Hillel holds contest for kosher cookbook

Through its “Best Food on Campus” contest, the Orthodox Community at Penn is searching for the tastiest recipes on campus to make up its new cookbook.

A campus-wide e-mail was sent out encouraging students to submit their favorite recipes and directing them to the link to submit. Recipe submissions will be accepted until April 23, and the winners will be announced April 28.

All the recipes in the cookbook will be kosher, but the book will not be religious in nature, making it easily accessible to the Penn community, Engineering senior and Co-Chairman of the OCP Miki Friedmann said.

Hillel Dining has agreed to incorporate the winning dishes into its menu rotation, College freshman and Co-Chairman of the cookbook committee Jacob Shiff said. The winners will have their names attached to their dishes, giving them complete credit and “bragging rights,” he added.

A seven-member secret selection committee will decide the winners of the contest, Shiff said.

He explained that it is natural for Hillel to release a cookbook because “food is a big part of Hillel.”

The Orthodox Community has been trying to get the cookbook started for a couple of years, and the idea was pitched again at the Community’s committee fair, Friedmann said. He explained that a group of students took an interest in the cookbook idea and began to manage it.

“We saw it as an opportunity to bring together different branches of the OCP and Hillel community,” said Rachel Grosser, College sophomore and co-chair of the Orthodox Community at Penn.

However, the cookbook is still in its early planning stages, Grosser said.

The book will look professional and will be printed in full color with photography, Shiff said. Although the various themes of the cookbook have not yet been decided, it may contain a college cooking section that would feature quick and simple recipes.

The contest is meant to promote the cookbook and create excitement, but if a student doesn’t win the contest, that does not mean that his or her recipe won’t be added to the cookbook, Shiff explained.

The proceeds from sales of the cookbook will most likely go to the Orthodox Community to support its programming. However, some of the proceeds may go to charity as well, Shiff said.

“I am so excited that OCP and Hillel are creating a cookbook,” Director of Penn Hillel Rabbi Mike Uram said, adding that food is one of the foundational components of culture, community and identity.

“Hopefully people will get excited enough to submit their own recipes and pick it [the cookbook] up when we sell it on the Walk next semester,” Friedmann said.

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