Program Honors Shlucha’s Kitchen

Not many people have heard of Irkutsk, but the past few months the local Jewish community members have been eagerly awaiting the new kosher cooking classes, better known as “Kosher Chef”.

The program is all about learning how to keep kosher, and how to cook kosher with locally available ingredients. Buying kosher products is becoming more popular but for many people who have been cooking for years or decades non kosher food, the transition is very difficult.

The “Kosher Chef” program will teach local families and singles, the laws of kashrut while showing them hands on how to cook delicious and easy kosher food. The idea is get mom, dad and child to cook kosher together and want to eat kosher together.

The program was conceived and is run by the Irkutsk Shlucha, Mrs. Dorit Wagner.

The media is bombarding people with cooking shows, cooking competitions and the ingredients and methods of preparation are completely non kosher, causing many to believe that food must be cooked this way. The vision is to counteract this phenomenon and provide people with knowledge on how to cook great
kosher food. There is very little kosher cookbooks or magazine available in Russian, hopefully this program will become a trend.

Last week, the Shlucha Mrs. Irina Vagner a”h passed away suddenly, and the “Kosher Chef” program has been dedicated to her. For decades, Irina Vagner hosted around her table in Israel, the USSR and Russia, thousands of yidden.

Her kitchen and dining room tables were the place where countless shidduchim were made, around her table hundreds of yidden found their way back to Torah and yiddishkeit.