Enter Your Best Pesach Dessert in CKCA's New Recipe Contest!

CKCA is on the hunt for our community's greatest Pesach desserts recipes! From nutty to chocolately, from fruity to icy, we know there's a lot of delicious things in store for us this Pesach. If you make something delectable on Pesach, we want to know about it. Email your recipe to contest@kosherculinaryarts.com by March 14, and we will select 10 finalists, ask them to submit a picture of their completed dessert, and put it to our Facebook fans for a vote. There will be two winners: One non-Gebrochts dessert and one Gebrochts. Both winners will receive bragging rights, a $75 gift certificate toward classes at CKCA, and the recipes will be featured on our website and published in our Pesach recipe newsletter.

For continual updates on CKCA's Pesach Desserts Recipe contest, make sure to "like" us on Facebook, and sign up to receive our recipe newsletters by visiting http://www.kosherculinaryarts.com and enter your email address in the top right-hand corner. 

And if you want to learn to create amazing Pesach desserts this year, then sign up for CKCA's Pesach desserts class on March 10! Click here for more info! 

***CKCA reserves the right to edit recipes for spelling and grammar, and will do our best to ensure that all recipe ingredients adhere to strict kosher for Passover standards before publishing. One recipe may be submitted per person.***

Top Three Reasons To Take CKCA Pro Class in the Spring!

Our professional training program in culinary arts is 152 hours of hands-on training in professional level culinary skills & techniques. 

Our professional training program in baking & pastry arts is 152 hours of hands-on training in the fundamental skills & techniques of the bakeshop. 

Spring Semester Dates
April 8 to June 6th, 2013
Culinary Arts: Monday through Friday, 9am to 1pm
Baking & Pastry Arts: Monday through Thursday, 2pm to 6pm

We offer these courses four times a year, but the best time the take them is in the Spring. And here's why!

Smaller Class Size

3. Smaller class size = more personal attention. Summer and Fall our the most popular times of the year and therefore the busiest semesters. The spring is quieter and therefore class sizes are smaller. You get more personal attention from the same amazing chef instructors. 

Perfect Cooking Weather

2. The kitchen is a hot place, especially in the summer. Learning to cook during a temperate time of year is more comfortable! It's a great time to be in NYC as well; not too hot or humid. 



Spring Produce

1. The freshest vegetables and herbs come to market at this time of year. Only Spring semester students get the chance to work with such top-notch, local products. 


Follow this link for admissions information for the Spring Semester, which begins April 8th, and apply now! Don't miss this amazing opportunity! It only comes once a year!

Makin' Facon on Date Night

Facon; beauty shot courtesy of Jack's Gourmet.

Ahh, Bacon.... 

 Many a kosher foodie, ba'al Teshuvah, and the like have longed for its smokey, salty goodness and mourned its absence from the kosher table, sighing every time a recipe insisted on its inclusion. Pine no more friends, a worthy substitute has finally arrived. 

Please welcome FACON by Jack's Gourmet. Previous bacon wannabees have by all accounts fallen short in taste, texture, and appearance. Turkey bacon; too lean, no texture. Beef fry; nothing more than fatty corned beef or pastrami. Vegetarian bacon; give me a break. If all others have failed, why has Jack's succeeded? 

 Jack's Genius 

 First, there's the meat. Facon is beef. But not just any beef. This is beef cut from the part of the steer that is the anatomical equivalent of pork belly which is the part of the pig that bacon is made from. This beefy cut is streaked with fatty goodness, just like bacon, which renders when cooked allowing the meat to cook up nice and crisp. Second, Facon is prepared just like the real thing. It is dry cured with salt and sugar and flavored with smoke. Jack's blend has captured the salty, smoky balance that bacon is relished for. The bottom line is, Facon looks, tastes, and cooks like the real thing (or so we've been told by several reliable authorities). So much so that kosher restaurant chefs have been gobbling it up in wholesale, slab form for all types of inspired, chef worthy applications. (Jack's was completely sold out of the slab when we placed our order.) 

 Facon Meets Date Night 

We decided to have fun with Facon in our own way; by experimenting on unsuspecting Date Night participants! For the uninitiated, Date Night Couples Competition is our Chopped style culinary competition class for couples. One of our most popular classes, Date Night challenges couples to create an inspired entree from a basket of secret ingredients. On this special night the basket included; chicken breast, green lentils, oranges, swiss chard, and of course, Facon. We were highly impressed with the creative applications the students came up for the Facon; cooked crisp and crumbled on top of a salad, braised with greens, incorporated into a stuffing for the chicken... Ironically, several of the couples present this evening happened to be non-kosher keeping. All of them said the same thing; Facon tastes likes the real thing!

Here's a few highlights:

Lentils braised with facon

 Squash & Swiss Chard salad with crumbled Facon

Chicken stuffed with mustard & Facon stuffing

Facon, by Jack's Gourmet is now available in kosher retail outlets across the country. For more information about Facon or any of Jack's Gourmet's other products, visit their website.

CKCA Debuts Cupcake Wars Competition at Stern College

The Center for Kosher Culinary Arts this week was pleased to help Manhattan's Stern College for Women stage a Cupcake Wars competition as part of an orientation program for the incoming class of students. 

50 young women participated, competing in teams of four. Chef Avram Wiseman, CKCA's Dean of Students and Head Culinary Arts Instructor, acted as Master of Ceremonies, while Chef Philippe Kaemmerle, CKCA's lead Pastry Instructor, gave a brief demonstration on how to use a piping bag and provided a tutorial in basic cupcake decorating technique. (Chef Kaemmerle regularly gives classes on Sundays such as Sophisticated Cupcakes, Cake Pops, and Cake in a Jar, and information about those classes can be found by clicking on the links.)

