A former Gaza hostage’s famous pancakes are coming to New York City Friday at a one-day popup at the downtown Israeli restaurant 12 Chairs.
Keith Siegel’s pancake recipe became a sensation while he was held captive from Oct. 7, 2023, until Feb. 1. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum advocacy group published the recipe in a cookbook last year, and his daughter Shir turned it into an Instagram sensation.
Shir posted every Saturday morning about how much she missed her dad’s pancakes, which he made for the family on Shabbat. Soon, Israelis were tagging her in their own pancake photos as a show of solidarity.
For most of the 484 days he was held hostage, Siegel, 66, was the oldest living American-Israeli hostage in Gaza; he and his wife, Aviva, were kidnapped by Hamas from their home on Kibbutz Kfar Aza on Oct. 7. Aviva was released in a temporary ceasefire in November that year.
When Keith Siegel was freed — saying that he had dreamed of eating his family’s pancakes multiple times a day while he was held captive— Shir encouraged her followers to make pancakes to celebrate his return. The post went viral, and his recipe appeared in media across the country.
In late March, a two-day kosher pancake popup featuring Siegel’s recipe took place at Tel Aviv’s Sarona Market, where the pancakes were made by some of Israel’s best chefs. With a pay-what-you-wish menu, proceeds from the popup went to a rehabilitation fund for the Siegel family.
Now, with the Siegel family heading to New York City to press for the release of the remaining hostages, they’re bringing their pancakes with them.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum reached out to 12 Chairs about hosting a pop-up, the restaurant was immediately on board, according to Kate Amrani, 12 Chairs’ marketing coordinator.
“We’re building a community,” she said. “So people will feel we’re all here together to support and to be with each other and to have fun and try the pancakes that everyone knows about.”
The pancake popup will be a pay-what-your wish, grab-and-go experience at 12 Chairs Next Door in Soho, which is adjacent to their restaurant at 56 MacDougal St. Three varieties of pancakes will be on offer: Siegel’s classic maple syrup and butter pancakes, and two other flavors yet to be determined.
The event will run Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., with proceeds going to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
The event precedes both the Israel Day parade on Sunday and Keith and Aviva Siegel’s appearance at Temple Emanu-El on Monday night at an event designed to galvanize support for freeing the remaining hostages taken on Oct. 7. Until Monday, when the final living U.S. citizen in Gaza was released in a deal between the United States and Hamas, there were 58 hostages, of whom up to 23 are thought to be alive.
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