An evening with Susie Fishbein April 17

Marshall Weiss

The Dayton Jewish Observer

Kosher cooking revolutionary to prepare recipes

Not long ago, kosher meals conjured up images of brisket and matzah ball soup. That was before Susie Fishbein. Now there’s Chicken Negemaki with Chutney, and Creamy Thai Sweet Potato Soup.

It started in 2000, when Susie developed The Kosher Palette, a cookbook for her children’s Jewish day school in Livingston, N.J.

The response was so tremendous, Mesorah Publications signed her up to produce Kosher by Design, followed by Kosher by Design Entertains, Kosher by Design: Kids in the Kitchen, and Kosher by Design: Short on Time.

There’s hardly a kosher home in North America without one of her books.

Susie will present a cooking demonstration and tasting for the Women’s Division of the Jewish Federation on Tuesday, April 17 at 6 p.m. at the Boonshoft CJCE in Centerville.

“It was just a fluke. I was in the right place at the right time when the kosher market was exploding,” Susie says during a phone interview while waiting in Atlanta’s airport. She says she leads 75 cooking demonstrations a year.

With four children ages 4 to 12 and a husband who works in real estate, Susie still finds time to host friends each week to test new recipes for her upcoming books.

Even so, she says, “Shabbos (eve) is reserved for quiet time with family. Shabbos afternoon, we open our doors. We had 20 kids last Shabbos.”

The Long Island native, a former public school teacher, says her next project is Kosher by Design Lightens Up. She describes it as “what I’m feeding my own family, not a diet book. It’s common sense.”

The cost of the Women’s Division program is $54 per person, with seating limited to 60 people. For more information, e-mail Information@jfgd.net.

© 2007 The Dayton Jewish Observer