Five Towns, Great Neck students among first graduating class of kosher-trained chefs

Culminating culinary school

On Aug. 14, a graduation was held at The Mac Rotunda at Kingsborough Community College to honor the first 12 graduates of The Center for Kosher Culinary Arts Professional Training Program. In addition to receiving diplomas, the graduates — dressed in crisp chef’s whites — prepared and presented a bountiful buffet that included carved vegetables and fruit platters, meat-filled crepes, hand-made bow-tie pasta and chocolate-frosted cupcakes for close to 50 family members, friends and Kingsborough College administrators.

Having completed the intensive six-week, 144-hour Kosher Culinary Program, the students have good reason to celebrate as they anticipate exciting careers in the burgeoning Kosher food industry as chefs, caterers and other food service professionals. The Center for Kosher Culinary Arts is the first program of its kind in The United States. Until now, aspiring American chefs who keep Kosher had no recourse but to attend non-Kosher culinary schools where they could prepare but not taste their creations.

“It made a lot more sense for me to taste the food I was making,” said Jordana Hirschel of Cedarhurst, passing around enticing platters of eggplant caviar, beef and chicken kebabs and chicken curry. “I learned about seasonings as well as the actual cooking. I learned things I would have never been able to do on my own, like how to take apart a chicken or fillet a fish. Now I can offer more to my clients.”

Hirschel told The Jewish Star that she is looking forward to applying what she learned in the program to her personal catering business. While originally planning to attend The Institute for Culinary Education in Manhattan, after hearing about the new Kosher culinary school Hirschel says she quickly signed up.

“Awesome,” is how Yechiel Friedman of Cedarhurst described his initial impression upon learning about the new Kosher culinary program. Friedman, a high school senior at HALB with a passion for cooking, says the program taught him many techniques such as knife skills and how to sauté foods.

School administrators at Kingsborough Community College had long recognized the need to for such a program to serve the large Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn. Celebrity chefs, Food Network, and the general public’s fascination with all things culinary have trickled down to the Orthodox Jewish community. The proliferation of gourmet Kosher restaurants, explosion of Kosher food products on supermarket shelves and surge in Jewish cookbooks are further indications of the new Kosher culinary program’s need and timeliness.

“The Kosher food business is booming,” said Erica Zimmerman of Great Neck. The New York University senior, who found out about the school on Facebook, is slated to intern at a food marketing company this fall. While passionate about food and cooking, she told The Jewish Star, the marketing aspect of the kosher food industry is her eventual career goal.

According to program Director Jesse Blonder, The Center’s curriculum followed that of non-Kosher culinary schools with its emphasis on French culinary technique, the difference being that all cooking instruction at the Center was done under rabbinic supervision from OK Kosher Certification and all facilities and food were 100 percent kosher. Through instruction by professional chefs and other industry experts, students were taught culinary fundamentals including knife skills, cooking techniques, poultry and meat butchering, ethnic cuisine, baking and pastry and wine pairing.

Beginning with knife skills, Blonder said, students progressed to learn the components of making soups and stocks, how to cook using dry versus moist heat and how to butcher meat and poultry and fillet fish. Students were also instructed on cost control and purchasing.

“From the work we did, the students learned how to work both independently and in groups — how to work with their peers,” Blonder added.

“The program broadened our culinary horizons,” says Dolores Wine of Manhattan. Wine, a part-time caterer for her synagogue, The 49th St. Synagogue for The Arts in Tribeca, said she enrolled in the school to gain professional skills.

“I learned a great deal and was exposed to a more professional kind of cooking,” she explained.

The 12 graduates came from The New York Metropolitan area, Florida, California, and Toronto, Canada. Four students came from The Five Towns and Great Neck.

“The students all benefited from the program in different ways,” observed chef instructor Mark D’Alesandro. “Across the spectrum, they all left having a better feel and expression for culinary techniques. D’Alessandro, who graduated from culinary school with a B.A. in Hospitality Management from Fordham University and worked as a professional chef, admits having much from his students. “As a non-Jew, it was a beautiful thing to see a group of people of different religious doctrine who are so much in touch with the food they eat for a spiritual reason.”

For those considering Kosher culinary arts as a career, or for working chefs or other culinary professionals looking to sharpen their skills, The Center for Kosher Culinary will be offering a fall program open to men and women ages 16 and up, Blonder added.