|
|
November 23, 2001/Kislev 8, 5762, Vol. 54, No. 11
With food like this, who needs treif?
KATY MCLAUGHLIN
Jewish Renaissance Media
Jewish cooking star Joan Nathan, right, observes a sample being dished out at Kosherfest.
Photo by Sarah Sudhoff/Jewish Renaissance Media
|
Sure there was jalapeño gefilte fish and kosher pop rocks, cheese called A Bis'l Swiss'l and a stuffed doll named Harvey Magillah whose peyes waggled to the electronic strains of "Hava Nagila." But this gum-shoe (that's K-gelatin) sniffed that the real story lay behind a plain white door at the base of the Israeli Pavilion.
"We're not doing interviews, come back in an hour," whispered a Best New Products judge through the door crack as he tucked two competing lollipops behind his back, lest his pucker produce a press leak. The unprecedented largess of the world's most comprehensive kosher trade show lay before me in bite-sized portions on the judging table until the door closed all the way.
Kosherfest, which with 5,000 products from 450 exhibitors has become the industry's most important trade show, had so soon manifested Rule #1: Press Gets No Free Rides.
To heck with the judges; I was on my own to sleuth out the fairest innovations of them all.
Would these include Tzali's new Latin American style cheese Queso Blanco, several samples of which proved tangy with good melt on my discriminating palette? Or perhaps the breadcrumbs seasoned with spices grown with respect to fallow year kashrut laws by Israeli Pereg, who endeared themselves to me by saddling me up with hand-ground paprika samples?
Kosherfest Rule #2: revise Rule #1. I was there for the news and the samples.
The news for the kosher industry, quite like my other objective, looked excellent. It's a $5.75 billion market growing by 15 percent a year and serving more than 10 million Americans, according to Integrated Marketing Communications, which produced the event.
For what Rabbi Yosef Wilker, the editor of watchdog magazine Kashrus, terms "the captive kosher audience," the news is also good because the Orthodox baby boom has caused national companies to finally pay attention to and service the kosher community. Muslims and Seventh Day Adventists, with their own dietary laws, are also avid kosher consumers.
As a journeyman captive, at least on Nov. 6 at the Meadowlands Convention Center in New Jersey, I was struck by the vast variety emblematic of the ongoing revolution in the kosher market. The exhibitors themselves spoke to the dynamism of the trade. Hasidim and other ultra-Orthodox were well represented by businesses like Devora and Moshe Smilowitz's, whose eponymous bakery rolled its first yoshom flour rugelech 10 years ago in their home kitchen in Williamsburg.
Natalie Brown, proprietress of Kosher Cajun distributors and restaurant in New Orleans, was one of many kosher-niche servers, purveying kashrut goods to the 12,000 Jews as well as plenty of non-Jews in Louisiana.
Companies such as Fiji water and El Dorado coffee have sought certification in recognition of a business opportunity, while J&S Distributing owner Dov Osina is motivated by a personal mission to bring to market kosher specialty goods at the same price as their non-kosher counterparts. His 12 oz. virgin olive oil, for example, costs $1.99, which, last time I checked, beats treif (non-kosher) for a bargain any time.
And then there were the Israelis.
The boys at Papa Goose, a pâté concern in Tel Aviv, caught my attention with their poster depicting a duck-liver-on-bagel breakfast that I felt professionally compelled to sample. Haim Matias, the recipe master, described his Sisyphean labors in developing a kosher preparation that doesn't ruin delicacy. Whereas French masters might cringe at the process, the texture and flavor was impeccable. The cringing was done by a Hasidic man who nearly snagged a sample before Matias warned him the product is not up to the stringent standards of Haredi kashrut.
The exchange descended into a snarky demonstration of Rule #3, which might read something like this: 409 Worldwide Kosher Symbols And Agencies Are Regarded With About The Same Number Of Opinions And Perhaps Equally Varying Degrees Of Tolerance.
Consensus was likewise unavailable on the question of whether kosher provides any bulwark against potential sabotage, along the lines of anthrax or other things nightmares are made of.
Lewis Sterler, a consultant with Hunter International Marketing, said that some consumers feel safer with kosher products because the standards of preparation are already so high. There is oversight of every ingredient's provenance. Several attendees quoted event producer Menachem Lubinsky's statement about "another set of eyes," meaning rabbinical ones, as a source of comfort to anxious consumers.
Rabbi Wilker, however, debunked the safeguarding question before it was off my lips.
"There's no reason in reality for believing kosher is safer or healthier than anything else." The rabbi's set of eyes, he explained, are fixed firmly on the Torah, not on things of a scarier nature.
As if, after a day at Kosherfest, there could anything scarier than the amount of food - parve, glatt, fleishig (meat), milchig (dairy), or otherwise - I'd thrust down my gullet.
The caloric situation degenerated when I bumped into the goddess of Jewish cooking, Joan Nathan, appearing with Manischewitz, a funder of her PBS show "Jewish Cooking in America."
The experience led to Kosherfest Rule #4: Hang Out With Joan Nathan.
We were plied with the finer things, from Kedem's newest liquor products to Haschachav's chocolate-filled crepes to more duck-liver pate, Gold's punch-packing horseradish sauces, and Golden's potato pancakes. Nathan judged Pereg's spices the big find of the show, which reminded me of my date with the furtive tasters in the unmarked room at the back of the exhibition.
I returned and rapped demandingly on the door. After all, I was a fully credentialed reporter, not to mention acting sidekick to the belle of the fair. The door creaked open and a pale-faced woman poked her head out, only to deliver the panel's consensus: no interviews, no photos, no press.
She did stop to ask me, with a certain yearning, where I got the soft pretzel I was polishing off. I waved it in the direction of its origin and with the other hand, made notes.
First Place winners of the Kosherfest 2001 Best New Products contest
- SNACKS: Lantev Distribution's Soya Chips and Potato Poppers
- FROZEN DESSERTS: Steve's Mom's Turtle Cheesecake
- PASSOVER DESSERT: Shabtai Gourmet Ring Things
- BAKERY: La Fleur De Lis' Madeline French Cakes
- BREAD: Vermont Bread Company's Organic English Muffins
- NON-FROZEN DESSERT: Ahava's Fat Free Soy Chocolate Pudding
- YEAR ROUND TRADITIONAL: Victoria Packing Corporation's Vodka Sauce
- ENTREES: Upscale Food's Burritos
- UNIQUE MEAL REPLACEMENT ITEM: Kosherables' Funny Bagel
- FROZEN ENTREES: Twin Marquis' Tuna Fish Dumpling
- MEAT: Solomon's Finest Glatt Kosher Meats' Bison
- FOOD SERVICE: JKL Specialty Foods' Sauces
- YEAR ROUND TRADITIONAL DESSERT: Krum's Chocolates' Pearl River Chocolates
- BEVERAGE: Embassy Wine's Gan Eden Late Harvest Wine
- NON-TRADITIONAL CANDY: Gimbal's Fine Candy's Gift Pack of Candy
- NON-FOOD: Davida's Aprons and Logos' Matzoh Clock
- VEGETABLE: Hemisphere Foods Precooked Plantains
- SIDE DISHES: Osem USA's Pearl Cous Cous
- CONDIMENTS: Gold's Pure Food Product's Squeeze Me Wasabi Sauce
- CHEESE: Two Tribes/Mitzvah Farms' entire line of cheese
|
|
