Hardly a cook will say that cooking for a Passover Seder, with its multitude of strictures, is easy, let alone when doing it for the first time.
Caterer Learned Dietary Laws From Scratch
Hardly a cook will say that cooking for a Passover Seder, with its multitude of strictures, is easy, let alone when doing it for the first time.
But for Linda Bergh, it’s all part of the job. Literally.
For the past year, Bergh has been the only kosher caterer in S. Fe, N.M., cooking out of the kitchen of the city’s Chabad Jewish Center. In the days leading up to Passover, which begins Saturday night, her kitchen was a flurry of activity as she prepared the dishes for the communal Seders to take place Saturday and Sunday night. The menu included such delicacies as roasted vegetable soup with homemade lemon mayonnaise garnish, braised turkey with sweet potatoes and pineapple, and red wine braised brisket.
A trained chef who specializes in private catering, Bergh, who is not Jewish, has a resume full of non-kosher venues. But when Rabbi Berel and Devorah Levertov wanted to celebrate the Chabad-Lubavitch center’s 10th anniversary, their friend recommended Bergh.
Once the community tried her food, “she sort of became our chef,” revealed Devorah Levertov.
