On February 10th I was invited to attend a Mexican Fiesta dinner at the Lubavitch Centre where Chabad Catering created a delicious all you can eat meal featuring Kosher Mexican dishes created by Chef Menajem. The room was filled with families, who enjoyed an all Kosher dinner themed with dishes from Mexico.

My favourite dishes of the meal were the Chicken Mole, Tacos with shredded beef and onions along with the Tamales de Pollo.

Q & A with Chef Menajem Peretz

Can you tell me how the Mexican Fiesta came about?

Since I moved here their have been a lack of options when it comes to kosher food it is always frustrating, although we do have a few restaurants/cafeterias in Vancouver, there aren’t many choices out there.

In December we started planning something for families to do on the 24th of December, and we did an All you can Eat Chinese  food, after a great event I decided to do ethnic food once a month.

I lived in Mexico back in 2000, and I wanted expose the community into more authentic Mexican Food.

Actually after this coming Passover we have planned to do an All you can Eat BBQ dinner.

Was this your 1st theme kosher dinner or have there been others?

As a mentioned before I did the Chinese Dinner and back in Ottawa we always created theme dinners.

Could you explain your kitchen setup, as I understand this dinner was kosher and was meat oriented

I run a 100% kosher kitchen I have both facilities (Meat and Dairy), in the case of the Mexican dinner I decided to use the meat kitchen considering that I had more dishes to offer, but when the time is right and we plan an Italian dinner I will choose the dairy kitchen.

What type of food does Chabad Catering offer in addition to these theme dinners?

We are a catering company, but we go above and beyond for our customers to design the entire party. Although we are located in Vancouver we service our clients at any location in need. From weddings in Whistler to a party in Victoria or a family reunion in Banff we move all our equipment to the location, my policy is to please my customers in any need or circumstance.

When is your next theme dinner and what will the theme of the cuisine be?

I am Originally from Argentina, so the next theme dinner after Passover will be an All you can eat Argentina BBQ.

The dinner was held at the Lubavitch Centre at 5750 Oak Street in Vancouver. If you are interested in having your event catered with Kosher cuisine, contact Chef Menajem Peretz at Chabad Catering.

By: Richard Wolak