Friday, October 29, 2010

Chef Avram Wiseman Takes First Place in Kosherfest's 3rd Annual Culinary Competition!




The Center for Kosher Culinary Arts is thrilled to extend congratulations to our own Dean of Students Chef Avram Wiseman on his first prize winning cold appetizer preparation in the Kosherfest 3rd Annual Culinary Competition, awarded on October 27th at Kosherfest 2010!

Chef Wiseman wowed the judges and the audience with a fresh fillet of wild caught Long Island Striped Bass rubbed with a tandoori spice mix, which was grilled and placed over a lentil salad. The fish was topped with a spicy pineapple salsa and was plated with a micro green salad with tarragon vinaigrette.

There were three other competitors in the event: Chef Pini Ben-Ari from U-Cafe, Chef Albert Bijou of Heaven's Kitchen Corporation and Chef Salim Fysal of Dashkin Glatt Kosher Indian Bistro.

Each chef had five minutes to assemble and plate four orders of their dish for presentation to the judges for tasting.

The event included judges Roberta Scher and Lois Held of Koshereye.com, writer/education Ted Merwin and cookbook author and James Beard Award Winner Gil Marks.

About Chef Wiseman


As any of his students will tell you, Chef Wiseman is an outstanding, caring chef instructor with many years of industry experience, though he has often said that his first love is teaching. Early in his career, Chef Wiseman held an astonishingly diverse number of positions in a wide array of settings — as banquet chef at the Tan a Tar Marriot, Missouri, Chef Garde Manger at the Garden City Hotel, Executive Sous Chef of the kitchen at the United Nations, and Executive Chef at the Riverhouse Restaurant.

Chef Wiseman is more than a little familiar with the demands of the kosher kitchen, having served as the executive chef for Lederman Caterers in Queens, Kay Caterers in NYC, President Caterers in Long Island, and is currently working as a consulting chef for Paradise Caterers at Marina Del Ray in The Bronx. He is also a Yeshiva graduate.

Chef Wiseman began teaching, his true passion, in 2000 at The Art Institute of New York. Over the six years he spent there, he earned a CHE certification in hospitality education and completed coursework in teaching methodology.

The next professional training class that Chef Wiseman will be teaching will be the Culinary Arts Certificate program in kosher culinary arts, beginning January 3, 2011 and ending March 15, 2011. The next recreational program taught by Chef Wiseman will be "Ask the Chef," a culinary demonstration and tasting, on November 27, 2010. Call 718-758-1339 for more information.

About the Center for Kosher Culinary Arts


Based in Flatbush, Brooklyn, above a cookware store owned by Lubavitcher Jews, CKCA initially offered only recreational cooking, cake decorating and garnishing classes. However, many people who attended the classes requested professional training, so they could learn classic techniques and apply them in professional kosher environments. Until CKCA was established, the only way a kosher-keeping student could study the culinary arts in the United States was to attend a non-kosher program and rely on classmates to taste the food. CKCA is also one of the only ways a non-Jewish student learns the art of kosher cooking, in order to compete for an increasing number of jobs in kosher restaurants and catering. Several experienced master chefs are on CKCA's permanent faculty as chef instructors, including Chef Avram Wiseman, formerly Executive Sous Chef at the United Nations and Chef Instructor at the Art Institute of New York.

Over the past two years, approximately 140 individuals from numerous states and abroad have completed CKCA professional courses. Those who have desired internships have been placed, and many have found work through CKCA as well. Several grads have opened their own food-related businesses, and many have found commercial success working as personal chefs and caterers. For more information, visit http://www.kosherculinaryarts.com.

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