Kosher recipe sharing goes virtual

My search—and my article—ended with the conclusion that my bare hands—and not a mixer—were the best. But my search also led me to see a sneak preview of Leah’s website, CookKosher.com, which was still in its incubation stages.

Leah is obsessed with food—she’s rather have a new recipe than a new pair of shoes. You wouldn’t have guessed it had you known her as a five-year-old girl, who’d turn her nose up at anything put in front of her (and not because the food wasn’t good! The family is filled with legendary cooks).

Neither would you have known if you knew her as an eight-year-old, who ate only pizza—for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (but mom needn’t be concerned. The doctor said that pizza is very healthy, as it incorporates all the major food groups). Pizza is still Leah’s fav—but her repertoire is a little more extensive now.

Leah’s recipe collection became too vast for any her binders or her cookbook shelf—but not too big for a website. The concept for CookKosher.com, a website where home cooks share and store all their favorite kosher recipes, was born in 2004, when Leah and her brother and business partner, Zalman Roth, were both newlyweds living in Israel.

“My brother used to come by all the time. He was my taste tester and one of my best critics. My husband would just tell me, ‘Everything’s good,’ but my brother was more objective.

"When I created my almond ice cream cups recipe, I baked different batches to figure out what baking duration was the best. They’d be caramel-like at 9 minutes, crunchier at 10, and then altogether crispy at 11. My brother came by and tasted—and whichever one he preferred, that’s what I put in the recipe.

“I’d tell him about my addiction to food websites, and said we must have something like this for the kosher user. He said, ‘Let’s do it.’”

While Leah was the foodie, Zalman was the techie. In 1992, when Zalman was 11-years-old, he took a book on Basic, the computer programming language, out from the New York Public Library. (“I read it over Shabbos even though I shouldn’t have,” he says.) That week, with his new knowledge, he wrote a program that could translate any Hebrew date to an English one. Today, Zalman oversees the site’s functionality.

Special features

CookKosher.com was registered in 2004, but the brother and sister partners accelerated their long-incubating plan in 2010, when website construction and backend software was considerably more advanced and less expensive than it had been earlier in the decade.

In the interim, Leah became entrenched in the industry, becoming one of the most well-known food columnists and recipe developers in the kosher world. Leah and Zalman planned the site’s features throughout the spring and summer, and launched this past December.

“It’s not about the experts. We love recipes that we get from our neighbors. And today, people are turning to the Internet for their recipes and they should. It’s time to get rid of those little scraps and notes,” Leah says.

"The other day, a colleague of mine needed one of my recipes for her newlywed daughter. Rather than typing it up, I simply sent her the link to my recipe on CookKosher.com, where I had stored it.

"A lot of people have guests for Shabbos, and then the guests want recipes from their host,” says Leah. “When your recipes are stored on CookKosher.com, you can simply tell your guests to visit your virtual kitchen on the site.”

Visitors to the site who tried someone’s recipes can rate and review it, and active visitors and recipe posters earn badges, which represent their status in the CookKosher community. When their rank rises, their badges can result in real-life discounts and prizes.

“In the forum, people hang out and ask questions about cooking. We have bloggers and cookbook authors visit and write guest posts, and we feature all kinds of fun kosher places to visit, things to do, books to read, and of course…food to eat,” she says.

Soon, visitors will be able to print their recipes in any format they like, including little index cards.

Leah and Zalman credit the Israeli Web development company, Joomi, and the design firm, RADesign, for sharing their vision. “We’re building the greatest collection of kosher recipes.”

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