When the Fenves family was sent to Auschwitz during the Holocaust, their former cook saved something precious: the family cookbook.

• Decades later, those recipes are part of a new cookbook — by award-winning, New Orleans-based chef Alon Shaya and food historian June Hersh — which aims to preserve the dishes and stories of the people affected by World War II.

Why it matters: "Food is our greatest common denominator. Food is the one thing that all of us have history with, that all of us relate to, no matter what your political views are," Shaya said at a recent book launch event.

📝 Zoom out: "Memories of a Good Meal" features recipes saved from that time, such as entries from the Fenves family cookbook, alongside new recipes inspired by wartime stories.

• There are dishes from Navajo code talkers, recipes from Japanese American internment camps in California, and even recreations of meals dreamed up by hungry prisoners of war, Axios New Orleans' Chelsea Brasted reports.
• "Without the story, they're just ingredients," Hersh said. "But when you tell the story, the ingredients come to life."

Zoom in: The idea for the book came when Shaya encountered a scrap of a Nazi flag signed by women imprisoned at the Ravensbrück concentration camp.

• The women had formed a food club, sharing memories of meals from before the war.

🍲 The concept of food as a vehicle for culture and memory stuck with the chef, and he eventually teamed up with Hersh to create the cookbook.

• "Food is a character in all our lives," Hersh said. "It is at our table — it is telling a story. It is bringing us together. It's informing us. It's enriching us. It's giving us provenance of what we do and who we are."

We want to hear about the dishes that tell your family's story. Send the name of the dish, why it matters and the recipe to [email protected] — along with your name and hometown. We'll share some of them through the holiday season.

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A wonderful moment between strangers, shared by reader Gary Guttman of Chicago:

• "On my walk around the lake, a dog trotted up clearly hoping to be petted, so I stopped, gave him a good scratch, and spent a few minutes chatting with his owner. It was a tiny moment, but we all walked away happier."

Tell us about the random acts of kindness you witness out in the world at [email protected] — and we'll keep sharing them!