When it comes to special dietary requests, no group on campus knows the feeling better than the Jewish community. Student groups who want to observe religious events like Passover are met with a challenge: there’s no Kosher certified kitchen to serve their events on campus.
Despite not being Kosher certified, UO’s catering facility has owned the exclusive rights to cater all university events since 2000. And while there are waivers that can be applied for to use alternatives, they can sometimes be difficult to get from UO Catering.
“For Jewish groups and people looking for Kosher or Halal style food – we don’t have a certified Kosher kitchen,” said Grace Godfrey, the catering sales manager for UO Catering. “There’s certain things that, as far as the cooking process, we can do to accommodate it. But if they’re strict Kosher, they’re not going to be satisfied with our kitchen.”
Oregon Hillel, one of the university’s Jewish groups, has encountered this problem.
“Just before (last year’s) Passover we were informed through their scheduling through catering that food events had to use [UO] Catering, and that we couldn’t access a waiver around it to prepare the food in our own kitchen, which is Kosher,” said Andy Gitelson, the executive director of Oregon Hillel.
“Rather than do a lot of fighting and trying to figure it out, we went with UO Catering for our Passover. We met with their staff and their head chef and we talked about cleaning the area so that we could be at least in the spirit of Passover.”
Hosting a Passover event isn’t cheap, no matter where it is. There are specific requirements to make it a true Passover that include hiring a rabbi to oversee the cleansing and blessing of all equipment and food. From there, the kitchen has to be under strict supervision until the end of Passover. True Kosher food has to be shipped in from Seattle or driven down from Portland for Oregon Hillel, making it harder to host events. In order to avert costs this year, Oregon Hillel held the event in house, which helped but also prevented them from being able to serve as many students as they wanted to.
This causes a problem when it comes to incorporating communities who have strict dietary restrictions. UO Catering understands these concerns, but they also do their best to work with anyone that uses their services. Many ethnic groups who hold events want to be assured that the cuisine they enjoy is going to be as authentic as possible.
“As far as other ethnic groups and campus groups that want specific ethnic cuisines, we are very accommodating,” Godfrey said. “We really encourage and want student groups to work with us on that; we’ve done things in the past where we’re using family recipes or we’re setting up tastings in advance of the event to make sure that we’re getting it authentic. And that’s part of the most rewarding work that we do is preparing food for students, creating that sense of home and authenticity with the ethnicity of their cuisine.”
As the Multicultural Center’s programs adviser, Steve Morozumi understands how hard it can be to get these recipes right.
“Students who want authentic Mexican food, you kinda have to pick what you want to order – which could be [something] like Pozole, which is a pork soup or something exotic which you know they can’t make,” said Morozumi. “There’s not a whole lot of alternatives. [And] you still have to get a catering waiver for anything.”
Despite UO Catering’s desire to create authentic cuisine, it’s not always easy to do. With every culture comes an understanding of the way a culture’s food is prepared and made, and that’s not something that can come with a recipe.
As for the future of the university’s Jewish community when it comes to important events like Passover, Oregon Hillel says that they’d be more than willing to work with UO Catering using their Kosher kitchen.
“We’re a partner with the university, we partner with them in any way that we possibly can,” Gitelson said. “If they wanted to come and work with us in that capacity, we’d be totally open to exploring that.”
Follow Erin Carey on Twitter: @erinlcarey
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