Laura Frankel and Dennis Wasko started experimenting with fine kosher cuisine in 1997. Frankel had kept a kosher kitchen at home for ten years and Wasko had never set foot in one, but both found the challenge of working within the strict culinary restrictions inspiring. They started a small catering company, testing the market for upscale kosher cuisine with innovative dishes like macadamia-nut-crusted snapper with mango-papaya salsa. They stored the hits away for future reference, and when the business took off, decided to try opening a contemporary kosher restaurant.
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Lining up approved vendors was only the beginning. Only fish with both scales and fins are considered kosher, so filleting can’t be done at a fish house, where the meat might come in contact with nonkosher mollusks and crustaceans. As a result, they could only buy whole fish, and had to fillet it themselves. This wasn’t a big problem, but the size of available fish limited their selection. “If there’s a 20-pound tuna and I think I’m going to sit on half of it, I can’t buy it, ” says Frankel. All food products must also be inspected by an in-house mashgiach–a kosher supervisor certified by the Chicago Rabbinical Council. Packaged products are checked to confirm that all bear a hechsher–the mark (usually a U or K in a circle) indicating they are kosher–on their labels. Inspecting fresh greens is more tedious. Every leaf must be observed over a light box for signs of insects. Any trace of insect–a wing, a leg, or even a trail where it nibbled–marks it as trayf (not kosher) and it is discarded.
Given a pastry chef’s typical reliance on butter and other dairy products, desserts presented another set of challenges. But Frankel’s come up with some creative solutions like exotic house-made sorbets in flavors such as quince, litchi, and sour cherry, and a liquid-centered chocolate cake called “The Black Hat” (a tongue-in-cheek nod to the clientele) that uses only high-quality Belgian chocolate, vanilla, and small doses of kosher margarine. There’s also a baked Alaska of sorts–an artful log of sorbet baked into a meringue, perfectly browned, and finished with fruit garnish and a spun-sugar lightning bolt jutting off the side.
Ted Cizma (Grace) just wrapped up negotiations with the owners of the now-closed David’s French Bistro in Naperville. If all goes well, he could have a suburban venue for his Contemporary American cuisine within two months.
–Laura Levy Shatkin
