This last Sunday I went to the Derech Chaim chinese auction to put some maaser money in for some prizes. Esther and I go in knowing that we won’t win anything but try to have a good time anyways. The theme this year included having different chefs come in and perform for an hour or so in front of a live audience.
I was excited to go since the entertainment is right up the alley of the DVD we’re releasing in a week (Everyday Kosher Cooking). The two out of the four chefs i watched was Devorah Heller and Susie Fishbein. Devorah Heller is known as the “Challah Lady” and Susie is synonymous with “kosher cooking”. Devorah has a whole story about how she got into making challah: for 9 years she had no children and one day she took on making challah and ….
When I came in to watch Susie, my interest was to take notes for a bash-fest. In my mind, she was another person overhyped by Jewish enthusiasm because liked the pretty pictures in her cookbook. After all, why else would her cookbook sell more than anyone else’s? People have been cooking for thousands of years and suddenly people like her. why? because of some pretty pictures. But when she started performing, members of the audience were really rude and interrupting her and asking her to repeat herself numerous times. She was very humble and patient about the whole thing. She was willing to work with everyone and answer everyone’s questions until they understood her.
What really won me over was that she truly was an expert at what she was talking about. I thought “Susie Fishbein” was an exploited name and that she doesn’t know much and has food consultants doing all the work for her. But as she was answering questions, she spoke out the science of the different shticks she was doing. I even pulled out a pen and paper to take notes on things I had never heard of before.
I really hope she gets a copy of Everyday Kosher Cooking and is inspired to let me video her for a DVD of her own.