{"id":494584,"date":"2026-06-11T16:41:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T16:41:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/494584\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T16:41:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T16:41:22","slug":"being-a-kosher-jewish-cook-on-food-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/494584\/","title":{"rendered":"Being a Kosher Jewish Cook on Food Network"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sruly Meyer, a Lubavitcher from Florida, writes about being a contestant on the 100 Cooks show on Food Network channel. Full Story<\/a> <\/p>\n

By Sruly Meyer<\/p>\n

Three years ago, I got a DM from someone asking if I wanted to be on a PBS home cooking show.<\/p>\n

I thought it was spam, but I decided to call the number anyway.<\/p>\n

It was real.<\/p>\n

I did two rounds of interviews, only to find out the show was filming over Rosh Hashana. I had to decline.<\/p>\n

After that, I honestly thought maybe because of Yom Tov and Shabbos, and maybe also because of kosher, this dream was never going to happen.<\/p>\n

Then, seven months ago, I got another DM. This time from someone asking if I wanted to be on a brand new Food Network show.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t think it was spam, but I was nervous it would be a waste to even respond after what happened with the PBS show.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m so glad I didn\u2019t ignore that DM.<\/p>\n

I know I\u2019ve been posting a lot about this. Maybe you read an article I was interviewed for, or heard me speak about it, but you really can\u2019t imagine what it felt like.<\/p>\n

Words don\u2019t fully describe the feeling I had then, the feeling I have now, and the feeling I think I will always carry close to my heart.<\/p>\n

I was at a very low point in terms of how a lot of things were going. I felt like the world had become bitter and tragic. The news alone can make anyone feel that way, but for me it was deeper.<\/p>\n

I felt like I had lost faith in people. I was losing hope that good things still happen.<\/p>\n

During the three months of interviews, and waiting to hear if I was advancing in the casting pool, I didn\u2019t let myself believe for even one second that this would actually happen.<\/p>\n

I remember it clear as a bell. Even an hour before I got the email, I had already been told an email was coming, and I still thought it would be a nice, \u201cWe really loved you, but\u2026\u201d kind of email.<\/p>\n

Truthfully, even after I got the email saying I was officially cast on the show, I was in shock.<\/p>\n

I was getting emails about wardrobe, flights, special requests, and all the details. Even as I stood in my closet trying to choose clothes, it still hadn\u2019t hit me.<\/p>\n

Forty-eight hours later, I was on a plane to California.<\/p>\n

I still didn\u2019t believe it.<\/p>\n

I met the first cooks on the ride from the airport to the hotel. They were just regular people. Excited to be on this journey.<\/p>\n

And I was sitting there, very aware of my yarmulka, my beard, the tzitzis strings at the side of my pants.<\/p>\n

Wondering. What are these people going to think about me?<\/p>\n

When we got to the hotel, I went to my room to put my stuff down. I was going to go back downstairs and start introducing myself to the other cooks who were already there, and then I saw my baseball cap on the bed.<\/p>\n

I was about to grab it.<\/p>\n

Maybe I should ease them into it, I thought.<\/p>\n

I remember that moment now just as clearly as I did that day. And I decided I was not going to do that.<\/p>\n

I came here to be who I am.<\/p>\n

There were dozens of other cooks representing their families, their hometowns, their cultures, and even their religions.<\/p>\n

I came as the kosher cook.<\/p>\n

I was going to introduce myself as me. And that yarmulka on my head is part of me. Keeping kosher is part of me. My Judaism is part of me.<\/p>\n

Yes, I made jokes. I laughed. I got to know so many cooks. We talked for hours. We got to know each other deeply.<\/p>\n

They got to know me.<\/p>\n

Not someone hiding a part of himself because he was nervous.<\/p>\n

They got to know me.<\/p>\n

And you know what? They were amazing. They embraced me. They accepted me. They treated me the same as everyone else.<\/p>\n

People asked me if it was hard to keep that secret of being on the show. It wasn\u2019t hard at all.<\/p>\n

You know why? Because that was just a TV show.<\/p>\n

The details of the show aren\u2019t what\u00a0 I walked away with. It was the people there and the experience.<\/p>\n

The cooks. The time we spent together. The bonds we made. That is what gave me back that faith.<\/p>\n

The ability to make a Kiddush Hashem on a scale of millions.<\/p>\n

The strength to not try to fit in, but to stand out. To be me.<\/p>\n

My personality and my Judaism, not separate from each other, but together.<\/p>\n

When I see clips of myself on this show and I see my yarmulka, the pride that fills me is hard to explain.<\/p>\n

When I see the other cooks, it reminds me of the time we spent together, and how those bonds continue to grow even now.<\/p>\n

That I didn\u2019t have to hide myself to connect with people, and that they accepted the full me, is a feeling that is hard to describe.<\/p>\n

Maybe that feeling is my faith in people being renewed.<\/p>\n

Maybe I can\u2019t describe it because it had been gone for so long.<\/p>\n

Is the world actually better since this experience?<\/p>\n

Maybe not.<\/p>\n

But the lesson I took away is that even when things feel hard, in the world or in your own head, good things can still happen.<\/p>\n

And maybe when we focus on that, it helps us do things that actually make the world better.<\/p>\n

One person at a time. Being our authentic and kind selves. Being proud of our Yiddishkeit!<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n


\n
\n <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sruly Meyer, a Lubavitcher from Florida, writes about being a contestant on the 100 Cooks show on Food…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[2195,103,61,60,446,212205],"class_list":["post-494584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-florida","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-nutrition","tag-sruly-meyer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}