Culture

Inside a Kosher Kitchen

Rebecca and her husband, Joshua Ben-Gideon are both rabbis and therefore often have guests for holiday meals, so a large dining room is essential.
The room's built-in shelving and sideboard give the Ben-Gideon's room to store the dishes that do not fit in the kitchen, like their serving bowls.
Rebecca Ben-Gideon makes challah, a traditional Jewish bread, every Friday in preparation for the Sabbath.
Working at the counter of her bright, airy kitchen, she started with a ball of spongy dough that had been rising on her kitchen counter all morning and divided it into six long strands, which she quickly and expertly wove together to form an intricate loaf.
The challah is ready for the oven.
On the stovetop, pans hold various elements of the dish kasha varnishkas, a family favorite.
The Ben-Gideon's children love to help cook at the kitchen's island.
The kitchen of the Ben-Gideons' new home had not been designed with kosher cooking in mind, and they knew that they would not be able to remodel it right away, but its generous size appealed to them because they often have relatives (and their three children) helping them cook. "The most important thing was to find a house that would work for our family," Joshua explained to me. "We could have figured out how to work with almost any kitchen."
As in many Jewish homes, the Ben-Gideon's serve multiple meat dishes at holiday meals. To accommodate that, Joshua purchased an outdoor smoker so that he can smoke brisket while he has a turkey roasting in th oven.
The Ben-Gideon's have a number of of tableware pieces that are used only for certain holidays or ceremonies, including these silver cups, which are used for saying kiddush, the traditional blessing of wine.
Here is one of the sets of dishes used to serve only dairy meals. They have a separate set of white dishes to serve the meat meals.

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