Secrets of a Pesach Hotel Kitchen

May, 2019

As I wrote in the column immediately following pesach, much transpired over the yom tov that I wish to share.

The following is an example of this, and one that also relates to the rest of the year.

Before Pesach this year, two jokes were going around my shul. The first was innocuous take on the news – What does the current president of the United States have in common with us? We both are cleaning out our cabinets for Pesach.

The second joke is far more biting-When someone goes away for Pesach you wish them a chag kosher v’sameach. However, if they are going to a hotel for pesach then you simply wish them a chag sameach.

My shul loses about half its membership to hotels on Pesach, and for many years I would myself lead such programs.

In addition, I have certified a number of hotel pesach programs, as well as have many friends in kashrus who oversee any number of hotels.

I’ve seen it all, and I’ve heard it all; what follows is all true, with only names and places changed.

The Case of the ‘Stolen’ Pizza

Walking downstairs to my office after neilas hachag, maariv and havdala in my shul, I was preparing myself to meet with the goy to whom I had sold chometz.

Waiting for him to arrive, I turned on my cell phone only to be met with dings, beeps, and alarms, indicating a number of texts, emails and voicemails. A friend of mine was leading a pesach program on the other side of the ocean was trying to reach me, he said it was urgent. With pesach already over, I wondered what his issue could be. I could never have guessed. Like virtually every pesach program, his program offered fresh pizza, pasta and bread motzai pesach. It takes time for those items to be prepared, so usually a hotel will begin serving chometz some time after havdala. This rav explained that he walked into one of the barely used extra freezer spaces on the second day of yom tov and saw pizzas rolled out and sauced. Upon further investigation, he discovered that one of the workers on the first day of yom tov decided on his own to roll out the chometz dough, sauce and cheese the pizza and then freeze it so that it would be ready to serve even earlier than the hotel planned!

This rav felt it could still be served, and although now long after the incident (due to the time difference) wanted to bounce his thoughts off me (and several others he had called). The issues involved in this case – of amira l’akum, kdei sheyaasu (especially when there is a second day of yom tov) as well the obvious chometz that this goy ‘stole’ from the goy to whom the hotel sold their chometz to – are well beyond the scope of this article, but it goes to show that even in a most well-managed hotel the unexpected can always happen.

Asking Questions

I often get asked by discerning congregants and friends what they should look for in kashrus when choosing a hotel.

The first piece of advice, and perhaps the most important, is to make sure that the entire hotel –every room-is reserved for the program for that yom tov. To have treif/chometz room service etc. operating over pesach is only adding high risk for errors and even malice.

Second, I urge them to call the mashgiach. There are certain questions that must be asked to ascertain the level of oversight. No matter what hashgacha a hotel is under, the mashgiach is the first-and often last-line of defense.

I recall a wedding when I was in Buffalo. The chassan wanted to utilize a new hotel in Niagara Falls that never dealt (or likely even heard of!) kashrus. My vaad spent weeks prepping the staff, and days kashering and overseeing the entire process.

The day of the wedding arrived and I was acting as rav hamachshir and rav of the chosson. The chassan came over to me and informed me that he decided last minute to fly in his family’s rav from Brooklyn.

“That is beautiful” I responded. “Who is their rav?”

“Oh” he said matter-of-factly, “Rav Yisroel Belsky”.

Rav Belsky was not only a renowned posek, but he was also a chief posek at the OU.

It was too late to throw in extra chumros and I just had to hope he would eat the food.

Moments later Rav Belsky arrived with his rebbetzen and one of his sons.

A brilliant mind, he quickly gauges that this was a new building. “Is this your first kosher event in this hotel?” he wondered.

When I answered in the affirmative, he asks for a tour of the kitchen.

It goes without saying that he taught me all the right questions to ask in such a scenario, and, baruch Hashem and to my great relief, he and his family partook of all of the food at the wedding.

What to learn from this is that there is nothing wrong, mean or untoward in asking the rav hamachshir or mashgiach questions or even for a tour of the facilities. So long as the questioner is kind and not accusatory, it is the mashgiach who gest defensive when asked such questions who thereby becomes suspect.

In fact, sometimes guests asking questions can actually be an aid. We once had a guest in one of our hotels call us on chol hamoed. He was concerned that he saw a mashgiach hand a yartzeit licht to the goy. The goyishe worker was then to light the gas omelet stations with that flame under the mashgiach’s eye.

While an innocent oversight on the mashgiach’s part, we generally do not rely on the opinion of the Rema who (perhaps only bdieved, see Chelkas Binyanim ad loc.) allows a goy lighting a stove by using a flame lit by a Jew in order to circumvent the issues of bishul akum. (How this does or does not differ from a pilot light is beyond the scope of this discussion)

Tea Rooms and Beyond

Many hotels offer all types of delights in their tea room. I was speaking to a chaver of mine over chol hamoed who was overseeing a hotel this year. They wished to serve fresh cotton candy. The problem was, how can such a machine be kashered for pesach. For a number of reasons this is a complex issue, and a direct heat source placed on the metal –he was told-would ruin the machine.

Then there is the issues beyond kashrus –like an eruv. The kashrus in a hotel my be impecaable, but sometimes complex eruv issues exist. Visiting a hotel a week before pesach (I stayed in my shul for yom tov, with competent mashgichim at the hotel), I walked the outside of the hotel with the mashgiach who was to double as the eruv builder.

He wisely discerned an interesting issue. Many hotels have fountains and decorative pools in front of it and around its building.

If he placed some of the eruv strings so that they run in places over water he can build an eruv that is simple, but if he had to go around the water, or not include the water, it would take more time and money.

Now, water can cause many eruv concerns-like karfeif– but here was another concern.

Some poskim (see Rav Gedalia Felder zt’l in Yesodei Yeshurin chelek 5) who question if a string for an eruv can ever hang over water.

The issues in a hotel, you now see, are endless and hard to predict.

All of the above is not to dissuade people from going to hotels for pesach or other events, rather to turn all kosher consumers into discerning kosher consumers.

Rashi (Bereishis 28:17) teaches us based on a gemara (Chullin 91b) that the makom hamikdosh is the ‘milon’ (‘hotel’) of the Riboneh Shel Olam. Based on this we can end with a beracha that we be zocheh next year to all be in the ultimate pesach ‘hotel’!