2026-05-20T10:07:46Z https://diaspora.jewish-history-online.net/oai

oai:gjd:source-11.en 2025-10-22T00:00:00Z

en Risa Pisko explains why she is a good cook (1974) https://diaspora.jewish-history-online.net/source/gjd:source-11 Risa Pisko Moses Mendelssohn Center for European-Jewish Studies Online Ressource Born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1902 into a Jewish family, Risa Pisko was forced to leave Vienna in summer 1938 with her husband Ernst (later Ernest) Pisko and their daughter Susanne. They ultimately immigrated to the United States in 1940. Starting in 1966, Pisko began to publish recipes that reflected her Austro-Hungarian heritage in The Christian Science Monitor. While associated with the Boston-based Christian Science faith, this secular publication was a daily newspaper for most of the twentieth century; now primarily an online publication, the purpose of the Monitor remains the same: to provide readers in the United States and around the world with information about a broad range of global issues. Pisko’s connection to this newspaper was through her husband, who was a staff writer at the Monitor from 1940 until 1965. She published around 150 recipes by 1981, primarily for fellow middle-class women who were interested in expanding their culinary repertoire. In July 1974, Pisko wrote the following letter to Phyllis Hanes (1921–2014), the Monitor’s travel and food editor, and shared the story behind her recipe collection. Her letter demonstrates how publishing recipes provided Pisko with an outlet to share her cultural and family heritage as well as pass along the tradition of domestic culinary hospitality. A transcript of this letter is in the possession of Pisko’s grandson, Eric Corty. 2025-10-22