The ECHO, May 2023

echhsechoonline.com
“Jewish Matchmaking” review
By Helen Katz
Co-Editor-in-Chief
The first season of the
new Netflix show “Jewish
Matchmaking” was officially
released May 4 with eight
episodes. As I know from
absorbing classic media like
“Fiddler on the Roof” while
growing up, matchmaking has
formed a central part of Judaism
for centuries. So, what were my
immediate reactions to Netflix’s
modern twist on this ancient
custom?
Oyyy vey. Similar to the older
series “Indian Matchmaking,”
matchmaker Aleeza Ben
Shalom traverses the globe in
an ardent and wildly humorous
search to help young Jews
find their spouses, traveling
from L.A. to Israel. And like its
cultural counterpart resonating
with Indian audiences, the show
does feel familiar to Jewish
viewers, representing our values
and culture in a fairly authentic
as well as diverse light.
However, I found that the
show missed the same cultural
zest and spark that has made
“Indian Matchmaking” so
enjoyable to watch—and
this deficit is not because
Jewish culture is in any way
less interesting than Indian
culture. Whereas matchmaker
Sima Aunty’s magnetic and at
times controversial personality
demands center stage in “Indian
Matchmaking,” the unfortunate
fact is that her counterpart in the
new show, Ben Shalom, simply
is not that charismatic—and I’m
not just saying this under the
belief that Netflix should have
hired me.
Yet as someone who is
constantly trying to set up
her two older sisters in an
attempt to find their future
Jewish husbands, I couldn’t
help but criticize the objective
incompatibility of many of Ben
Shalom’s pairings. Yes, Sima
Aunty has the same trouble of
dealing with an overrepresented
cast of attractive and educated
ARTS & CULTURE 11
females, but the two reflect
a key difference. While Ben
Shalom will happily seek to
oblige her clientele, Sima Aunty
takes the unconventional and
questionable perspective on
finding a life partner, repeating
to her crushed and concerned
clients that “100 percent you
will not get, 60 percent you
will get.”
Now, even with all this
kvetching, I will be the first
to admit that “Jewish Matchmaking”
is still worth your
binge time. Look no further than
its creative episode titles such as
“How big is his mezuzah?,” or
the undeniable fact of 52-yearold
Stuart Chaseman’s W rizz,
to the extent that the Jewish
single from Chicago has been
compared to Pete Davidson.
Overall, the show proves that
certain aspects of love, rejection
and identity are universal to all
parts of the world—and time
will only tell which culture’s
way of matchmaking will next
be featured on Netflix.
Silver-Tongued crew persists
By Keira McArthur
Staff Writer
From leading various
school concerts and plays,
students at East have always
demonstrated artistry,
including the young artists and
writers at East working for the
Silver-Tongued Lit Magazine.
Run by a group of students,
this magazine provides an
opportunity for students to
display their works and be
proud of their creativity. The
club meets every two weeks
on Wednesdays to contribute
to the magazine they release
at the end of the year.
Throughout the school year,
students are able to submit
their works to the magazine
with the ability of having
their works peer-reviewed and
then published in the annual
magazine. Students are able to
submit photographs, arts, short
stories and poetry.
Despite their struggles
during the pandemic, the club
has prevailed.
“Just being able to publish a
magazine at the end of the year
is our biggest achievement. We
are proud to have been able to
keep the club going, especially
through COVID,” said club
president Andrea Basuroski.
Each year the club has a new
theme for the magazine. This
year the theme is Rebirth and
Renaissance. In addition, the
magazine also offers contests
that enable writers and artists
to showcase their talents and
expressiveness in relation to a
specific prompt.
“We hold contests every
year; we held a spring contest
this year and the theme was
reimagining a fairy tale and it
was really popular,” Basuroski
said.
Being in an environment
where the members are able to
artistically relate to each other
is what makes the magazine
so genuine and inviting,
according to club members.
“When we get together we
just try to explore our creative
outlets,” said junior Yasmine
Kwong. “I just joined this year
but it’s been fun because I’m
getting to know people that
also enjoy writing.”
The club members hope that
more students will join and
submit work to the club.
“Our club’s biggest
achievement is spreading
the work of the writing
community around people
at East because nobody ever
really pays attention to the
creative writing community,”
said junior Abigail Arbuckle.
“[As a member of the club],
it helps me see my own value
as a writer and what I could
contribute.”
Not only do the club
members enjoy the excitement
of submitting to their magazine,
but they also enjoy each other’s
company. “Everybody gets
along really well and really
encourages each other. It’s
very collaborative,” Arbuckle
said.
