2007 Simply Manischewitz Cookoff
On Tuesday, I attended the Finals for the 2007 Simply Manischewitz Cookoff, here in NY. Thousands of entries were whittled down to 6 contestants from across the country:
- Evan Levy from Danville,CA, Southwestern Potato Kugel
- Joy Devor from Far Rockaway, NY, Fantastic Flounder Rolls
- Joe Carver from Philadelphia, PA, Falafel Pizza
- Julie Hession from Las Vegas, NV, Beef Tenderloin with Marsala Mushroom Sauce
- Greg Fontenot from The Woodlands, TX, Chicken in Balsamic Cherry Sauce
- Tracy Rapp from Memphis, TN, Southern Smothered Burgers
The rules for the cookoff were simple:
Recipes must be developed for a main course or soup, must be original, must be Kosher, must include at least one Manischewitz product and have no more than a total of eight ingredients, including any garnish (water, plain salt and pepper are not counted). Recipes may not include any branded products as ingredients which are competitive with Manischewitz products (including but not limited to Streits, Golds, Muellers and Pennsylvania Dutch). All ingredients must be listed, together with exact flavors/measurements/weights (in standard U.S. measurements). Complete preparation instructions must be given including specific types and sizes of any cooking equipment used. Recipe must be for an easy-to-make dish, able to be completely prepared and ready to serve in no more than one hour. Each recipe must be an original recipe, created by entrant that has not previously been published nor won a prize or award.
Got that? The contestants had 1 hour to prepare their dishes, followed by presentation to the judges. The winner was Joy Devor, a housewife and substitute teacher from Far Rockaway, NY. It was a busy week for her - her daughter got married 3 days earlier.
I’m going to attempt to predict some of your questions:
- I didn’t get taste all of the entries. There was a catered fleishig lunch, so by the time the entries were done, I couldn’t try them all. The ones I tasted were quite good.
- 2 of the contestants weren’t even Jewish. Julie and Greg. So what? Last year’s winner wasn’t Jewish either.
- Yes, many Manischewitz products are sodium laden, and have trans-fats in them. The winning entry was primarily stuffed with Tam-Tams (a big trans-fat offender). Understandably, no one mentioned it, although Evan sheepishly admitted to me that he had no idea the potato latke mix had trans-fats, and that at home he makes the whole recipe from scratch.
- Julie’s recipe was made with sliced prime-rib, not tenderloin.
- Everything was Bishul Yisroel. Rabbi Chaim lit all the ovens and burners. He was also responsible for making sure that the dishes were served from Dairy to Pareve to Fleishig, for the Kosher judges. And sharp cheeses were replaced with less-sharp cheese, so that the Kosher judges wouldn’t have to wait six hours.
Manischewitz products may not be the best that kosher food has to offer, but they have an important place in the kosher food landscape. And I’m still planning on entering this contest, one of these days. I just haven’t come up with my perfect recipe yet. You can see my pictures from the event here.
Would you explain what you are referring to about the sharp vs. less-sharp cheeses? I know that cheese needs a hecksher, but what does sharpness have to do with it.
~M:
In general, meat products can be consumed shortly after dairy products but not the reverse (customs on exact wait time for both directions do vary).
One exception to the general dairy-then-meat rule is for sharp cheeses (but not all cheses) where it is customary to have a lengthy wait before consuming meat. This is what SWeinberger referred to in his post above.
BS”D
Hard cheese, not sharp cheese. Many hold that any pressed cheese produced with rennet is treated as time consuming to digest, and therefore requires 6 hours (or 3 or 1 depending upon shita) between it and meat. Others hold that a minimum of aging is required. I know that Rav Avraham Hayim Lapin held that almost no modern cheeses were hard enough to require such time constraints. But in any case, it never requires more time than a meat to milk transition.
Hi guys,
I’ve read this blog for ages and it’s really awesome and helpful!
I’m traveling to Texas soon and I am the world’s biggest kosher carnivore, and I am in a state of despair because I can’t seem to find one kosher BBQ restaurant in all of Texas! The internet yielded the usual cafeteria style (mostly dairy) places, but what I am looking for is BBQ’d beef ribs and authentic Texas fare — with a hechsher! I know it might be impossible, but I was wondering if you or any of your readers might be familiar with a place that I’ve overlooked. I don’t care where in the state it is. I am willing to drive to the ends of the Earth!
BS”D
Elisheva:
I know there used to be BBQ in Dallas because my Bro-in-law ate there. I know there used to be at least BBQ brisket in Houston at the chicken restaurant, though the quality was neot there, because I’d eaten it. Jon says there used to be an East Texas location that provided true Q. But I think all these places are defunct.
Unfortunately, you’re gonna need to hit the coasts. Why? Probably because more foodies live on the coasts, and they’re influenced positively by the food mags and the Food Channel, and maybe TX is a bit of a down-home place that just values home and other indigenous cooking, which includes Q in the nonkosher world there,erhaps is a bit more Eastern European in the Jewish world. For whatever reason, TX is not currently supplying the Jewishworld with Q.
i LIVE IN sACRAMENTO, cA. i CANNOT FIND ANYWHERE IN TOWN WHERE I can buy egg matza. Can you offer any help by telling me who you sold it to?