If you’re Jewish, and cooking for Rosh Hashanah next week has you on edge, Kitchn Synch can take the shpilkes out of preparing meals for the holiday.
Instead of being on pins and needles (in Yiddish, shpilkes), you can have Bergenfield-based Kitchn Synch deliver cleaned, chopped and pre-measured glatt kosher ingredients for soups, appetizers, entrées and side dishes to your door in an insulated cooler in plenty of time for you to simply stir up a memorable meal.
Bergenfield resident Douglas Soclof, 46, and chef Casey Colaneri of the kosher restaurant Ridge Steak & Sushi in Airmont, New York, started Kitchn Synch four months ago to deliver all the fixings for glatt kosher meals. Now they have close to 1000 clients from Boston to Virginia.
Kitchn Synch’s chef, Casey Colaneri, left, with founder Douglas Soclof.
In addition to his weekly meal kit plans, Soclof is offering two menus for delivery in time for the Jewish new year on September 13th and 14th:
Basic Package – $275 (6 people), $450 (10 people)
Choose one from each category…
—Soup: Chicken matzoh ball; cream of mushroom; red pepper & tomato
—Appetizer: Stuffed sweet & sour cabbage; curried beef skewers, chicken meatballs
—Entrée: Slow roasted brisket; stuffed Cornish hens
—Side Dishes (choice of two): Baby mixed greens with roasted pumpkin seeds; root vegetable kugel; butternut squash risotto, caramelized carrots
Deluxe Package – $425 (6 people), $725 (ten people)
—Soup (choice of two): Chicken matzoh ball; chicken udon; roasted leek & potato; red pepper & tomato; cream of mushroom
—Appetizer (choice of one): Stuffed sweet & sour cabbage; chicken satay skewers; gnocchi with braised short rib; chicken meatballs; curry beef skewers
—Entrée (choice of one): Roasted rack of lamb; roasted prime rib; braised Korean short ribs; slow roasted brisket; stuffed Cornish hens
—Side Dishes (choice of four):Butternut squash risotto; root vegetable kugel; baby mixed greens with roasted pumpkin seeds; heirloom tomato salad; roasted spaghetti squash; string bean salad; red cabbage sesame slaw; roasted Italian long hot peppers; caramelized carrots; sautéed Swiss chard
Meal kit delivery itself is just a couple years old. Kitchn Synch is one of the first to specialize in 100 percent kosher ingredients, says Soclof. Customers can buy weekly fresh-prepped ingredients and instructions for $14.95 per meal per person.
The company also has a popular gift program. “Whether it’s a wedding gift, thank you for watching my dog, enjoy your new apartment, whatever reason or opportunity you have to send a gift,” Soclof says, “the recipient can order whatever they want, whenever they want it.”
Soclof founded Dougie’s BBQ & Grill at age 22. Dougie’s is now a 14-restaurant chain. He calls himself “a hospitality junkie with a love and passion for food and for making people happy.”
“Meal kits can certainly help during the week,” he says, “but the kosher consumer has many other needs, whether it’s the Sabbath or all the Jewish holidays.”
With Kitchn Synch, he says, “You are able to cook in the easiest fashion possible and still have the freshest food. The only thing we’re not doing is cleaning up the dishes.”