desk set for six. “It’s like Fortunate Woman Syndrome,” Mr. Cohen stated. “You’re opening as much as the universe that one thing can occur.”
His mom and sister, who dwell within the neighborhood, are given to popping by on the spur of the second. His shut buddy, the comic Alex Edelman, “will name and be like, ‘Ahhhhh,’” as a preface to his unplanned imminent arrival, stated Mr. Cohen, who you watched believes there isn’t any state of affairs so dire that it will probably’t be set proper with a latke tartine or two.
Jake Cohen, 29
Occupation: Cookbook creator
Site visitors alert: “If I’m going someplace, I can simply look out our window and resolve if I need to take the bridge, the tunnel, my bike or the subway.”
Mr. Cohen grew up in Bayside, Queens, and on Lengthy Island. After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, he moved into the Murray Hill studio condominium that his mom, Elizabette, had purchased as an funding. He was finally joined there by Mr. Shapiro, whom he met on Hinge in 2015. They married in 2018, the identical 12 months Mr. Cohen grew to become the editorial director and take a look at kitchen director on the meals media firm Feedfeed, the place he labored till 2020. (In early 2022, Mr. Cohen was named in a lawsuit alleging racism and sexism at Feedfeed. The case was dismissed final November. “The events amicably resolved their dispute,” he stated.)
After shopping for the condominium from Ms. Cohen, the couple renovated and, in the end, outgrew the 400-square-foot area, promoting it in 2019. The plan was to purchase in Brooklyn Heights.
Proper across the identical time, Ms. Cohen, who’s divorced, bought the household house on Lengthy Island. She was excited about returning to Forest Hills, the place she had grown up and the place her daughter, Jamie, lived. However Mr. Cohen had one other location in thoughts for Mother — one that might be useful to her work as a contract veterinarian and was additionally the halfway level between her kids’s properties.
“I used to be like, ‘It’s best to transfer to Lengthy Island Metropolis. It’s this up-and-coming place. Look into it,’” he stated.
Ms. Cohen instantly took to the neighborhood, shopping for a condominium in a constructing not but below development and fortunately ready it out in a close-by luxurious high-rise rental, the place she was one of many first tenants. Her enthusiasm for this short-term perch was contagious: Her daughter quickly determined to hire in the identical constructing.
And there have been Mr. Cohen and Mr. Shapiro, all set to make a suggestion on an condominium in Brooklyn. “Then we had this second of, ‘What the hell are we doing?’” Mr. Cohen recalled.
They pulled again, as an alternative renting a one-bedroom condominium on the twenty second flooring of the constructing that was house to Mr. Cohen’s mom (forty fourth flooring) and his sister (twelfth flooring). “It was identical to essentially the most unimaginable pandemic expertise,” Mr. Cohen stated. “We seek advice from it because the city kibbutz.”
Final 12 months, his mom and sister moved into completely different buildings; they’re now each a block away from him. Mr. Cohen and Mr. Shapiro moved final 12 months, as properly — to a two-bedroom condominium down the corridor from their one-bedroom condominium.
“It was throughout one of many Covid waves, so our movers canceled on us,” Mr. Cohen stated. “I actually grabbed a dolly from the doorman and moved most of our furnishings myself. And it was like essentially the most masculine factor I’ve ever achieved in my life.”
And clearly properly definitely worth the exertion. The west-facing floor-to-ceiling home windows provide a greater view than the couple had of their previous condominium — even when the sunshine is so considerable it started turning their silver alpaca accent pillows inexperienced.
“Within the morning, we get up and have a look at the skyline, and we’re like, ‘Wow, New York is beautiful,’” Mr. Cohen stated. “At evening, we’ll flip off the lights and sit on the sofa and at have a look at Manhattan simply observing us.”
And this condominium has a pantry, an incredible comfort for Mr. Cohen, who now has a devoted spot for his varied flours and spices.
The condominium is tidy and recent: chrome steel home equipment, mild oak flooring, glossy off-white bouclé sectional. It’s the completely fashionable backdrop for objects whose worth lies of their age and provenance.
A marble-topped rack holds the fish-shaped silver-and-wood lox platter that was handed right down to Mr. Cohen from his maternal grandmother, in addition to his great-grandmother’s recipe field. Atop the bureau within the main bed room, subsequent to the braided challah menorah and Mr. Cohen’s assortment of glass and ceramic pomegranates from Israel, is the kiddush cup from his great-grandparents’ marriage ceremony.
Mr. Shapiro gave Mr. Cohen a pair of crystal candlesticks for his twenty fifth birthday. They sit within the heart of the eating desk. “None of my household’s candlesticks survived the Holocaust,” Mr. Cohen stated. “However now we’ll have one thing to cross down.”
And shortly his maternal grandmother might be transferring from the Caribbean to Florida, “the place she belongs,” Mr. Cohen stated. “And she or he’s like, ‘Oh, I’ve these mother-of-pearl fruit knives that you just’re going to need to take.’”
He’ll put them to instant use. Hospitality is his foods and drinks. Mr. Edelman, the comic Judy Gold, the actor Shoshana Bean and the composer Benj Pasek are sometimes across the desk at Sabbath dinner. There are common recreation nights and at-home dinners with different {couples}.
When it comes time for an condominium improve, Mr. Cohen would love one other 500 sq. toes — not for a much bigger kitchen, not for extra bedrooms (“Extra bedrooms imply extra visitors, and we don’t need extra visitors”), however to throw greater events.
He loves his condominium, sure, however “I’d transfer in a second, and whenever you hire you’re not tied down,” he stated.
“You’ve acquired to be able to go. You’ve acquired to have your go-bag packed,” Mr. Cohen continued. “Your dream condominium may go in the marketplace tomorrow.”
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