Chasing Kosher pop-up: Fitzroy restaurant Huxtable goes Kosher

Huxtable restaurant in Smith Street is closed. Chairs are on tables, lights are off as the afternoon sun shines through the front windows and chefs have their heads down, focused on prepping for the night ahead. Enter Rabbi Mordechai Gutnick, a Rabbinic administrator of the Kosher Australia agency based in Melbourne, to inspect the venue and to see if Huxtable can be made Kosher. From this Sunday evening until Wednesday, Collingwood's Huxtable restaurant will be Kosher and open to the Kosher/Jewish community of Melbourne, who otherwise couldn't dine there.

This is happening because of a new side business, Chasing Kosher, established by two friends: Tzvi Balbin, who owns digital marketing agency DataSauce, and Yossi Spigler, who is CEO of the nutritional food company Functional Foods Plus. The concept of Chasing Kosher isn't new but it is new to Melbourne. The boys started to develop the idea late-2014 after Balbin went to a dinner organised by a friend in Sydney at a Lebanese restaurant that had been made Kosher for the night.

"I really wanted to bring the concept here," Balbin says. He explains it's commonplace for Jewish people to eat out in Kosher restaurants often when they travel, simply because there is a greater variety of food. "I was in Israel recently and visited a different style of Kosher restaurant every day, Asian-fusion, French, there's more people so more choice."

Balbin and Spigler organised the first of the Chasing Kosher dinners at Union Dining in Richmond in late November last year. Working with the restaurant's co-owners Adam Cash and chef Nicky Riemer, they held four dinners over two nights at 6.30pm and 8.30pm for a total of 300 people. They provided online bookings before the event and sold out in 20 minutes.

Riemer says she and Cash would happily do it again. "It was surprising how educational and inspiring it was. I know how to cook and use different ingredients but this was about looking at ingredients from a religious point of view. I learnt a lot and met some great people."

For Huxtable to be Kosher, it must first be inspected by the rabbi and he explains what he's about to do. "This isn't a Kosher restaurant and we have Jewish dietary laws. It's not just a matter of the food being acceptable but a matter of the utensils and equipment with which they're cooked to also be acceptable."

These dietary laws mean that those who keep Kosher can't eat at certain restaurants. In simple terms, Kosher law restricts Jews from eating some animals including pork or any shellfish, and meat and dairy must not be mixed.

As Rabbi Gutnick walks through the small kitchen with Wilson, he inspects the grill, looks at both the steam and conventional ovens and talks about the deep-fryer baskets. If the baskets are "Kosherised" – had a blowtorch held over them to decontaminate them – it may make them black and unusable, so Balbin and Spigler say they'll buy Kosher baskets to save Huxtable's equipment. The boys already bought much in the way of Kosher pots and pans, knives and grills, cutlery and crockery for the event at Union Dining and they will use them again here.

Co-owner and chef of Huxtable Daniel Wilson met Tzvi through a mutual friend. "It's great for us to do something different and I love learning about new things," he says.

Becoming a pop-up Kosher restaurant is a commitment, but it doesn't deter Wilson and his team, who approach the challenge with respect and excitement. The first three dinner services sold out in nine minutes and, as he says, "who doesn't want a full restaurant?"

Chasing Kosher is garnering a following of customers who look for the next event. Customer Paul Naphtali, a technology investor from North Caulfield, says, "I can't wait, we are Kosher but go out to restaurants and often can't order 80 per cent of the menu." His enthusiasm is palpable as he describes how "liberating and empowering it will be to sit in a great restaurant and order anything we wish from the menu." Yossi Herbst of St Kilda says, "This is more than a meal, it's an event and an innovative way to enjoy Kosher food together."

After the inspection at Huxtable, Rabbi Gutnick decides the restaurant can be made Kosher. The ovens, grill and fryer will be made Kosher on the Sunday morning before the first dinner service. A separate space in the cold room will hold the Kosher ingredients and Kosher wine will be stocked in fridges and on shelves.

The dinner menu, devised by Wilson, is $120 for five courses and $95 for three, and Chasing Kosher has plans for another dinner in the months to come. The next venue is yet to be confirmed, but it's safe to say it will be popular.

Huxtable will be Kosher from Sunday, March 22 until Wednesday, March 25. 131 Smith Street, Fitzroy. For bookings see chasingkosher.com.au