The Thrill of Victory…

[I confess, it’s been just over two month since Kosherfest 2012, and this video should have seen the light of day much sooner. Though making our readers wait was unprofessional and unforgivable there were truly extenuating circumstances, unfortunately. In any case, the competition was exciting. The three competing Chefs, were consummate professionals. I have no doubt the judges had a very hard time declaring a winner. CS]

Last year, I was one of the judges at Kosherfest 2011 Chefs’ Competition , this year I was behind a SONY AX2000 taping the proceedings. There was excitement, at times the chefs nervousness was palpable yet – at all times – it was obvious these 3 professionals were thoroughly enjoying what they were doing.

All videos copyright of © The Kosher Scene

The judges were Chef Jack Silberstein, from Jack’s Gourmet, Chef Seth Warshaw of etc steakhouse, Paula Shoyer, author of The Kosher Baker and Pastry Chef Philip Kaemerle, pastry instructor at the Center for Kosher Culinary Arts. The event was sponsored by CKCA, Jack’s Gourmet and Great Kosher Restaurants Magazine.

Chef Alexandre Petard from Ladino Restaurant, Chef Koby Weiner from Fairway‘s Kosher Food division and Chef Ari White from Got Cholent? and Gemstone Caterers went up against each other. Each created a masterpiece with the secret ingredient which they only were able to find out about immediately prior to the clock starting the 45 minute countdown. Yellow tail tuna, was that secret ingredients, while they could prepare it in any way they liked, they had to use each of a number of ingredients given them.

The fact that such varied dishes were made with the same set of ingredients is a true testament to each one’s imagination, creativity and professionalism. I hope, gentle reader, you enjoy watching this video as much as I enjoyed the live proceedings.

CS

Kosherfest 2011 Highlights – Part 1

I spent this past Tuesday and Wednesday at the Meadowlands Exposittion Center together with my good friend, successful commercial photographer and former Chair of the Photo Department at Fashion Institute of Technology – Irving Schild. I’ve been to Kosherfest quite a few times and as good as they were this one leaves those before it far in the dust. Not only was it far bigger (more exhibitors), it had far more visitors who were more informed, more health conscious, than ever before.

There were many new and exciting products, that will be hitting the store shelves soon, as well as non-food items that  caught our attention:

Ner Mitzvah - A candlemaker in the shtetl.

This company used a very creative way to show us their line of products, no words were necessary… just good old fashioned candle making.

Argentina, a country right across the river from where I grew up, distinguished itself by having Marumatok snatch the Kosherfest’s Best New Wine of the Year (Fincas Marumatok Cabernet Sauvignon Malbec). Marumatok has a nice line of wines at very reasonable prices, they may be hard to find but are well worth the search!

One of Marumatok's executives talking about the company's wines...

Costa Rica had its own booth promoting kosher travel tours in that country.

Kosher Costa Rica Tours

To me one of the main highlights was a panel discussion with various cookbook authors where new and upcoming trends were discussed:

From left to right (seated) authors: Jeff Nathan, Levana Kirschenbaum, Susie Fishbein, Gil Marks, Jamie Geller (standing) moderators: Leah Schapira and Esti Berkowitz

Various bloggers were allowed to ask questions to the authors, making this an interesting information packed hour.

There were far too many interesting items and products for the scope of this brief post, but we’ll talk about a few more in the 2nd part of this series. Especially worthy of mention, however, is the Best Overall New Product winner: Tishbi Passion Fruit and Strawberry Champagne Preserves. Ora Tishbi truly outdid herself for the second year in a row. I’m not into preserves but these are truly delicious

Seyman once again had an incredible display of superb European cheeses… that Manchego, the Gruyère, the Halumi, the Parmegiano Reggiano… just remembering the taste makes my mouth water and I wasn’t even taking part in a Pavlovian experiment!

The Petrini Gelato Shoppe, introduced a new dimension of flavor. Both their milchig and parve lines were outstanding

The French chocolates from Michel Cluizel, were miniature works of art. Their taste incomparable, far above any other chocolates this chocaholic ever tasted before!

CS

This Week’s Radio Show

This week’s radio show on our BlogTalkradio hour, this Wednesday evening, November 2nd, at 10:00pm (Eastern Time) will feature a panel of new media and traditional media personalities. These are:

• Esti Berkowitz, mom blogger at Primetime Parenting.
• Kim Amzallag, who is Director of Advertising for the 114 year old The Jewish Daily Forward and website which features the popular blog The Jew and The Carrot, as she continues to do sales and marketing for Mishpacha and Kosher Inspired magazines.
• Soshana Raff, mom blogger at The Kosher Shopaholic.

We will be discussing next week’s Kosherfest, the new media presence and the impact of bloggers on kosher food trends. Please listen in.

For those of you who missed last week’s Venice – 700 years of Jewish History, tradition and Food with Alessandra Rovati from the Dinner in Venice website and Corrado Calimani from the Venice Jewish Community Board, you can listen to the taped archive here. It was a very interesting and educational show with two very charming people! We discussed the over seven hundred year old Venetian Jewish community, the upcoming 500 year commemorations (in 2016) of the world’s first ghetto ever (Venice’s Jewish Ghetto), the communities traditions and rites as well the food…

Don’t forget to tune in our broadcast tomorrow at 10:00pm (Eastern Time) on BlogTalkradio, with some of the best schmoozers in blogland. We’ll be waiting for ya…

CS

Tomorrow Evening’s Internet Radio Show

Our guest tomorrow evening – on our Blogtalkradio radio show at 8:00 pm (Eastern Time) – will be Menachem Lubinsky, founder and CEO of LUBICOM. We will talk about Kosherfest 2011, its history and evolution and the meteoric rise of Kosher in America.

Kosherfest came to be 23 years ago in 1988, since, it has become the world’s largest kosher food, foodservice, beverage, wine and spirits trade show. It is produced by Diversified Business Communications (www.divcom.com) and co-produced by Menachem Lubinsky, founder of Kosherfest and CEO of LUBICOM (www.lubicom.com)

Prior and during his time at Lubicom, Mr. Lubinsky worked and continues to work extensively with both profit and non-profits. He has an M.B.A. in Marketing and Advertising from the Bernard Baruch College at City University of New York. He has received many prestigious awards and been honored by major organizations for his work and advocacy. As a major player in the field, he is the universally acknowledged expert on the matter of kosher marketing, its history and its growth.

Please listen in to what promises to be an interesting and informative program. Tune us in at Blogtalkradio.com at 8:00pm (Eastern Time) tomorrow, July 20

CS