From matzo ball soup to challah bread and fresh-baked bagels, Jewish culture is, in many ways, a food culture. Many Jews can recall cooking traditional family recipes in the kitchen with their parents or grandparents, scrambling to get everything ready before relatives arrived. Before long, the same kids who once helped in the kitchen are packing their bags and preparing to go to college, hoping to find a Jewish community that feels like home.
Northwestern Hillel is a religious organization that provides Jewish programming to students on campus. These events include weekly shabbat services and family-style dinners, social events, and service activities. Hundreds of students from all over the country and the world come to Hillel events to find Jewish community while studying at Northwestern.
So, aside from good programming, what else do you need to make a Jewish community of nearly one thousand students feel like home? Well, for starters, you need good food.
During the summer of 2024, Jacob Portman was hired as the first in-house chef at Northwestern Hillel. Previously, the organization had used Kosher catering services to provide meals for holidays and events. Now, with a full kitchen at his disposal, Chef Jacob has set out to provide Hillel with holiday meals that are just as creative as they are delicious.
Portman, a Columbus native, originally came to the Chicago area to attend law school. After one semester, he left and began looking for kitchen jobs. He worked at a string of restaurants in the following years, including a hummus shop, a Jewish deli, and a Jewish bakery where he baked bagels.
“I’ve always been interested in pursuing kitchen jobs related to Jewish cooking,” said Portman. “It’s kind of been the theme of my cooking career.”
Hillel initially reached out to Portman several years ago asking if he was interested in cooking Shabbat meals for the organization. At the time, it wasn’t something he could commit to, as he was busy with other work. However, this past summer, Portman sought out a new opportunity, and met back with Hillel. After a few conversations, the Hillel team hired Portman as their resident chef. So far, he’s been loving it.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” he said. “I think it’s really a unique opportunity to cook for a community.”
Portman’s planning process for Friday meals begins early in the week. He begins by digging through his many cookbooks in search of good recipes. Then, he works on sourcing his ingredients, through Kosher markets and distributors.
But the real fun begins on Wednesday, when Portman and his small team of student kitchen workers start prepping the wide variety of dishes that will grace the Shabbat dinner table.
The process of making meals for Hillel offers Portman a unique blend of familiar and new experiences compared to his previous culinary work. He particularly enjoys the special focus he can put on hospitality; there is something special about being able to put care into the food without thinking about things that restaurants often worry about, such as paying rent or making a bottom line.
“I can really just focus on the cooking, and making sure students are happy with it,” said Portman.
Beyond students’ satisfaction with the meals at Hillel, Chef Jacob has a bigger goal: to educate. Throughout the year, he hopes to excite students about learning how to cook Jewish meals, allowing them to have an active role in the cooking process.
“The great thing about cooking is that it’s something anyone can really do,” he explained. He believes that everyone, to some degree, can benefit from becoming ‘cooking literate’.
When asked about future plans, Portman admits he hasn’t spent much time considering what his dream job in the culinary field might look like. All he knows is that may not be too far removed from what he’s doing right now.
“It combines a lot of things that I care about: Jewish cuisine and teaching.” Portman said.
Having an in-house chef at Hillel gives students the opportunity to cook and enjoy holiday meals together, as a community—just like they would back home. For many, it evokes a feeling of nostalgia, reminding them of what defined every Jewish holiday they experienced as kids: eating good food with loved ones.
“Cooking for 100 people is more involved than cooking for 15,” he said. “But I think the payoff of seeing everyone sit down and enjoy the food that my team and I have been working on is just as rewarding as having friends over and seeing them enjoy the food, too.”