Here’s to a delicious new year
With robust, heart-warming home cooking and beloved family recipes at the heart of every dish, Leigh Shani and her team at Cosma Catering are looking forward to helping families celebrate this upcoming Rosh Hashanah with a feast to remember.
For Leigh Shani, Rosh Hashanah is not simply a Jewish holiday – it has always been an exuberant and joyous festival, overflowing with delicious food, powerful music with plenty of singing and dancing, and the company of family and friends.
“I grew up in an Israeli-migrant home, where my parents are both creatives and I have three siblings. My dad and I were always in charge of the menu. My mum and sister would decorate the table with apples, ivy sprayed in gold, mini jars of honey and coloured table cloths,” said Shani.
“My older brother (who used to DJ internationally) was in charge of making sure there was good music all the time to set the right ambiance for cooking and creating. The lead up was always epic. We always had over 30 people at Rosh Hashanah. Sometimes people would bring guitars and there would be singing. It was a festival!” .
Determined to share with the community that treasured sense of family, warmth and food made from love, Shani, who stands at the helm of local catering business Cosma Catering, has injected so much of what she holds dear into this year’s Rosh Hashanah menu.
A highlight of the menu, according to Shani, is the semi-sweet gefilte fish, made from her Savta’s recipe.
“My Savta believes she’s famous for it, and until she was very unwell with cancer, she would make gefilte fish for all our friends and family at every Jewish holiday. She started Cosma with me and taught me to make her gefilte fish early on,” shared Shani.
Another menu item that would be no stranger on Shani’s family shabbat table is the Shawarma Chicken Thigh, inspired by her father’s recipe for meat.
“My dad is also an unbelievable cook and understands spices in a superior way to most chefs. From a young age I would watch him mix spices to create his weekly spice mix, and they were always different. From fenugreek to hawij, to ras el hanoul and Baharat, he would use master spices to elevate his own blends. He taught me that food is essential to bringing family together and making beautiful memories,” she said.
A cooking pot of creativity
However, Cosma Catering’s gastronomical offerings consists of so much more than just Shani’s family recipes, but is instead created out of the culmination of skills, traditions and priceless recipes by a highly creative team of chefs.
“Cosma is and always will be a hub for creatives to flourish. We spent the better half of the past year and half (through the COVID pandemic) identifying who we are as a company.” said Shani.
“We’ve established our values, we’ve established what’s important to us – the vibe in the kitchen is essential to everything! We’ve established that we have to build each other up. We learnt that we have to encourage and bring out the best in each other to bring out the best in ourselves.”
And Shani is extremely excited about bringing the best of her teams creations through the Rosh Hashanah menu as well. These dishes includes “the most amazing challah” that is handmade and prepared for more than 30 hours by her Irish baker; a “spectacular lamb shoulder” by her head chef that’s marinated for 24 hours with a dry spice rub and chermoulla herb past; a sweet and buttery pumpkin risotto; a sumac-rubbed trout with grape and cucumber salsa (one of Shani’s favourite dishes); and a “divine rich honey cake that has the perfect crumb”.
Community connection
Sumptuous feasting aside, Shani also sees her Rosh Hashanah menu and delivery service as a way of helping Jewish families celebrate the chag, while living under COVID restrictions, in an easier way.
“It looks like it is going to be another year of restrictions over Rosh Hashanah. Last year, we found that our Rosh Hashanah food delivery eliminated a lot of stress from families who couldn’t be together during such a happy holiday. It allowed kids who couldn’t be with their family, who were interstate, to have a little bit of their parents’ home-cooked flavours at home,” said Shani.
“Our delivery service also means that customers did not have to run around to various shops to find what they need, or have to stand in long queues.”
Cosma Catering will also be offering a Rosh Hashanah gift box, filled with delicious holiday favourites including a round challah, a bundt honey cake, dehydrated apples with toffee, a pot of locally-sourced honey and a bunch of flowers.
Bursting with gratitude over the support that the Jewish community has shown her business, Shani hopes that the food and experiences her team at Cosma create will make bidding farewell to a challenging year a little sweeter.
“This has been the hardest period of my work life, with constant lockdowns, closures and the lack of events,” she said
“And yet, through it all, the community has really been what saved us and had kept us alive. They have allowed us to keep our staff employed, and have given them stability in such an unstable time working in such a forgotten industry.
“The community’s overwhelming support is why Cosma is still open, so whilst I am proud of what we do, I am forever grateful for all that the community has given me, my team and my family.”
To view and order from Cosma Catering’s Rosh Hashanah menu, visit cosmacatering.com.au/product-category/jewish-new-year/.
All Rosh Hashanah orders must be received by Friday, August 27.
For more information, contact Leigh Shani on 0400 123 005 or hello@cosmacatering.com.au.
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