KosherSquared - September 2023
The OU certifies lab-grown chicken, the top 10 Manhattan kosher restaurants, why so many kosher restaurants are so bad, a kosher 24 karat gold burger, and Jewish teens feeling the pain of inflation.
Welcome to the September 2023 edition of KosherSquared.
We hope everyone had a great summer.
Read on to see what caught our attention in the world of kosher food, Jewish travel, and lifestyle in the last several weeks.
The OU Certifies Lab-Grown Chicken
One of the most widely accepted and recognized kosher certification organizations has certified lab-grown chicken as kosher but not pareve.
The kosher landscape of lab-grown and alternative meat products is incredibly dynamic. What was a nascent segment only several years ago is now a growing section of your neighborhood supermarket. On offer for a few years now are imitation but almost identically tasting “alternative meat” products such as Beyond Meat and the Impossible Burger. Now, we are exiting the world of imitation and entering the era of actual meat that is “lab-grown.”
Historically, it was unclear how kosher certification agencies would treat lab-grown meats. For example, even if they are deemed kosher, are they pareve? Layered onto this morass were further questions about whether non-kosher meats like pork would be kosher if grown in a lab.
As we move from the theoretical into the actual, some of these more thorny questions are being answered. In a milestone for kosher, the Orthodox Union (OU), the largest kosher certification agency, announced last week that chicken cultivated in a lab by Israeli-based SuperMeat met its standards to be certified as kosher but not pareve. The rationale for granting kosher certification centered around the technical aspects of the cultivation, including that “the chicken cells were not fed any animal ingredients and were extracted from a fertilized egg before any blood spots appeared.” This distinction is critical since the process of cultivating meat from stem cells requires the use of living animals — and kosher law bars the consumption of any part of a living animal. That said, the fact that the cultivated chicken is kosher but not pareve underscores the nuance in the analysis that certifiers such as the OU are undertaking.
“This collaboration aims to bridge the gap between scientific understanding and halachic adjudication, setting unprecedented standards in the cultivated meat industry.”
- Rabbi Menachem Genack, the CEO of OU Kosher said in a statement in re: SuperMeat.
Notably, while the OU deemed the chicken kosher, but not pareve because it is derived from an animal and looks exactly like meat (leading to potential concerns of marat ayin), other Orthodox leaders, such as Israeli Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau, ruled that some lab-grown meat could be considered pareve.
On the potential of cultivated pork being certified kosher, Rabbi Genack of the OU stated, “Lab-grown pork will remain off-limits because it is derived from a pig, which is not kosher.” Further, the OU declined to give certification to Impossible Pork, even though it is plant-based, because of “sensitivities to the consumer.” There is a palatable aversion on the part of the OU and many other kosher certifiers to even the mention of pork to the extent that, when Herr’s put out a pork-flavored potato chip variety that was certified by the OU, the OU requested the certification be removed even though the item was kosher, due to the optics.
Israel is one of the most advanced countries when it comes to veganism and “meat alternatives” generally, particularly in the “lab-grown” meat sector, with first movers such as Aleph Farms. For context, more than 12 million people in the United States eat kosher products, according to the OU, and the certification of “lab-grown” meat has significant market power.
Top 10 Best Manhattan Kosher Restaurants
Our overview of the top 10 best kosher restaurants in Manhattan pays homage to the city that never sleeps, which has had its challenges over the years but is fighting to persevere and, thankfully, still packs a mighty punch when it comes to the dearth of kosher restaurants it has to offer New Yorkers and visitors alike.
While several cities around the globe, such as Lakewood, Miami, Paris, and Jerusalem, offer an exciting and dynamic kosher restaurant landscape, Manhattan is still the mecca of kosher food. After all, “the city that never sleeps” has deep roots in terms of Jewish immigrants settling in Manhattan at the beginning of the 20th century and also as being at the “center of it all,” thereby driving restaurant growth. Still, because commerce and tourism propel so much of the activity in New York City’s most active borough, it is subject to the inevitable upswings and the downturns that come with economic cycles and other events that affect the restaurant sector. Through it all, though, Manhattan has persevered.
In honor of such a magnificent city that we hope has many more years of success ahead, we overview the top 10 best Manhattan kosher restaurants. Our ranking has something for everyone, including a spot for a solid New York slice of pizza and high-end fine dining options.
Why Are So Many Kosher Restaurants So Bad?
Statistics and perspectives about why kosher restaurants are operating against a “stacked deck” in more ways than just the added cost of kosher certification.
It is no secret that the restaurant business is notoriously difficult to see success in. After all, a sizable portion of restaurants fail within their first year of operations, with some stats claiming as many as 60% fail and don’t make it to their anniversary, while 80% don’t make it to five years.
Kosher restaurants, while perhaps benefiting from a niche and concentrated clientele, have several sizeable handicaps above and beyond the standard challenges. Tablet Magazine explores both the obvious and the less obvious challenges of kosher restauranteurs and the downstream effects of the difficulties resulting in "sub-par service, bad food, exorbitant prices, and an overall bad experience.
Some of the more interesting tidbits include the following:
Unless a kosher restaurant is offering in-house Shabbat and/or holiday meals, they are only open approximately 200-and-change days out of 365 because of Shabbat and other Jewish holidays.
