Fair Lawn–On November 22, Congregation Shomrei Torah held a unique event, “Know Your Ingredients,” as a part of their Torah Tuesday programming. The program featured a “Chopped” cooking competition, in the style of the popular Food Network show, and a speech by Rabbi Danny Senter of the Kof-K on how Kashrut has changed in the past few decades.
Spearheaded by Mendy Aron, the head of Torah Tuesday, and his daughter Shani Horowitz, who MC’ed the competition, it was a night of culinary and Kashrut delights. “It was a joint collaboration [between myself and my father],” Horowitz said. Aron got the speaker and then the event grew to include the competition. Horowitz was asked by her father to MC, and said, “To get my script prepared for tonight, I watched Ted Allen [host of Chopped] over and over again, and wrote down the exact words that he says.”
In the actual show, the chefs have to contend with a basket full of ‘mystery ingredients’ which they must incorporate into their dishes. At Shomrei Torah the chefs knew what they were going to cook [before the competition]. The chefs told the shul in advance what ingredients to buy for their culinary creations, but did not reveal them to the audience in advance. There were four teams of two chefs competing: Stephen and Laurie Kern, Dena and Eli Senter, Moshe and Orit Zharnest, and Rachel Krich and Danielle Leitman.
The mandatory ‘mystery ingredients’ for the competition’s single, entire round were ground turkey, green beans, canned pumpkin, and wraps. Horowitz put 40 minutes on the clock, and before they knew it, the chefs had to get cooking! The Zharnests rushed around to gather ingredients for their ground turkey fajitas, mixing and sauteing as fast as they could. The Kerns, priding themselves on the “best ingredients and meticulous care,” worked hard to whip up a turkey and chili dish. Danielle and Rachel, passing each other ingredients and supplies as they worked, prepared a complicated, sauteed ginger turkey dish. And the Senter team created a turkey cilantro salad, with a garlic encrusted wrap as a bowl and pumpkin-honey ale on the side.
When time ran out, the judges tasted the dishes and gave a few comments. Then as they deliberated, Rabbi Senter gave his speech on kashrut. “A question that I’m always indirectly asked,” he said, is why kashrut seems to be so strict and different nowadays. “People say that ‘kashrut is the Chumrah (stringency) of the Week Club! We never did this back in the day! kashrut was so easy back in the day!’” Rabbi Senter then raised a question: “Is that really true? And what has changed about kashrut that at least on appearance alone, it seems as if we’re stretching and reaching for more chumrot?”
He told the story of Rabbi Jacob Joseph, the chief Rabbi of New York in the 1880s. He was faced with insurmountable odds and heavy resistance when trying to keep tabs on kashrut, although he did establish the modern-day procedure for koshering chickens. Yet since then, “The world of food has changed so dramatically.” Our food nowadays, Rabbi Senter explained, is very far removed from the basic foods, and halachic issues coupled with complicated ingredients have made kashrut much different these days than it once was.
Rabbi Senter gave an interesting example. A soda company once was planning a kosher-for-Pesach cola, and then at the last minute decided to make a diet version. But it would be impossible to source the cola bean needed in time for Pesach! Surprisingly enough, the company chose not to include the seemingly crucial ingredient because the soda contained so many other artificial ingredients that it wouldn’t really taste any different without the extract!
After Rabbi Senter’s speech, Horowitz gathered the teams together to reveal the final results. While the pumpkin mashed potatoes of the Zharnests’ dish, the Kerns’ flavorful chili, and the Senters’ unique drink were all appreciated, their dishes did not survive the dreaded chopping block. The winners of the evening were Rachel and Danielle–their delicious dish impressed the judges the most.
“We love winning,” the two women said, “And we feel great, but we really feel like everyone else did such an amazing job… Some of the things they came up with–we wouldn’t have come up with a million years.” The winners each won an Amazon gift card, which they said they might use to buy cooking supplies.
Contact: [email protected] 2019567066
By Oren Oppenheim
