Ladles are clinking, and the rump is roasting inside the Oakland Marriott. The hotel’s new kosher kitchen is up and running.
The kitchen, the head chef says, is primed to produce high-quality food saturated with flavor.
If critics of kosher fare charge that the food is as bland as airplane cuisine — a frequent complaint regarding kosher offerings — Marriott chef Michael Wolf wants to make those naysayers eat their words.
“There is a misconception that kosher food has to be bland,” Wolf said. “If you make tasteless kosher food, you don’t belong making kosher food.”
Wolf has a beef with those kosher caterers who only do a half-baked job of cooking.
The reason kosher food is often considered to be “tasteless” is that “people did not know enough about the cuisine and did not have the right facilities,” said Wolf, a non-Jew who has been involved in kosher catering for eight years.
The Marriott had tried several years before to keep a kosher kitchen but had difficulty securing the right chef for the job. Eventually, the hotel gave up.
Now, with approval already given by a mashgiach, a kashrut overseer, the kosher kitchen has already hosted its first event — a bar mitzvah at the end of November.
On tap for the first menu: grilled salmon glazed with an herb butter, with mango or papaya relish on the side, fresh salad, and a triple-chocolate cake.
“I’m slowly learning by reading cookbooks and talking to other caterers,” Wolf said. “I’m ferreting my way through my resources, contacting people in the Jewish community, including meat and fish suppliers and ordering dry goods catalogues.”
Wolf plans to include such fare as beef brochettes, stew and chicken. The menu will be “California-based: clean, light, with lots of lemon, parsley and garlic,” he said.
Wolf’s mouth waters at the prospect of serving up to a capacity of 4,000 people of different palettes.
“A lot of people don’t like too much flavor in their food. Many people like to order meat well done — that’s a piece of shoe leather. We have to cook for the masses. I like spicy food, but often when you add extra spice, it all gets sent back,” he said.
Wolf worked with Rabbi Howard Zack at Congregation Beth Jacob in Oakland and Rabbi Gedalia Meyer at the Berkeley-based Vaad Hakashrus of Northern California to certify the highest order of kashrut.
“I’m looking to get help from the community and work ground up,” Wolf said. “The community will support you once they believe in you. There are strict rules which I believe in and will follow. I don’t want a reputation for cutting corners.”
He has taken all necessary kosher precautions, starting with steam cleaning the kitchen.
Said Mariott catering manager Linda Prijatel, “It’s a market we think the city needs and which we hope will be beneficial for us as well.”
“We are confident it will work. It helps that we have one of the best chefs in California. You don’t run into spiritual chefs very often. He’s part of the old guard,” she said.