An Illustrated Love Letter to My Bubbie’s Sunbeam Food Processor

The appliance looks like it should be in a museum, but the Hanukkah latkes we’ve made with it every year are always perfect.

By 
Design by Evelyn Frick; Illustration by Hannah Provisor

Images of a sunbeam food processor, potatos on a cutting board and salt and pepper shakers. Text reads, "Some say 'real' traditional latkes should be made and shredded by hand. But for me, there is nothing more traditional or that makes me feel closer to my people than making latkes in my Bubbie's Sunbeam food processor. This thing comes out once a year, just for latke-making. It's the food processor my bubbie taught me to make latkes with. I can't remember the first time we made latkes together, but I do remember the last. I imagine that over the years I went from watching her slide the potatos down towards the spinning blad, to guiding mine, to me making them for her as she watched in old age, to now: making them for my friends and family in her honor."

Images of a frame painting a food processor, a hand holding an electrical plug, a cracked egg and a tile wall with an eletctrical outlet. The text reads, "This thing has to be from the 70s. It is never fully clean. It holds the scented memories of hundreds of onions and potatos. It looks like it should be in a museum. But since I was little, we've plugged it in and the latkes we've made with it are always perfect. I feel my Bubbie's hands on mine when I wrestle to get the top in just the right spot - it's gotten sensitive with age, as I suppose we all have. But if I just give it a minute, try this way and that way, throw in a couple of 'oy veys' - it has never failed me."

A photo of Bubbie, surrounded by drawings of sour cream, apple sauce and latkes on a tray. The text reads, "If this food processor dies, it will feel like she has died again too. But for now, I bring it out, and her memory out with it. And every year I make latkes with no measurements, just heart, and years f practice, and her watching over me. I miss her so deeply.

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Hannah Provisor

Hannah Michelle Provisor (she/they) is an artist, writer, educator and fervent defender of the controversial woodwind known as the recorder. Find more of her art and life on Instagram @hannahmichelledraws, or @lesbianapprovedestablishments, where she and her girlfriend measure tables at local restaurants in an attempt to find the best spots for sapphic couples who wish to maintain physical contact at all times.

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