Keeping kosher
The displays of colored eggs and chocolate bunnies may indicate otherwise, but Easter is not the only holiday just around the corner. Passover, the weeklong Jewish holiday that commemorates the liberation of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage, is less than a month away, beginning on March 27.
According to Rabbi Yitzchok Tiechtel, director of the Center for Jewish Awareness, even Jewish families that don’t keep a kosher house through the year try to adhere to kosher standards during the holiday. The ability to do so has gotten easier, he says. “In 2000, there were 55,000 kosher certified products and $5 billion in sales in the kosher industry. Keeping kosher in Nashville today has become a lot easier thanks to a competitive market, resulting in new products available all the time. In fact, close to 40 percent of the foods on the shelves in your local market are kosher.”
Many people’s perception of kosher products is that the food has simply been blessed by a rabbi. The reality is more complicated, but in plainest terms, explains Rabbi Tiechtel, “Kosher is God’s prescribed diet to the Jews.” There are kosher and non-kosher animals—the pig being the most widely known of the latter. And there are kosher and non-kosher fish—kosher seafood being anything that has fins and scales, thus ruling out shellfish and shark.
Everything you wanted to know about kosher foods will be answered this Sunday at Kosherfest 2002, presented by The Center for Jewish Awareness and the Gordon Jewish Community Center, 1 to 4 p.m. at the Community Center. Nashville’s only kosher food trade show welcomes Jews and gentiles alike. The event will present tastings, demonstrations on kosher cooking, how to shop for kosher food and eating kosher the healthy way. There will be exhibits of kosher foods and products from major retailers such as Harris Teeter, H.G. Hill, Kroger and Wild Oats.
In the Passover Model Matzoh Bakery, attendees will learn how to bake matzoh for Passover. The Family Simcha Pavilion will offer exhibits catering to Jewish family celebrations, with booths from florists, musicians, photographers, caterers and the hotel industry. Rabbi Tiechtel notes that hotel kitchens can be koshered by a rabbi for families who want to keep kosher outside the home. Unfortunately, Rabbi Tiechtel points out, there are no kosher restaurants in Nashville, thus he is unable to dine out.
Later this month, the Center for Jewish Awareness will present a seder dinner—which marks the first night of Passover—at Loews Vanderbilt Plaza. Everyone is welcome to attend. The cost is $30 per person, and reservations can be made by calling 646-5750.
Kosherfest 2002 takes place 1-4 p.m. March 3 at Gordon Jewish Community Center, 801 Percy Warner Blvd. Call 646-5750 for more information.
No dough
According to area restaurateurs, Nashville’s two largest artisan bakeries, Bread & Company and Provence, are holding sit-downs this week with their wholesale customers to inform them of a pending deal that has Provence purchasing B&C’s wholesale operations. It makes sense: Provence recently opened an 8,000-square-foot baking facility in The Gulch that doubles its production capacity, while B&C has been concentrating on retail stores/cafes like its new branch at 2525 West End Ave. and the one under construction in Cool Springs, set for completion this spring.
Over easy
Meg Giuffrida, owner of Red Wagon Catering and chef for Bongo Java Roasting Company’s popular Sunday brunch, will cook up her last omelet and bake her last biscuit there this Sunday, March 3. After that, she will focus on her pending new restaurant a few blocks away at 12th & Woodland streets, Red Wagon Cafe, which she plans to open by the end of March. BJRC owner Bob Bernstein says, “We are considering several options and will eventually resume Sunday brunch at BJRC.”
Wine and dine
mAmbu, the Hayes Street restaurant owned by chefs Anita Hartell and Corey Griffith, is hosting Sonoma County winemaker Bob Pellegrini at a four-course dinner featuring reds and whites from Olivet Lane and Cloverdale wineries. Griffith and sous chef Ted Prater will present beef filet tartare with horseradish crème fraîche; baby greens with citrus seafood ceviche; herb-rubbed Denver leg of venison with apricot-black lentil ragout; and poached pear in ginger-jalapeño sauce with Mexican chocolate-spiced ice cream. The event takes place 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 5. Cost is $65 per person; call 329-1293 for reservations.
