The winner of Rochester’s “Great Jewish Community Bake-off” was selected on October 28, as 13 finalists presented their delectable desserts for the judges. Harriet Renzi, of the National Council of Jewish Women, will receive the grand prize… a free trip to Israel! This was the culminating event of the bake-off, sponsored by the Rochester Federation as a project of the Rochester Modi’in partnership.

All the Bake-Off finalists

Harriet will travel to Israel as a “sous chef” to Rochester chef Andrew Lederman, owner and chef of Bodhi’s at Village Gate in Rochester, in a Chef Exchange between Rochester and Modi’in. They will spend a week in Modi’in in January, conducting cooking workshops and participating in other community activities. A similar process is taking place in Modi’in and their chosen chef will visit Rochester in the spring.

Chef Andrew Lederman was one of the judges.

Each finalist in the contest was chosen from prior bake-offs held by the organizations that participated. Harriet won the contest with her recipe for rugalach, one of the four traditional Jewish desserts allowed as part of the competition’s criteria. The judges were Andrew Lederman, Chef Exchange chair Rachel Glazer, and Federation Executive Director Larry Fine.

Eric Brandt presided over the wine tasting that accompanied the Chef Exchange reception.

“The Chef Exchange was a lot of fun,” says Rachel. “Our area synagogues and other Jewish organizations really got into it and we are delighted to wish Harriet a ‘mazel tov’ as our grand prized winner.”

Our congratulations go out to all the bake-off finalists: Judy Breitenbach, Ruth Cohen, Laura Colbert, Marjorie David, Janice Feldman, Gail Finkelstein, Janet Grable, Ruth Lebowitz, Judy Levy, Jill Orbach, Kathy Palokoff and Amy Shaffer.

All the delicious entries!

The work of all the chefs was sampled and enjoyed.

Rick and group: Rick Goldstein introduced each of the finalists and asked them to say a few words about their recipe.

Winner Harriet Renzi addresses the assembled group.

Many thanks to Malcolm Musiker for the photography.