Can a Gentile Cook a Kosher Meal?

Kosher bison steak

If a gentile has a religious Jewish friend over for dinner and he wants to prepare something special, what can be done? If a gentile chef is interested in working for religious Jewish clientele, what's the answer? Are these things permissible according to the tenets of the Torah?  There are Jewish religious laws stating that only Jews can cook Kosher food. In order to make this a workable situation, a kosher supervisor will oversee the cooking project and participate in the act of cooking to some extent, even if that means simply turing on the heat source. The rest of the food preparation will be up to the gourmet chef.

The question of kosher food preparation has to do with the Kashrut. This is the body of Jewish law dealing with allowable foods and allowable food preparation. It comes from the Hebrew root Kaf-Shin-Reish, meaning fit, proper or correct. [1]

There are a few very basic ground rules to know. First, never mix dairy and meat. What's the beef? The idea is that the milk and meat products might be related, as noted in the book of Exodus (34.26) which forbids "boiling a (kid) goat in its mother's milk."[2] So if you'd like to prepare steak au poivre with a cream sauce, then you would need to use a cream substitute of some kind. The website, Kosher Steaks, suggests using a cup of Mimic Creme, as opposed to dairy cream.[3] The cooking guide, Cooking with Mrs Moxie, outlines other such kosher guidelines.[4]

Some are of the opinion that a rabbi must always bless the kitchen and the food in order for it to be kosher. Observant Jews do bless the food before eating it, but this is not the be-all and end-all of making food kosher. The kosher ingredients may be purchased by anyone. Is it acceptable for a gentile to cook and prepare a kosher meal for a Jewish guest? This question depends on the level of expectations of the Jewish guest. If there is uncertainty, to play it safe, it would probably be best to simply order catering from a local kosher source and use disposable plates and dinnerware. At least this was the advice of Giora Shimoni at kosherfood.about.com/ [5]
 

The debate is still on regarding whether or not genetically modified foods are kosher. The Torah forbids mixing seeds and other things in Leviticus 19.19: "Do not mate two different kinds of animals. Do not plant your field with two different kinds of seed. Do not wear clothing woven from two different kinds of thread."(NLT) Therefore, it would seem that mixing genes from different plants and animals would be forbidden considering these types of laws. However, The Orthodox Union, a leading kosher authority, has declared that genetic manipulation is too small to see, therefore it is irrelevant to the question of kosher dietary laws.[6] While others, such as Lubavitch Rabbi Yossi Serebryanski of Crown Heights, claim that genes from pigs could be mixed with genes from tomatoes so, therefore, it's questionable as to whether GE foods can be considered kosher.[7]

And, finally,
References

[1] Judaism 101, Kashrut: Jewish Dietary Laws, http://www.jewfaq.org/kashrut.htm
[2] Exodus 34.26, http://www.neno.co.ke/bible/book/Exodus/34/26
[3] Kosher steaks, Bison Steak au Poivre with Cognac “Cream” Sauce, http://kosher-steak.com/kosher-bison-steak/
[4] Nuvvo, Cooking with Mrs Moxie, Kosher Cooking for the Non-Jewish, http://cooking-with-mrs-moxie.nuvvo.com/lesson/2976-kosher-cooking-for-the-non-jewish
[5] How Can I Entertain a Kosher Guest in my Non-Kosher Home? http://kosherfood.about.com/od/jewishholidaycooking/f/kosher_bookclub.htm
[6] GMO Journal, GM Foods: Glatt or Not?, http://gmo-journal.com/index.php/2009/07/25/gm-foods-glatt-or-not/
[7] Ibid.

Tags: kosher bison, kosher steaks, how to prepare Jewish food, can a goy cook Jewish kosher? Gentile chef serve Jewish kosher food, Jewish cream substitute for cooking, is genetically modified GE food kosher?

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