If your Yiddish is a little rusty, that subtitle means you can find out whose chicken is the spiciest on Oct. 22. That’s right — it’s almost time for one of my favorite culinary events of the year. The Kosher Hot Chicken Festival is returning to the Gordon Jewish Community Center for the eighth time on Sunday, Oct. 22, kicking off at noon.
Hundreds of hot chicken fans will gather on the grounds of the JCC to sample bites from eight teams of volunteers frying up some piquant poultry for the assembled masses. This is even more challenging than other cooking competitions, because every ingredient and cooking utensil must be certified as kosher by the local mashgiach, who determines the kashrut status of all ingredients and cooking procedures.
This means that all of the chicken must be cooked in schmaltz, or chicken fat, provided by the organizers of the festival along with all ingredients and cooking equipment. Each team must come up with their own special medium and hot recipe from a list of approved ingredients, including salt, black pepper, cayenne, garlic powder, onion powder and paprika.
Attendees will help determine the best of the fest along with a panel of talented judges (and me) who will sample two presentations from each team. Pray for us.
Get there early, because once the teams run out of food, they won’t have the supplies to make more. Fortunately Hattie B’s will be on site selling full portions of their delicious hot chicken along with fries. In addition to the fiery fowl, Holy Smokes Kosher BBQ, Melissa & Sons Bakery and Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream will also be selling food, and Blackstone and Nashville Brewing Company will have their brews for sale.
Various items of Judaica will be on sale from The Temple and West End Synagogue, Jennifer Hinson Art, East Tasty Candy Company, Headdy Hardware, 32 Thoughts Boutique, Studio 316, Sweet Baby Flames Candles and others at the adjoining festival ground that will play host to the second Jewish Arts & Music (JAM) Festival. Organizers have reached out as far away as Boston, New York, L.A. and Israel — as well as some local talent — to create this stellar lineup of performers:
C Lanzbom & Noah Solomon of Soulfarm
Distant Cousins
Them Vibes
Jacob’s Ladder Bluegrass Band
Yair Levi
Jonathan Yudkin
YOSHA
Admission to the festival is free, but you’ll want to purchase your tasting tickets in advance at the event website because there will be only so many portions allocated to the cook teams, and you’d hate to miss out.
