LOWER EAST SIDE — For nearly 50 years, Ruth Taube has shared the clothes-making techniques she learned from her mother as the program director of Henry Street Settlement’s Home Planning Workshop.
Next week however, she’s sharing something else her mother taught her: how to make matzo balls, chicken soup and farfel.
Taube will appear on the season four premiere of “My Grandmother’s Ravioli,” which will air on the Cooking Channel on July 29 at 8 p.m. The show features grandparents from across the country as they share their family recipes and the stories behind them.
“My grandkids love my matzo balls,” Taube said. “My great-grandkids, my ex-son-in-law used to call me the matzo ball queen.”
Taube, who has lived in the Lower East Side her entire life, has been recognized for her work at Henry Street Settlement, where she teaches sewing, knitting and crocheting twice a week.
Last year, she won a “LES Community Hero Award” as part of LES History Month. The nonagenarian was also named NY1’s “NYer of the Week” in January.
Taube said filming “My Grandmother’s Ravioli earlier this year was “very exciting.” Cameramen captured her guiding host Mo Rocca through the recipes in her kitchen, she said, and followed her as she went to work and purchased ingredients from local shops like the Pickle Guys and the soon-to-close Streit’s Matzo Factory.
A film crew also rode the subway with her to Grand Central Station, where she took a train to Westchester for a family dinner with her daughter and grandchildren, she said.
Taube said she plans to return to her granddaughter’s house to watch the show next week.
“She’s inviting all her friends. There will be a barbecue,” she said. “She’s making it a party because the whole family is in this thing.”
