YOU SHOULD KNOW ...

Yehuda Sichel
opening, Huda got attention from the
Jewish Exponent and several other
media outlets like PhillyVoice and the
Philadelphia Business Journal.

When asked if the sandwich shop has
navigated its way through COVID to
achieve profitability, Sichel answered,
“I’m still here.” Then he mentioned that
he has eight more years on his lease.

The local celebrity chef has made
it, you might say. But where did he
come from?
Pikesville, Maryland
JARRAD SAFFREN | STAFF WRITER
A Photo by Julian Gottfried
t 36, Yehuda Sichel has become a sort of celebrity chef ... at
least in Philadelphia.

For a decade, he worked at CookNSolo Restaurants,
including a stint as executive chef at the well-known Jewish restau-
rant Abe Fisher. Then he appeared on a season 26 episode of “Beat
Bobby Flay,” defeating the show’s namesake in a matzah ball soup
competition in the final round.

Finally, in September 2020 Sichel opened a restaurant called
Huda, a fast-casual sandwich shop on South 18th Street known for
its “signature homemade milk buns,” per its website. Upon its grand
10 AUGUST 18, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
Sichel’s Judaism is a part of his public
identity. He worked at Abe Fisher and
faced Flay in a matzah ball soup com-
petition. And that part of his identity is rooted
in his childhood. Sichel grew up in
an Orthodox home and community
in this Baltimore suburb north of the
Charm City.

The chef described his upbringing as
“pretty hardcore.” Sichel and his five
siblings observed the Sabbath and kept
kosher. They went to Orthodox schools
and primarily associated with other
Orthodox people in Pikesville.

“You knew you had a strong social
fabric to fall back on,” Sichel said. “But
there was also a lot of pressure to sort of
do the thing. Being Orthodox.”
But when he reached his teenage
years, Sichel realized that he didn’t
have to do the thing.

At 15, he got a job at The Brasserie,
a kosher deli in Baltimore. As Sichel
told the Exponent in an August 2020
article about the opening of Huda, the
popular deli got him into making food.

It was where he discovered the love for
sandwiches that would eventually lead
to his first independent venture.

As the chef explained more recently,
making big pastrami, corned beef
and brisket sandwiches, and making
them for neighborhood regulars who
expected perfection every time, taught
him the craft.

“You really need to balance it. If you
put a little too much sauce that will
mess up the whole sandwich,” he said.

“Whereas in a dish, you’d just have a
little extra sauce in the dish.”
At the same time, the experience got
him out of his Orthodox world even
though he was technically still in it.

The deli may have been kosher, but
most of its employees were not Jewish.

Sichel also was judged not for his com-
mitment to his community but on the
quality of his food.

He liked it all and wanted more.

“It got me to work hard, be out in the
world and socialize,” he said. “Growing
up Orthodox can take a toll on your
social skills. Same friends, same family
friends. You’re not really hanging out
with people from the outside.”
The up-and-coming chef and future
slayer of Flay worked in the deli full
time and took courses toward his GED
at night. He also stopped keeping
kosher and started exploring restau-
rants to taste different foods. After
earning the GED, Sichel left for culi-
nary school in Israel.

His family supported the move,
he said.

“They were happy that I was finding
my way,” the chef added. “I figured it
was time to go.”
Philadelphia After culinary school, Sichel faced
another crossroads. He couldn’t really
go back to Baltimore because he felt
there wasn’t enough going on in the
culinary scene. So instead, he chose
Philadelphia, and, while he never really
made sandwiches during his years at
CookNSolo, he also never stopped
making them for himself and eating
them in his spare time.

Then, as he explained to the
Exponent in 2020, he started baking
bread during quarantine and think-
ing about a new idea: adding gour-
met sandwiches to the hoagie and
cheesesteak-defined sandwich scene.

His 18th and Chestnut location is a
prime spot in the city, so it sees a lot
more foot traffic than his old deli in a
Baltimore shopping center.

But there is one similarity, he says.

“We got the best sandwiches in town.”
Sichel is a married father of two who
lives in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. He is
still not Orthodox and, while he does
not belong to a synagogue, either, he
does practice Judaism “a little,” he said.

“Maybe next year for the High
Holidays,” he said. JE
jsaffren@midatlanticmedia.com