Our Big Kitchen

Our Big Kitchen is a local community initiative providing opportunities for individuals to join together to support others. Everyone can take part.

OBK NEWS

Award for Our Big Kitchen

For the second year in a row, Yeshiva’s Our Big Kitchen at Bondi was awarded the National Community Service Award by the Restaurant and Catering Association.

 

 

Presenting the award, national president Brien Trippas referred to the high standards of management and service which the community facility has continued to maintain.
Accepting the award OBK’s Rabbi Dovid Slavin paid tribute to the kitchen’s volunteers, staff and supporters. “Thanks to this inspiring team, OBK has been able to offer help and support to those in need in the community,” said the rabbi. “We hope to be able to continue in our work for many, many years to come.”

Cooking in Harmony

Schoolchildren from Jewish dayschool Mount Sinai College donned aprons along with children from Muslim dayschool Arkana College to cook up a feast of traditional  Jewish and Muslim dishes to eat together with overproduction distributed to the needy.

Bondi’s Our Big Kitchen was the venue for the cookfest, the perfect choice given that it licensed to produce both Kosher and Halal certified food.

Director Rabbi Dovid Slavin told J-Wire: “It was a very special morning for OBK. Everything reads so negativeky in the Press yet here we were with children working together with no preconditions. Our children represent a promise for a better tomorrow.”

Arkana College is based in the Sydney suburb of Kingsgrove.

 

 

Peace Team visits Our Big Kitchen

Our Big Kitchen’s Rabbi Dovid Slavin played host to the AFL Peace Team in Australia to compete in the AFL International Cup.

 

With 12 Palestinians and 12 Israelis in its rank, the Team is attracting attention wherever it goes. The trip to Bondi’s Our Big Kitchen proved to be one of the lighter moments in the Team;s busy itinerary as they donned aprons and got down to the business of cooking.

Rabbi Slovin said: “It was a pleasure to welcome them to OBK. The kitchen itself has a history of joint efforts between the Muslim and Jewish communities and the Muslim members of the team could eat whatever they wanted as the kitchen’s output has been approved as Halal by the Muslim authorities.”

Kosher Coaching

The Kosher School run by Sydney’s Our Big Kitchen hosted seven classes from Moriah College for Kosher coaching…

Our Big Kitchen answers questions commonly asked about Kashrut.

Where can I go to learn the ins and outs of kosher cooking? Where can I acquire an in-depth understanding of the complex laws of kashrut? How can I make my kosher meals more delectable for the family? Back in 2009 Our Big Kitchen, together with the Kashrut Authority (KA) launched the Kosher School to help the Jewish community find answers to these perplexing issues.

The project launch was a crowded affair in the Kitchen, officiated by the then-premier of New South Wales, Nathan Rees.

While the School has been teaching the mashgichim how to supervise kashrut at your weddings and bar mitzvas, groups of students from the Jewish day schools have been attending successful workshops in the basic practicalities of kosher preparation and presentation. The first workshop was attended by no less than seven classes from Moriah’s Year 8, organised by David Klar, a teacher at Moriah.

Rabbi Aron Groner, the KA’s Assistant Rabbinic Administrator, guided the students through the fundamentals of Kashrut with the help of students from the Rabbinical College of Sydney. “First we showed them a video produced by the Orthodox Union in America, the largest Kosher authority in the world, to help them understand how intricate kosher laws can be,” said the rabbi. “Then they put on their chef hats and aprons for a hands-on workshop on how to wash and check vegetables, check for blood in eggs, identify a kosher fish and learn how to look up kosher products in the kosher directory.

The students did not leave empty-handed. Apart from the learning experience, they also took with them an information booklet, a KA magnet and biscuits to hand out to other as part of the OBK policy in putting a smile on other faces….and on the face of organiser OBK’s Rebecca Jacobs.

“The idea of having a short introduction and then four interactive workshops was terrific,” wrote Mr Klar. “The various stations ensured that the students were engaged for the whole time and also taught them practical skills that will hopefully be of use to them in the future, if not the present.” Mr Klar “really appreciated the time and effort you put into making the workshops interesting and relevant to the students.” He described the kashrut workshops as “fabulous”.

Rabbi Dovid Slavin, Our Big Kitchen’s convener, said “students seemed to enjoy the program and had great questions about the world of kashrut. We are proud to be able to educate students in the basics of kosher food preparation. We now plan to extend the program to other age groups and different levels of kashrut.”

The final word belonged to Mr Klar, who wrote, “OBK continues to be a beacon of light in both the Jewish and wider community.”

Big Cheque for Our Big Kitchen

NSW Premier Kristina Keneally visited Our Big Kitchen at the Sydney Yeshiva Centre yesterday and came with a gift from the State of $20,000.

Following a tour of the premises during which she switched on a super mixer purchased with the Government grant, Premier Keneally donned an apron and chef’s hat and got down to some old-fashioned food preparation.

Following her tour , the OBK director Rabbi David Slavin addressed the guests welcoming the regular users of the kitchen which included school and community groups, disabled and seniors groups and special guests the Gift of Life’s Shula Endrey-Walder, Danny Grynberg representing Harry Triguboff and Richard and Fay Andrews.

The Premier was welcomed by Rabbi Pinchus Feldman, head of the NSW Chabad. She admitted to being “inspired, touched and sometimes nearly moved to tears” when she listens to Rabbi Feldman speak. She spoke about the “sense of warmth, sense of community” in The Big Kitchen which should never be taken for granted. She told the story of an earlier visit as a Minister enduring the discomfort of a head cold. Back in her office in the city, she was as surprised to receive from The Big Kitchen the universal Jewish cure for headcolds….chicken soup.  She added: “I have never forgotten that single act of kindness towards me.”

She presented the cheque for $20,000 mentioning the work Our Big Kitchen does in the broader community including providing food to the State Emergency Services. She said that Our Big Kitchen “fills the gaps that the Government simply can’t”.

Rabbi Slavin thanked  the Premier for the financial help mentioning that it was not the first time the Government had assisted before announcing four new projects for Our Big Kitchen.

The garden developed on the premises is now producing food for the Kitchen…and the Kitchen’s waste was being recycled to fertilise it.

Rabbi Slavin then announced that Community Offenders Order Scheme  run by the Department of Corrective Services had now registered Our Big Kitchen as an approved location at which offenders can work for the community’s benefit instead of receiving a custodial sentence.

He announced Nicky Klugman as the Education and Youth community education manager

The fourth new project is in the field of counter disaster work in which The Big Kitchen will form a pivotal role in the wider community. Rabbi Slavin told J-Wire: “We are working with government agencies and the potential is there for us to play a part in bringing relief to communities anywhere in the world suffering from catastrophic tragedies…and I mean anywhere.”