Behind thescenes Boro Park Center Opens its Kitchen, While Staff Members Open Their Hearts to Nurture Residents Back to Health
on i t i d E n e h c t i K
By Yehudit Garmaise
W BTS BORO PARK CENTER
hile serving 504 residents and hundreds of additional family members and staff 365 days a year might give pause to the even the most seasoned baalbuste, it is all in a day’s work for Chaim Brull, Boro Park Center’s food service director, and his highly organized, competent, energetic, and loving team of 62 uniformed employees, who work together like a well-oiled machine. To explain how he and his team create their magic every day, Mr. Brull gave Center Spirit Magazine a “behind-the-scenes look” at how he and staff create three kosher meals a day, plus snacks, parties, and special events: all of which are attuned to each resident’s likes, needs, and dietary restrictions. The day at Boro Park Center’s kitchen begins at 5am, when Rabbi Yisroel Friedlander, Boro Park Center’s lead mashgiach, unlocks the door. As the only staff member with a key, he launches the whirlwind activity that is to soon ignite, when he is joined by a chef, four cooks, and two cooks’ helpers, who start cooking breakfast and also start prepping for lunch.
24 / The Center Spirit / July 2021
Boro Park Center’s chef Mr. Sammy Ben, a Moroccan Jew, has cooked in kitchens as impressive and varied as that of the King of Morocco, French bakeries, and the Waldorf Astoria New York hotel in Manhattan. Mr. Ben, who is an expert fruit carver and master baker, as well as a chef, is especially beloved for his delicious treats and incredible baked goods. He is famous for his fresh, hot cheese danishes that are served to the residents on Shavous mornings. At 6am, the “tray line personnel” report for duty, and at 6:30am sharp, kitchen staff start “setting up the tray line,” which means warming up all the palettes or warming elements and heating up the plates in plate warmers so that residents’ plates of food can be kept hot until they are served. While the palettes and plates reach high heat, the kitchen staff puts all the cold food and condiments on the trays on which residents will eat. During COVID, the New York Department of Health (DOH) recommended that institutions use disposable