“…you have to buy your meat and vegetables from kosher-certified companies, which are basically little mobs, as they can raise their prices however much they want, and you’re still obligated to purchase from them.”
“According to a 2016 article in Crain’s, having two full-time mashgiachs on staff can cost upwards of $100,000 a year.”
Most kitchen and wait staff waiters want a job where they can work on Fridays and Saturdays—historically, the busiest and most tip-heavy days for a restaurant, but most kosher restaurants are closed on Friday and Saturday. This dynamic “automatically lessens the quality of the staff” as well as increases in the pay that must be given.
To account for these realities and additional expenditures, kosher restaurants may end up cutting corners, such as service and food quality, as well as the holy grail, raising prices. All that said, due to the limited number of kosher options, Jewish diners seem to keep coming back.
A Kosher Burger Joint Joins The “Gold-Plated Fad”
For a while, plating food with gold, whether a burger or wings, worked to garner press and business, and we thought the fad might have run its course…
There was a time when a flurry of restaurants decided to coat whatever they could in gold, charge a ton for the item, and, in turn, get a stream of valuable press, with the hope that the boost would translate into sustained business for the establishments more “pedestrian” items of the unplated type. The playbook was run on practically everything, but the most common suspects were chicken wings, burgers, and steaks. We thought the fad was over, but Mocha Burger Lux, a new addition to the ever-expanding “Mocha Dynasty” (Lux joinsMocha Burger in SoHo and Mocha Red by Union Square as well as Mocha Bleu (dairy) in Teaneck, NJ), announced earlier in the summer that it will be offering a “24K Gold Plated Golden-Burger” with the equally wild price of $175.
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency describes the burger as follows:
“The 12-ounce short-rib burger is wrapped in leaves of real, 24-karat gold. It’s grilled and topped with black Australian truffle, crunchy onions and chips, house-made sauce, and pickles. The dish is brought to the table in a custom hand-carved wood treasure chest, which will be opened at the table, triggering a smoke show and illuminating its contents.”
Somewhat assuringly, restauranteur Naftali Abenaim stated in regard to the burger: “You’re not paying for the piece of meat. You’re paying for the experience.”
We will admit, we have not tried a gold-plated burger (or gold-plated anything, for that matter). Perhaps “the experience” is worth it?
Let us know if you are brave (and rich) enough to try.
Regardless, we have no beef with a gold-plated burger. After all, it makes life more interesting.
Visit Mocha Burger Lux at:
4 E 46th St, New York, NY 10017
The High Price of Kosher “Eating Out” For Jewish Teens
A pain point among Jewish kids who only eat kosher and who often have limited allowances centers around the high price of kosher food when compared to non-kosher alternatives.
Ask any Jewish kid who only eats kosher about the feeling of passing by a fast food joint advertising a burger or sandwich for a few dollars while the same item costs double or, more likely, triple the price at a kosher store, and they may admit to feeling a bit of jealously. Granted, many may be glad to sacrifice for religious observance, but the reality is that many Jewish kids have limited allowances, which may not have been raised in tandem with inflation (which hit a 40-year high at an annual rate of 8.5% in March of 2022) and the aggressive price increases many kosher restaurants, and fast food joints have implemented on what was already much more expensive pricing than non-kosher establishments.
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency explores this interesting undercurrent among kosher observant teens trying to navigate increasing prices at kosher restaurants. Take, for example, Gabe, a Jewish teen who was taken aback by the prices at Grill Point: “$26.50 for a bowl of schnitzel over rice, quinoa or salad.” Unable to afford the hefty price and with no cheaper options in the vicinity, Gabe passed on the Schnitzel and played basketball while “ignoring his growling stomach.”
While some might think that eating out or lack thereof is trivial, the reality is, that for some Jewish teens who only eat kosher, the exorbitant costs are leading to feelings of resentment.
One Jewish teen summed up these feelings as follows:
“Some of my non-kosher friends can eat a Big Mac [Combo] Meal at McDonald’s” or a burger, fries, and a drink for about $12 in New York City. “There is no such option for me. It’s frustrating,” said Benichou. At Burgers and Grill, a popular kosher eatery on the Upper West Side, a similar combination meal starts at $18… “I didn’t choose my denomination. The truth is that I can’t get a cheaper lunch with my [non-kosher] friends because of some random laws in the Torah,” he said. “This makes me more resentful of Orthodox Judaism.”
The article further includes valuable context on the pricing differential between kosher options and non-kosher options. Specifically, “a pound of chicken drumsticks at Park East Kosher Butcher in NYC costs $9.98 — $9.30 a year ago — [while] a pound of non-kosher Springer Mountain Farms Chicken Drumsticks, sold on FreshDirect, is $2.79.”
Other Jewish teens featured in the article stated that the difficulties had not affected their relationship with Judaism. One stated, “I am grateful to live in a place and attend a Jewish day school where kosher foods are accessible to me,” in reference to the kosher breakfast and lunch offered for no additional charge at the Jewish school he attends.
While eating out is a luxury, and some might say that kids should stop complaining, the reality is some kids feel bad, which raises the question about whether it should be a “communal” priority for Jewish kids, who sacrifice for observance, to have affordable options to enjoy eating out while keeping kosher?
Let us know what you think via the poll below: