Observant and traditional Jews were startled this week to discover they were sifted out of participating as audience members and judges for Channel 2 television’s “Master Chef” cooking competition, scheduled for Saturday night. While the contestants will not be using non-kosher food such as pork or shellfish, they won’t be prevented from non-kosher practices such as mixing meat and dairy products.

In response to an Arutz Sheva query, Keshet, which has the franchise for the broadcast said the show was directed to general public and kosher keepers were sifted out so as not to be offended. Dozens of people complained to Keshet and the Second Broadcasting Authority when the program began broadcasting because of non-kosher recipes.

Source: Israel National News

There are a surfeit of cookbooks on the shelves, everything from pretty books that rattle off lists of ingredients whose duplication in the styled photos is next to impossible, to classic tomes that assume a complete apprenticeship to a master chef and years of professional experience.

I own both kinds.

Having cookbooks is a way to explore worldwide cuisine without leaving your reading chair. It mixes the exotic with the familiar and ignites the imagination. Cookbooks, for me, are a way to kick-start my creativity. I process kosher substitution in my head to see whether milk can be reasonably substituted or whether just plain water will do, or if veal or turkey can stand in for pork. It’s well past the point where I flip past a recipe simply because it’s not intrinsically kosher; anything can be kosherized. (more…)