New York—”If you hated being in the kitchen before, hopefully this blog can show you how simple and stress-free cooking can be.” This is the promise made on Seven Bites, a blog created by Yeshiva University graduates Sara Yitzhaky and Lindsay Wess. Following a commitment of “7 Ingredients or Less,” the blog offers a comprehensive showcase of kosher recipes from appetizers to desserts, none containing over 7 ingredients. The pair started Seven Bites during their senior year at YU, combining their culinary and photography backgrounds to create beautiful and delicious dishes like Eggplant Bruschetta and Macchiato Cupcakes with Caramel Icing. Both have an understanding of the Kosher and Culinary industries- Lindsey has worked on ABC’s hit culinary show “The Chew,” and Sara has worked with Edible Arrangements and comes from a family of bakers. Sara and Lindsay use the Seven Bites blog to give kosher cooking a fresh face, admitting what many cookbook authors do not- cooking is simple, fun, and does not need exotic ingredients to be delicious. One year later, they are as confident as ever in their approach. In their own words: “When thinking of a food concept, we realized that half of the time we follow a recipe, we rarely put in all of the ingredients, due to the ingredients not having a large impact on the dish or not having it at our disposal. We didn’t want that to be the case with our blog. We wanted all of our ingredients to be easily accessible and limit the amount of ingredients involved in a recipe that isn’t necessary to the outcome of the dish… And yes, we do consider salt an ingredient.”

Seven Bites has not gone unnoticed, receiving numerous accolades and being crowned “Best Kosher Food Blog of 2012” by Jamie Geller’s Joy of Kosher. Sara and Lindsey will be releasing their first print cookbook in Fall 2013. It will include a mix of classic recipes from their blog as well as many new originals. Visit the blog at sevenbites.blogspot.com

by Feigie Leitman, Kosher Today, with permission