Two South Florida cooking enthusiasts who looked beyond familiar Jewish cuisine to create recipes for the Man-O-Manischewitz Kosher Cook-Off are among five national finalists for a grand prize worth $25,000.
Sarah Freedman-Izquierdo of Miami Beach and Harold Cohen of Hollywood face off Thursday in New York City before a live audience and a judging panel chaired by legendary chef Jacques Pepin against competitors from New York, New Jersey and California.
Freedman-Izquierdo crafted a kosher version of Chinese wonton soup with a ground turkey filling seasoned with ginger and sesame oil, while Cohen was inspired by the Ethiopian dish doro wat (chicken stewed in peanut and red pepper paste) to devise a garlicky chicken and lentil stew flavored with peanut butter.
Now a cooking contest aficionado, Cohen, 76, rarely ventured beyond weekend grilling before retiring as a reconstructive plastic surgeon.
``My wife always did the cooking, and she was great at it,'' he said in a telephone interview.
These days, though legally blind, Cohen is often at the stove, cooking primarily by touch and aroma -- and often in the winner's circle at cooking contests, including the 2007 Sutter Home Build a Better Burger competition, where he took second prize.
Last year, his pimiento cheese-, country ham- and bacon-topped hamburger won the burger division of the Food Network's Ultimate Recipe Showdown -- and he goes head-to-head with his son Michael in this year's burger finals, to air April 4. Even Cohen's granddaughter has gotten into the act, winning $10,000 in an FAO Schwartz cookie contest grandpa urged her to enter.
Clearly tickled by his newfound fame, Cohen, who rates a feature in this month's Food Network Magazine, rattles off the names of food stars he has met -- Guy Fieri, Emeril Lagasse, Bobby Flay, Wolfgang Puck -- and advises a reporter to ``just Google me'' to find YouTube clips of him in action.
Freedman-Izquierdo, 53, is a relative novice, have entered just one other recipe contest 12 years ago, though she modestly recalls that her rum-spiked mango tarte tatin earned her a finalist spot in the Bacardi competition.
Still, having spent most of her professional life in the food business, including 16 years as a gourmet buyer at Epicure, she brings plenty of confidence to the cook-off. Her cheering section includes her artist husband, Jaime, and their two grown daughters.
Freedman-Izquierdo says she began her recipe creation process by ``thinking first about a sensual flavor aroma -- I think of cooking tastes and smells and they invoke memories.'' She zeroed in on one of her favorite flavors, ginger, and when she found kosher wonton wrappers she was inspired to make a filling ``fragrant and flavorful with sesame oil and soy.''
Cohen, in contrast, says he begins with extensive research, looking at what has won a particular prize previously, browsing the Internet with the help of his wife, Gail, (``my seeing eye'') and drawing tastes from his travels to come up with ``something a little different and unique.''
Cohen, who has been around the world ``two or three times,'' settled on an Ethiopian-style dish by figuring it would stand out from entries with more familiar international influences.
Both contestants say the hardest part of creating their recipes was the contest's eight-ingredient limit. Though neither keeps kosher, both were raised in traditional Orthodox homes, so they had no difficulty making sure the dishes were kosher.
Cook-off results are to be posted by Friday at www.manischewitz.com.
Linda Cicero is The Miami Herald's Cook's Corner columnist.
