Keep it kosher

COSTA MESA — Andrea Bloom of Long Beach was raised in a kosher house, and although she does not keep completely kosher these days, she must have made her family and her childhood rabbis proud when she won the Simply Manischewitz Cook-Off on Thursday at the Hilton in Costa Mesa with her pea and fennel soup.

The contest was scheduled strategically for the day before the Festival of Lights begins at sundown today and was created to bring kosher cooking to the limelight.

“The essence of Hanukkah is a public demonstration of and celebration of one’s Jewishness, and I think there’s no better way than what the Manischewitz company is doing,” said Rabbi Yaacov Horowitz, who oversaw the cooking competition. “It is demonstrating that kosher food has come a long way.”

The competition also highlighted the hotel’s relatively new dedicated kosher kitchen, which opened in August.

“The response from the community has been huge,” the Hilton’s senior catering manager Erika Patenaude said. “There was obviously a huge need for it because we opened in August, and there’s a lot on the books for next year.”

The hotel hosted its first kosher wedding on Labor Day and has hosted bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs.

“People are tired of going to L.A. or Long Beach” for a dedicated kosher kitchen, Patenaude said. “We have a large Jewish community in Orange County.”

But when the kitchen first opened, hotel personnel had their fingers crossed that they’d get phone calls and reservations for parties and social events.

“When we first opened … we weren’t sure that the kitchen would work,” Patenaude said. “But now it’s clear to us there’s a need for it.”

The Manischewitz cooking contest was the first public event held at the hotel. Chefs in the kosher kitchen prepared a continental breakfast and cold deli lunch, all kosher, for guests and contestants.

“It’s a testament to the professionalism of the rabbi to maintain the standards he does — it’s really a wonderful thing to see,” Horowitz said of the Hilton’s dedicated kosher kitchen. “There are very few hotels of this type outside major American cities like Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, that have kosher kitchen services with as high of a standard.”

Bloom and the other finalist, Michaela Rosenthal, who beat out the eight others with her whitefish and potato knish, will go to New York early next year to compete against four other finalists from its New Jersey and Florida competitions held this year.

The one who comes out victorious will receive a new kitchen from General Electric as well as other prizes that are collectively worth $20,000. Rosenthal said she plans on donating the kitchen should she win.

The recipes weren’t all traditional. Los Angeles resident Lowell Bernstein offered the judges his “matzomales,” a Jewish take on the Mexican favorite.

Bernstein said that after living in Mexico and becoming fond of tamales, he wanted to find out how to make it kosher for holidays like Passover, when leavened bread is left out of the diet.

“I had a fascination with tamales,” Bernstein said. “People are always digging for that bread feel at Passover, and this fulfills that.”

Judges said they were impressed by Bernstein’s dish and that it reflected the West Coast well because of its Mexican flair, which was used by other contestants too.

HANUKKAH EVENTS

Beginning at sundown, practicing Jews will begin the celebration of Hanukkah, or the Festival of Lights, which is a historical holiday celebrating the Jewish victory over the Greeks about 165 BC, said Rabbi Marc Rubenstein, who presides over Temple Isaiah in Newport Beach.

The holiday is considered minor compared with Yom Kippur and Passover.

For the next eight nights, candles will be lighted on a menorah, with one lighted tonight and one more each night thereafter. The widely accepted reason for lighting the candles — to remind people of the miracle of oil lasting the Jews eight days — is a legend, Rubenstein said.

“The legend didn’t come alive until 500 years after, somewhere during the time of Constantine, when Christianity became more popular,” Rubenstein said.

But the other version of the story, according to the Talmud, celebrates the rededication of a temple when enough oil for one day burned for eight.

During Hanukkah, the lights are blessed, and many sing the hymn “Maoz Tzur.”

The celebration includes spinning a dreidel and eating latkes, potato pancakes.

Here are a few Hanukkah happenings in Newport-Mesa.

FASHION ISLAND

Fashion Island’s Annual Menorah Lighting Ceremony

Bloomingdale’s Courtyard

3 p.m. Sunday

In conjunction with the Chabad Jewish Center, Fashion Island will light the 8-foot menorah made from Legos, which was built and lighted by Chabad members. For more information visit www.jewishnewport.com.

TEMPLE ISAIAH

Annual Hanukkah dinner and service at Temple Isaiah, complete with a latke cooking contest, games for kids, sing-alongs, jokes and a Russian cantor

2401 Irvine Ave., Newport Beach

Dinner 6:30 p.m., service around 8 p.m.

Reservations are required, (949) 903-0770

Visitors and kids are free, others $5

TEMPLE BAT YAHM

Menorah lighting and Hanukkah service

1011 Camelback St., Newport Beach

5:45 p.m. menorah lighting, 6 p.m. service

(949) 644-1999

ALSO AT TEMPLE BAT YAHM

Hanukkah dinner and party

1011 Camelback St., Newport Beach

7:15 p.m., Dec. 22

Reservations required, call (949) 644-1999