Rifke An Improbable Life
The amazing life and story of Rosalie Wise Sharp
When little Rosalie Wise was growing up in blue collar, predominantly Christian North Toronto, the precocious little girl had no idea her life would be so different to the “shtetl” (small town) Eastern European life in which she grew up. Today, Rosalie Wise Sharp, author of Rifke, An Improbable Life (April 2007, ECW Press), lives the life she and Four Seasons Hotel chain owner Isadore Sharp have worked hard to build for themselves. Long gone are the days of eating her less-than-beloved childhood fare: hun fus or chicken foot and green pea soup Rosalie describes as "the hand of Dracula, with long unmanicured nails lying palm up in a bowl of dense green pea soup," or the watered down opgebrente zup (burnt soup) made of frying flour into schmaltz (rendered chicken fat), fried onions and lots of water. Even as a child, Rosalie tried to avoid these cost-effective dishes, preferring Shredded Wheat for breakfast, Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup (from a can of course!) and just about anything that lacked a “face.” Canadian food was far more exotic and the preferred flavour to the little girl’s tastebuds.
Rosalie’s mother Ydessa was a proficient shtetl cook, never deviating from her mother’s recipes from their shtetl in Ozarow, Poland. While Rosalie never enjoyed gefilte fish, “each piece… encircled with the skin of the fish and a carrot slice placed precisely in its centre,” which she deduced later on in life had caused her to deal with a nasty tapeworm, she did enjoy (and still does) her mother’s veal patties. Rosalie’s version however, has the added herbal touch of rosemary.
In proper form, Rosalie says, “Everyone who entered our house was fed, and I still follow the same procedure, whether it’s the plumber or a visiting sheik. I am reminded of Dr. Samuel Johnson, who once declined an invitation to a house where on an earlier visit, no food had been offered. He said, ‘I don’t go to a place where I come out the same as I went in.”
Shtetl dishes and hospitality aside, Rifke is the warm, engaging and often funny account of a life that began in very humble quarters and is now joyously abundant in wealth and prosperity. It’s also about life with a Jewish family trying to work out living in Canada, and a little girl’s place in it all.
In my next instalment, I offer you three very traditional Eastern European Jewish shtetl dishes compliments of Rosalie Wise Sharp and Four Seasons Hotel Executive Chef Robert Bartley. Oh, and no, the hun fus recipe isn’t included, but Miltz is!
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