The teams then had 30 minutes to decorate their own cupcakes as a team according to a theme. Our judges then scored them based on presentation and creativity. The winners (pictured above, with CKCA Chef Instructors) each received $25 off classes at CKCA. 

The event gained rave reviews from both students and organizers, and CKCA plans to repeat the Cupcake Wars Competition in other locations, for both schools and charity-event purposes. If you are interested in bringing Cupcake Wars to your campus or synagogue, contact CKCA at 718-758-1339. 

Below, enjoy some pictures of the winning cupcakes and the competition in action. 

CKCA Debuts First Ever Women-Only Professional Program

This winter, during a new semester of the Center for Kosher Culinary Arts professional program, a new all-womens evening section will be offered, in addition to an all-mens evening section, and a co-educational daytime program. These course offerings of non-mixed gender courses are offered in response to requests from students. 

The all-womens class will be offered on Sunday and Monday evenings, 6:30pm to 10:30pm, from January 13 to June 10, 2013. For the full schedule of professional courses, visit this link.

The women's Pro class will offer the same high-quality 152-hour professional program in culinary training in a Glatt-kosher environment that CKCA is famous for. The course offers hands-on training in professional culinary skills and techniques, as well as an optional 8-hour certificate course in food safety and sanitation, at no additional charge. Upon completion of the professional program, students have the option to continue their training with an internship in a professional food service environment, such as restaurants, catering companies, and other institutional food service locations like schools and homes for the aged or developmentally disabled. 

The goals of the program are to:

*Orient the student to the professional kosher culinary environment and teach the student to operate within that environment in a safe, efficient, and skillful manner

*Hone the student’s understanding and practice of fundamental culinary technique

*Develop in the student an understanding of flavor and taste and an appreciation for quality ingredients

*Facilitate the student’s transition in to the working world by providing both career counseling and an opportunity for networking.

For more information, call CKCA Director Jesse Blonder at 718-758-1339. For more information, visit here:  http://www.kosherculinaryarts.com/career-training/culinary-arts.

Date Night Couples Competition 12/01/12; Recap

Last night was the first Date Night Couples Competition of our Saturday night cooking class season and boy did it kick off with a bang! The class has consistently been our most popular and continues to be a very in demand option for private parties as well.

For those of you who have seen the show Chopped, the concept of Couples Competition is very similar. With 90 minutes on the clock, couples race to create one extraordinary entree using nothing but their cooking skills, culinary know-how, and a basket of secret ingredients. No recipes, no cookbooks, no kidding! And of course we always round out the night with drinks, snacks, and music!

Each plate is then judged by our chef on taste, presentation, and creativity. The winner receives a gift certificate towards classes for $75!

This week, the basket included:

Chicken breast
Basmati Rice
Shallots
Butternut squash
Star anise

Couple #1 by far had the most colorful plate. Their balsamic marinated and grilled chicken breast was very tasty as well.

Couple #2 made a very delicious chicken fajita inspired entree over a supremely flavorful basmati rice.

Couple #3 coated their chicken in a combination of crushed pistachios, sliced almonds, and Japanese bread crumbs for some seriously delicious crunch.

Couple #4 won the award for creativity with what they called a descontructed Bibimbap. Their plating was impressive too; rice served in the shape a heart and carrots carved in to the shape of mini sprockets. The fried egg on top certainly didn't illicit any complaints from the judges either!

Couple #5 grilled their chicken on skewers and garnished with a combination of black and white sesame seeds and flax seeds. They won the award for best use of the star anise with a truly tasty anise infused butternut squash puree.

Couple #6 had the highest score in the category of taste. Their rice pilaf was simple but right on the money. The grilled vegetables were at that perfect point of being crunchy but cooked through, impressive grill marks as well. The chicken, breaded, fried and served on a brush stroke of squash puree was lovely. Let it be known that they were also the best trash-talkers we've had to date! Nonetheless, their plate spoke for itself and THEY WERE PRONOUNCED THE WINNER!

Another great night cooking and competing!

The next Date Night Culinary Competition will be held on Saturday, December 29, 2012 from 8 - 10:30 pm. We hope to see you then!

CKCA Presents Kosherfest's Fifth Annual Culinary Competition!

The Center for Kosher Culinary Arts is excited to present the fifth annual Kosherfest Chef’s Competition, taking place at the Kosherfest Trade Show. Kosherfest will be hosted November 13th and 14th at the Meadowlands Exposition Center, in Secaucus, NJ. The event will take place on the second day of the show: Wednesday, November 14, from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm.

Three professional chefs will compete live for a cash prize. Chefs will be presented with a basket of secret ingredients drawn from the Mediterranean palate and given 45 minutes to prepare three portions of one course featuring the secret ingredients. Judges from the culinary industry will grade each competitors dish based on taste, creativity, and presentation. The highest score will determine the winner. The first prize winner will receive $1,000.

Competitors:

Kobe Weiner, Executive Chef Kosher Foods Fairway Markets

Ari White, Executive Chef & Owner Gemstone Catering

Alexandre Petard, Executive Chef Ladino Restaurant


Judges:

Chef Philippe Kaemmerle, Pastry Chef, The Center for Kosher Culinary Arts

Jack Silberstein, Owner, Jack’s Gourmet Sausages

Chef Seth Warshaw, Executive Chef, ETC Steakhouse, Winner Kosherfest Culinary Competition 2011

Paula Shoyer, Author, The Kosher Baker