With 22 seasons as a "Top Chef" judge under her belt, Gail Simmons has seen (and tasted) it all. But as the title of her cookbook, Bringing It Home, suggests, the television personality is all about finding ways to make diverse dishes and international flavors accessible to home cooks.

Simmons recently joined the Jewish Food Society for their inaugural food and culture festival in New York City, aptly named The Great Nosh. The summer picnic party brought some of the city's most iconic restaurants and beloved chefs together for 12 exclusive collaborations that blended cuisines. A small sampling: Thai Diner and Katz's Deli teamed up to make a marbled rye roti reuben, English chef Ed Szymanski partnered with Israeli chef Mike Solomonov on chicken "schnitz & chips," and Atoboy and Apollo Bagels dished out sesame bagels topped with wasabi cream cheese, Korean soy-marinated Acme smoked fish, and gochugaru crumble.

Juxtaposing the Instagram-worthy food and drink was the Grandma's Tent, where Simmons and Mexican chef Pati Jinich hosted multi-generational cooking demonstrations. Each featured a pair of cooks from different generations within the same family, sharing the history behind their recipe and passing out samples of the finished dish for attendees to enjoy.

gail simmons with cookbook author bonnie stern and her daughter anna rupertpinterest
Ken Goodman Photography
Gail Simmons with cookbook author Bonnie Stern and Stern’s daughter, Anna Rupert, who demonstrated their challah recipe.

On the programming, Jewish Food Society founder Naama Shefi tells Delish, "Next to the innovation and more modern take on food, it was important for us to highlight tradition. That's the DNA of what the Jewish Food Society does: We're building the largest archive of family recipes and the histories around them."

Delish spoke to Simmons after the event about her own family recipes and how she's making new traditions with her kids at home.

"I still make so many recipes that my mother made and that her mother made, and now I make with my daughter and my son. It's a beautiful way to unite generations. And it's a great way to preserve a sense of community and our culture. The culture changes generation to generation, but food is a way to preserve so many of the traditions," she tells us.

I find that the more we [cook] around [the kids] and the more they see it, the more they want to be involved.

"I think my children really have a sense of who we are and the flavors that we grew up on and now have integrated into their own lives," Simmons says. "And I love that they don't just want to eat the food, but they want to be part of the process. Challah making and matzo ball making, so many of the things that I did with my parents growing up, they now do with me. I find that the more we do it around them and the more they see it, the more they want to be involved. I think that's the way to integrate them gently into understanding the importance of these foods."

Simmons, who was born and raised in Toronto, Canada, now lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and two children. "We've built a lot of traditions with our children, but I would say that a lot of it was passed on to us, and we've evolved. They change over time because our circumstances are a little different. That's part of creating traditions with my kids," she explains.

"When I was growing up, I did Shabbat every Friday night, and that doesn't necessarily happen in New York with me and my family due to schedules and our cadence of life. But we try to preserve it in different ways, light the candles as much as we can, and spend time together to honor Shabbat. It's the little things that we do that tweak the traditions that we knew and make them our own."