At the Gostijo restaurant situated in Chabad of Athens, in addition to schnitzel there are some noteworthy dishes of Greek and Sephardi cooking, such as a meat pie whose filling changes daily, marinated sardines, moussaka, souvlaki, and gyros. (My husband spent 10 minutes trying to talk me out of the pasta Bolognese in favor of something Greek, but the pasta was delicious.)
A request on Facebook for people to share their best Chabad food stories resulted in tales of warmth and stories about how even traditional dishes can get local inflections. “Chabad Kyoto had a mean cholent with yummy Japanese sweet potatoes that tasted like kishke and pulled beef,” said one diner. And a patron of Chabad of Mumbai recalled the rebbetzin saying, “This is the freshest chicken you’ll ever eat; my husband shechted [slaughtered] it this afternoon!” Chabad of Koi Samui in Thailand serves local dishes such as pad Thai and green mango salad. And Chabad of Shanghai offers dim sum and chow mein.
“We’re glad that people come for the food, be it traditional Jewish dishes or local cuisine; and Chabad-sponsored chefs recently have embraced food trends such as omakase (sushi) and French pastries in New York City,” says Motti Seligson, head of public relations for Chabad. “In addition to providing a service for kosher eaters the world over, we also want to help people live their best Jewish lives, so the restaurants also emphasize Shabbat meals and Jewish practices, such as putting on tefillin and giving tzedakah.” Seligson says it’s an added bonus that through Chabad you can embrace kashrut and, on some nights in Spain, eat at a Michelin-starred restaurant when Chabad takes it over.
Some of the cooking upgrades come from Chabad emissaries seeking ways to make their dining spaces even more inviting, while others come from chefs who became involved with Chabad and want to share their talents. The former Basil restaurant in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, for example, close to Chabad world headquarters, was where many foodies first tasted truffle fries, which have become a bar menu staple.
And don’t underestimate the alluring aroma of freshly baked pastries to gather in Jews. The Chabad Annex on Manhattan’s Upper West Side features the Patis Bakery, whose delicacies include croissants, éclairs, and salted caramel cheesecake.
Visitors to New York can decide if they’ll make the dessert trek before or after the 13-course omakase meal at the new Fins and Scales restaurant in a Chabad house in Greenwich Village. The suggested price tips the scales at $150 per person; but patrons, limited to eight per 75-minute seating, can pay what they can.
While Chabad-affiliated restaurants do seem to be getting more impressive, our family will tell you that our greatest experience happened 12 years ago in Venice. While the Venetian Chabad restaurant Gam Gam serves hordes of tourists every year, on our trip they offered an option called “Shabbat at the Gallery.” For $100 per person, it offered three Shabbat meals of diverse meats and salads in an art gallery that was elegant, intimate, and festive. We found the food to be very tasty and the setting delightful, which included a group of visiting Israelis who shared Torah thoughts and singing. But at the final meal, seuda shlishit, or “third meal,” which closes out Shabbat, just after tea and cake were served, our waiter hustled around the dining room offering delicious tomatoes coated in fresh pesto. We finished our cake and dived into the second dessert. Was it a Venetian tradition, or had the waiter forgotten to bring out the tomatoes during the main meal? Our family chooses to think that each culture has its delicious whims, and tomatoes and pesto was a lovely way to cap the extraordinary Shabbat. ■
