From Hell to Challah Transforms Yeast and Flour into Magic

Jul 27, 2021 by Two Sues On the Aisle

By David Dobkin and Sue Weston

COVID-19 started a shockwave that forced the world to hibernate, shutting down industries, making us more aware of mental health issues, and the need for socialization. The travel industry was heavily impacted due to restrictions. Cancellations increased as clients demanded refunds, causing Sheri Wallack, owner of Buy the Sea a cruise and all-inclusive resort business, life to spin out of control.  This was the beginning of a series of unfortunate events, which set the stage for an amazing adventure. Wallack experienced every middle-aged woman’s fantasy, running away from home. Armed with a journal, phone, and a weekend carry-on bag, she embarks on a short get-away, which explodes into a three-month journey across America, dropping in on friends, family, and business contacts, charming them with the magic of freshly baked challah.

From Hell to Challah rising from fragile to fearless, one grain at a time is more than a memoir, it is an encyclopedia of wisdom, a women’s guide to self-discovery, acceptance, and joy.  Wallack’s adventure is packed with subtle lessons and metaphors, recovery comes one grain at a time, not with an overnight miracle.

Her story is real, raw, and inspiring, with a bitter-sweet center and a powerful, positive ending. She shares her struggles with mental illness, which often left her in a deeply depressive state. Through cooking, she was able to adapt, sharing her journey, and challah recipes, ending up stronger and giving us hope.  

Hidden Anxiety

Wallack’s gregarious personality allowed her to hide her struggle with mental health from the outside world. Disguised, her anxiety had been destroying her from within until COVID devastated the travel industry and she fell apart. The catastrophe pushed her past the breaking point, overwhelmed with a failing business, overcome by a panic attack she said ‘I want to die… I can’t take it anymore.’

The story begins as she hits rock bottom, mistakenly winding up in a mental health facility for seventy-two hours after taking pills. Although she had checked herself into the facility, she was not free to leave. The facility fails to provide the needed services, it is a waystation for people desperately in need of professional assistance. ‘There was no counseling. No one on staff asked me why I was there. I was getting meds in the morning and meds at night.’ 

The Adventure Begins

Being institutionalized was a wake-up call, that forced Wallack to take stock and act. She fights to be released, and once free, she brings attention to the poor conditions by documenting her observations in a letter to the CEO of University Hospital in Tamarac.  

Wallack needs to do something more, ‘Get on a plane. Just do it. Go somewhere. Go anywhere.’  She arranges to visit her brother in New Jersey – with a stop at her newly renovated apartment in New York City on the Upper West Side. Connecting with her brother, she finds joy in the kitchen, discovering that cooking helps her forget her troubles and stay in the moment. The power of cooking becomes a theme throughout her recovery. 

Her next detour is to North Carolina to visit her Cousin Casey, and an impromptu vacation in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, with a diatribe about the rental property. This was followed by a stop in Memphis, and another kitchen adventure, then Chicago, Minneapolis, Idaho where she introduced the Mormons to challah baking.  Wallack kept moving, visiting, cooking, and journaling.

Memoire of Transformation

From Hell to Challah, chronicles Wallack’s spontaneous travel interspersed with side comments. This is so much more than a travel log, it is a lesson in self-discovery and reinvention.  The book is filled with humorous vignettes which mark the passage of time, and a collection of connections punctuated by her brutal honesty and refreshingly funny commentary. 

Her story intersperses COVID, current events, but underplays the paranoia facing the country, as she boldly continues her forward progress bouncing from one connection to the next.

Progress Over Time

Readers gain an appreciation of the transformation, going from fragile to fearless over a course of a few months. It begins with an April journal entry, ‘I hate my life. I feel out of control. I feel lost. I do not want to get out of bed. … I am unhappy. I feel trapped’.  Fast forward five months, September 15 ‘I am so grateful. Life is beautiful. Everything is exciting. I am lucky to have found passion and purpose on my journey of self-discovery.’

Wallack focuses on perseverance, rather than perfection, she treats each day as a new opportunity.  She relies on community, a support system of friends, business contacts, and the curative power of food, especially challah Jewish penicillin.

The Magic of Challah

Throughout her travels, she cooks – traditional Jewish dishes like brisket and chicken soup complemented by an array of exotic challah’s including Almond Joy Unicorn challah with chocolate chips, coconut, slivered almonds, crushed gram crackers, and Oreo cookie crumble, or cinnamon, raisins, and brown sugar. She commented that ‘the more she kneaded and braided the dough, the less anxiety she felt.’ Each stop on her route to recovery offered another opportunity to bake challah.

While the book told her personal journey, I was inspired by her flamboyance in challah creation, especially when she led a challah baking class for the Mormon community. I tapped into my creative culinary side and baked several savory and a few sweet challahs. I credit my gastronomic adventures to Wallack’s kitchen explorations. A delicious adventure!

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Two Sues on the Aisle bases its ratings on how many challahs it pays to buy (rather than make) in order to see the play, show, film, or exhibit being reviewed. 5 Challahs is our highest rating.

From Hell to Challah rising from fragile to fearless, one grain at a time received a 3 challah rating.