Last week was the annual all-day kosher festival, Kosherpalooza, in its 2nd year, at the Meadowlands Convention Center in Secaucus, NJ.
Like the first year, the event hosted lots of kosher & Jewish brands, most offering samples of their foods, some of them brand new to the market. It’s a great way to discover new kosher brands that are just entering the marketplace and/or may only be available online.
The event was filled with food demos, games, and discussions/panels. Food demos by celebrity Kosher chefs, games like taste testing and speed stacking a dishwasher (this proved to be quite popular), and panels that included a kosher restaurant discussion (including yours truly, David Mizrahi from Salt Steakhouse and numerous other kosher restaurants, Elan Kornbkum, and Sara Lasry), rabbis from the OU, and a presentation from professional mixologists, amongst others.
For anyone who follows kosher & Jewish personalities online, this was one place to find them all under one roof. Some of my friends & cookbook authors were in the room signing and selling their cookbooks or presenting at events throughout the day, like Chanie Apfelbaum (Busy in Brooklyn), Miriam Pascal Cohen (Overtime Cook), and future cookbook author & Jewish TikTok personality Melinda Strauss. I also got to meet one of my online favorites and now new friend, BenGingi, whose food accounts on TikTok and Instagram have blown up over his beautiful foodie creations and positive outlook on life. The founders of Fleishigs Magazine (and Kosherpalooza), Kosher Catch, The Rebbe’s Choice, and many other kosher businesses were in attendance, as were other kosher media / journalists like YeahThatsKosher author Nati Burnside. You could’ve met Gad Elbaz, Isaac Bernstein, and others too.
According to the event organizers, the event is run by Fleishigs Magazine and their partners, over 4,000 people attended in 2024, building on a successful inaugural event last year.
While there were truly lots of great products on display here, my personal favorites on display include (but are not limited to):
- All the sourdough breads and garlic confit from Crave Sourdough, based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
- The variety of chicken fingers (especially the Cap’n Crunch chicken) from Flavor on Board, a caterer based in Monsey, NY
- Pareve chocolatier, 7th Heaven, was back with their amazingly non-dairy chocolate bars; often better than an equivalent dairy option
- Caterer, The Pizza Guy, had meat pizzas with awesome dough & crust
- Fresh Fizz Soda, based on Long Island, offers fully organic sodas at 60 calories per can, that use real ingredients instead of high fructose corn syrup
- Another soda brand, Bimble, offers unique adult-only beverages with small amount of THC added
- While not a food brand, I loved that the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar had a table to promote their kosher friendly resort, which hosts a kosher restaurant, kosher food truck, grab and go kosher items, and kosher ice cream spots throughout the Nassau, Bahamas resort
- Brand new out of Israel and New Jersey, Goodweek, reinvented one-pot meals with pasta/risotto and “sauce” together in a bag. Great flavor and little effort to prepare
I observed a number of kosher certified brands in attendance that were either fully Gluten free (GF), or those that included THC or CBD (derivatives of the marijuana plant) in their products, more than I had ever seen at any kosher event list this. I expect to see more of these in the future.
Ultimately, this event is shaping up to be a must activity for kosher consumers and kosher brands alike. Everyone that can make it out for future events should mark it down on their calendars for the end of Spring each year. YeahThatsKosher will continue to provide you updates and discounted tickets on future Kosherpalooza and other kosher foodie events.