Junk Food
For Thought
The review column about whatever it’s about
Limoniamo Floriano, drooling
Courtesy of the Everywhereist
Chef Floriano
dares to ask
“What if food?”
By Hammond
Cole Sherouse
Co-Editor-in-Chief
The other day, I found myself
rewatching “Elvis” (2022). Not
because I’m a massive Elvis fan
or anything, nor even because
I liked the movie, but because
I needed to experience Tom
Hanks’s egregious performance
as Colonel Tom Parker one more
time.
Had Hanks not been cast in
this film, I doubt I ever would
have given it a second thought
after leaving the theater. But he
was, and he delivered one of the
most disturbing, traumatizing
and captivating performances
since Matthew Morrison played
the Grinch in 2020.
To the screenplay’s every
line, Hanks bestows a tragically
unconvincing accent and a
stomach-churning misintonation
that leaves the viewer deeply
unsettled. He intrudes into
scenes, poking his head between
curtains or peering over railings,
a malevolent interloper on a
mediocre movie.
When the movie shows Elvis’s
final, heartbreaking performance,
the scene’s emotional resonance
is abruptly undercut by a
crossfade to Tom Hanks, in
ghastly old-age makeup on top
of his shoddy fat suit, still utterly
failing to act in his character’s
dying moments.
No offense to the man, but
Hanks single-handedly ruined
this movie. Yet, with the sheer
evil potency of performance,
he also saved it from being
forgettable. Because of him, I
rewatched “Elvis.” And as I did,
I thought about a man on a horse.
Let me explain.
Ristorante Bros’ is a (somehow)
Michelin-starred restaurant
in Lecce, Italy that went viral in
late 2021 after award-winning
author Geraldine DeRuiter
posted a negative review of it
on her blog, the Everywhereist.
Well, “negative review”
might be an understatement.
In it, DeRuiter compares her
27-course meal at Bros’ to
“a statue of a bear, chiseled
into marble centuries ago, by
someone who had never actually
seen a bear” and a piece of dinner
theater in which “dinner was not
involved.”
Her experience of the
restaurant was marked by
miniscule proportions, offputting
flavor palates, callous
disregard for allergies and
“rancido” ricotta. The pièce de
résistance, presumably a twisted
play on the phrase “chef’s kiss,”
was “Limoniamo Floriano,” a
plaster cast of the chef’s mouth,
filled with vaguely salivary citrus
foam which the diners were
instructed to lick out.
The visceral horror of the
situation is palpable beneath
DeRuiter’s witty writing.
Reading “We Eat at The Worst
Michelin Starred Restaurant,
Ever,” one can’t help but imagine
how it would feel to place their
lips on Chef Floriano Pellegrino’s
and slurp the citric slobber from
his mouth…
I think it’s that horrific element
which made the review so
popular. And it’s that popularity
which caught the attention of
Chef Floriano himself.
In response to DeRuiter, whom
he refers to as “Mrs. XXX” on
account of having forgotten her
name, Chef Floriano wrote a
three-page “Declaration,” which
begins with a simple drawing of
a man on a horse.
On each page of the
manifesto, he includes a new
representation of this same
subject: first the simple line
drawing, then Jacques-Louis
David’s “Napoleon Crossing the
Alps” and finally, a somewhat
menacing abstract called
“Trophies and Sycophants” by
Misheck Masamvu.
He states that creating a
basic sketch of a man on a
horse is “not that hard, but most
people will admire you” for it.
Likewise, painting a masterful
portrait of a man on a horse, like
“Napoleon Crossing the Alps,”
may be “impressive,” but it’s also
“shallow,” apparently.
“What is art?” he writes.
“What if food?”
At Bros’, Chef Floriano seeks
to answer these questions with
his own vision of an “avantgarde”
culinary experience, akin
to the third, abstract painting
based on the essence of a horse.
The Limoniamist sees the
purpose of food, and of art in
general, as pushing boundaries
and introducing new sensations,
regardless of if they’re beautiful
or even remotely pleasant.
It’s this same “third-manon-a-horse”
principle that
underlies my fascination with
Tom Hanks’s performance in
“Elvis.” Every time the “Forrest
Gump” star talks about “snow
jobs” and “Santy Claus” in his
garbled, ostensibly Dutch accent,
I feel like DeRuiter must have
when she smooched the chefly
ramekin.
It was undoubtedly a terrible
movie, just like DeRuiter’s was
undoubtedly a terrible meal.
But you can’t deny that both
were unforgettable, just like
Matthew Morrison’s Grinch, or
Tom Hooper’s “Cats” movie.
The third-man-on-a-horse
approach may not make for
good art, per se, but in the end,
it produces the stories that stick
with you.
★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