It’s exciting to see a valued establishment, long known for a particular type of service to the community, take on a whole new identity for an evening.
Glatt 27 on Route 27 in Highland Park has been a fixture in the county for decades. It provides a broad range of kosher groceries, produce, take-out foods and holiday items for observant Jews. It also supports events in the community by offering a variety of catering options.
On Saturday night, January 11, Glatt 27 offered a fun-filled event of its own, a fast-paced “Chopped” cooking completion.
All customers who have an account in the store were entered in a drawing every time they shopped at the store in the few weeks before the event. Four customers—Yaffi Kassai, Chavi Landau, Lisa Schanzer and Rachel Stern—were selected to each lead a three-person cooking team. Yaffi enlisted her son and daughter to serve on her team, while the other three top cooks recruited their friends.
Glatt 27 brought in four judges well known in the community—Rabbi Steven Miodownik, spiritual leader of Congregation Ahavas Achim; Rabbi Josh Pruzansky; Rob Haarburger; and Elie Salomon.
When community members arrived at the store on Motzei Shabbat, they found that the area that usually contains racks for breads and desserts and shelves with fruits and vegetables, was completely cleared away. In its place were four cooking stations with hot plates, mystery ingredients in a sealed plastic bag and a separate area facing the cooking stations, for audience members to watch the action. Audience members were also treated to a free hot dairy buffet in the frozen aisle as they waited for the competition to commence.
Speaking before the competition started, Marla Rottenstreich, a member of Chavi Landau’s cooking team, commented: “This is a really worthwhile event in unifying the community while supporting its one kosher supermarket. The energy is palpable!” Yaffi Kassai remarked that she was “surprised to be selected” to be a cook and eager for the competition.
Judge Rob Haarburger stated: “I’m truly honored and excited to be part of this event. Glatt 27’s desire to engage the community is something I really respect.” Judge Rabbi Miodownik had fun with his role in the event, saying: “Any opportunity I have to pass judgment on others is one I embrace. I’m proud that our local supermarket is doing such a creative and fun event, and that people from all across town have come over to witness it. I’m honored to have people vying for my taste buds.”
Judge Elie Salomon said: “This is so exciting, I’m so glad they did this. It’s showing another side of Glatt 27. I’m surprised so many people came. I hope this is the first of many fun events in the community.”
Audience member Regina Feiler came with two of her daughters to witness the action. She commented, “We’re obsessed with Chopped and couldn’t wait to see the kosher version, in our town.” Joel Zevin joked, “This competition looks like it’ll be really heated. I can’t wait to see it get cooking.”
Glatt 27 enlisted an Instagram influencer to serve as emcee of the competition, Faigy Murray, whose mykitchen_mystudio page has attracted over 11,000 followers. Faigy got the contest started by welcoming everyone and sharing the rules of the competition. She announced that once the clock started, each team would empty their bag of mystery supplies and then have 90 seconds to run around the store to pick up additional supplies; any item a team took off the shelves and opened had to be used in their dish. The teams would them have 30 minutes to cook the food and their dishes would be judged on a 1-10 scale for taste, creativity and presentation.
And then the clock started and things got moving fast.
The cooking teams emptied their bags and took stock of what they had. Each team received:
Mayonnaise, date syrup, crushed tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, hearts of palm, rosemary garlic, Osem soup mix, olive oil, duck fat, ramen noodles, salt & pepper and a package of skirt steak.
An emissary from each team ran through the store and quickly collected a few added ingredients. Then the cooking started.
As the crowd watched, the cooking teams worked together to prepare their dishes as they discussed the particulars and how it would be presented.
When the clock ran out, Faigy asked the teams to put their dishes on four plates (one for each judge) and present them to the judges, one team at a time. The judges considered each plate carefully, tasting mains and sides, and marked their scoring cards.
A few short, suspenseful minutes later, store owner Yoni Bauer and his general manager, Yanke Malik, gathered the cards and tabulated the results. They shared the results with Faigy, who announced that Chavi Landau, along with her sous chefs Marla Rottenstreich and Sarah Turk, had won the competition. Chavi won a $750 gift card to Glatt 27 and all the cooking team chefs and judges won a box of the signature spices marketed by Faigy Murray. Yoni and Yanke also handed out 7% off coupons to everyone present.
Afterwards, Bauer remarked that the event took three months of planning but was well worth it. “We ran this competition to give back to the community and to show our appreciation. We’re so happy to have people from all the shuls come together for this fun event.”
Josh Pruzansky stated, “Chopped was a very nice event for Glatt 27 and the community. As a judge, it was a gastronomical delight. The food was delicious and the presentations were creative and pleasant. We had to make tough choices and all four teams could have won. Congratulations to Team Landau. And let’s do this again real soon!”
Succinctly summing up the feelings of many attendees, Samara Moritz commented as she left, “This was adorable!”
By Harry Glazer
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