Kosher Coaching
The Kosher School run by Sydney’s Our Big Kitchen hosted seven classes from Moriah College for Kosher coaching…
Our Big Kitchen answers questions commonly asked about Kashrut.
Which fish is Kosher?
Where can I go to learn the ins and outs of kosher cooking? Where can I acquire an in-depth understanding of the complex laws of kashrut? How can I make my kosher meals more delectable for the family? Back in 2009 Our Big Kitchen, together with the Kashrut Authority (KA) launched the Kosher School to help the Jewish community find answers to these perplexing issues.
The project launch was a crowded affair in the Kitchen, officiated by the then-premier of New South Wales, Nathan Rees.
While the School has been teaching the mashgichim how to supervise kashrut at your weddings and bar mitzvas, groups of students from the Jewish day schools have been attending successful workshops in the basic practicalities of kosher preparation and presentation. The first workshop was attended by no less than seven classes from Moriah’s Year 8, organised by David Klar, a teacher at Moriah.
Rabbi Aron Groner, the KA’s Assistant Rabbinic Administrator, guided the students through the fundamentals of Kashrut with the help of students from the Rabbinical College of Sydney. “First we showed them a video produced by the Orthodox Union in America, the largest Kosher authority in the world, to help them understand how intricate kosher laws can be,” said the rabbi. “Then they put on their chef hats and aprons for a hands-on workshop on how to wash and check vegetables, check for blood in eggs, identify a kosher fish and learn how to look up kosher products in the kosher directory.
The students did not leave empty-handed. Apart from the learning experience, they also took with them an information booklet, a KA magnet and biscuits to hand out to other as part of the OBK policy in putting a smile on other faces….and on the face of organiser OBK’s Rebecca Jacobs.
“The idea of having a short introduction and then four interactive workshops was terrific,” wrote Mr Klar. “The various stations ensured that the students were engaged for the whole time and also taught them practical skills that will hopefully be of use to them in the future, if not the present.” Mr Klar “really appreciated the time and effort you put into making the workshops interesting and relevant to the students.” He described the kashrut workshops as “fabulous”.
Rabbi Dovid Slavin, Our Big Kitchen’s convener, said “students seemed to enjoy the program and had great questions about the world of kashrut. We are proud to be able to educate students in the basics of kosher food preparation. We now plan to extend the program to other age groups and different levels of kashrut.”
The final word belonged to Mr Klar, who wrote, “OBK continues to be a beacon of light in both the Jewish and wider community.”
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What a wonderful initiative ‘Our Big Kitchen’ is.
I had the pleasure of attending its official opening by the Governor General Quentin Bryce.
With the help of a few eager people, it has been used a couple of times, to make gluten free hamentashen.
Rabbi Dovid Slavin bent over backwards to help and had the kitchen double cleaned so there was no chance of cross contamination.
Unfortunately, we never used it again due to lack of funds.