L ifestyle /C ulture
Essen Pastry Chef Tova du Plessis ‘Beat Bobby Flay’
FOOD SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
PASTRY CHEF Tova du Plessis
has kept a secret for more than
two years.

At the end of 2019, du
Plessis, owner of the South
Philadelphia Jewish bakery
Essen and four-time James
Beard Foundation Award
nominee, traveled to New York
and spent a day taping inter-
views, cooking and competing
on Food Network’s “Beat
Bobby Flay,” a competition
series where chefs around the
country go head-to-head with
the former “Iron Chef.”
Since taping the episode —
its airdate delayed due to the
pandemic — du Plessis could
neither confirm nor deny
whether she bested Flay in the
competition, but finally du
Plessis’ secret is out.

28 DECEMBER 2, 2021
On Nov. 23, “Beat Bobby
Flay” episode “It’s a Cakewalk”
premiered, where du Plessis
takes the cake, baking a super-
lative Jewish apple cake to the
show’s titular chef, not only
showing off her culinary chops
but having a great time doing
so. “I would totally do
something like that again,” du
Plessis said.

In the show’s tight
21-minute format, du Plessis
first bested California-based
chef Holden Jagger, crafting a
superior dish in 20 minutes
with the secret ingredient
raspberries. She then faced off
against Flay — who boasted
23andMe results indicating his
25% Jewish ancestry. Her apple
cake with buttermilk sherbet
and rum caramel was deemed
victorious over Flay’s iteration
topped with chopped apples,
walnuts and a pomegranate
creme fraiche.

Du Plessis grew up in South
Africa, where she cooked along-
side her mother in the kitchen,
baking challah almost every
Shabbat. She loves cooking
Ashkenazi favorites, such as
brisket, and her bakery sells
spins on these classics, such as
her cinnamon hazelnuts and
chocolate halvah babka.

But all of those dishes have
one thing in common: They all
take a long time to prepare.

“All my favorite things take
hours to make,” du Plessis said.

“I’m a patient chef.”
And though all dishes she
finds joy in making, their
long braising, proofing and
baking times made them
impossible options with which
to challenge Bobby Flay in a
45-minute competition.

In the months leading to
the competition, du Plessis
memorized ratios for ingre-
dients in simple bakes like
shortbread and prepared
simpler, stripped-down
versions of recipes that
provided a blueprint and could
easily incorporate a mystery
ingredient. It’s how she was
able to throw together a dish
of raspberry mascarpone-filled
blintzes with a raspberry
pomegranate gastrique in just
20 minutes.

“I figured, ‘What could be
the foundation of my dish, and
it wouldn’t matter like what
the secret ingredient was?’”
du Plessis said of how she
prepared for the competition.

“So I started to think, ‘What if
it was a fruit? What about nuts?
What if it was chocolate?’ And
I just kind of played through
my mind how I would use it.”
And despite the show’s
kitschy antics (hosts Damaris
Phillips and Ace of Cakes’
Duff Goldman really, really
want to see Flay’s defeat), the
format of “Beat Bobby Flay”
really requires contestants
to be nimble, working under
steep time constraints with
unknown ingredients.

JEWISH EXPONENT
Tova du Plessis bested chef Bobby Flay in “It’s a Cakewalk,”
on the Nov. 23 episode of Food Network’s “Beat Bobby Flay.”
 Courtesy of Tova du Plessis
“It really is real,” du Plessis
said. “You see the secret ingre-
dient, and then you have to go
into the kitchen and make a
dish. I cannot believe what I
made in 20 minutes, and that’s
so gratifying; it feels so good. It
really brings out your compet-
itive spirit.”
But beyond bragging rights
and the intrinsic reward
of surviving a competition
show, du Plessis’ presence on
a national cooking show —
and one that du Plessis used to
watch in its earlier seasons — is
something she hopes to use to
Essen’s advantage.

“I knew I wanted to be
ready to ship nationwide, and
that was a big motivator to get
nationwide shipping set up,”
du Plessis said.

Last year
around Thanksgiving, du Plessis
began shipping Essen favorites
around the country through
Goldbelly, an online artisanal
food marketplace, expanding
her business beyond her petite
storefront on East Passyunk
Avenue. Though du Plessis has
received national recognition
in the past several years as
a James Beard nominee and
semifinalist, her stint on a Food
Network show can impact
business more, she said.

“Going on at Bobby
Flay’s show reaches a wider
audience,” du Plessis said. “Not
many people know about the
James Beard Foundation ...

Bobby Flay’s show has such
a large audience across the
country that I felt was a really
big deal — amazing exposure.”
And while du Plessis works
on growing businesses across
state lines, she has a commu-
nity at home where she is
thoroughly supported.

When du Plessis announced
she would be competing on
“Beat Bobby Flay,” customers
and community members
assumed du Plessis’ victory
before they had even seen the
episode. “The response I got most
was, ‘Oh, you’re totally gonna
beat him,’” du Plessis said. “That
was the overall sentiment, and
it’s a big compliment.” l
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0741
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



T ORAH P ORTION
Light Can Overcome the Darkest Night
BY RABBI ABE FRIEDMAN
Parshat Miketz
ONE OF THE most-cherished
ritual items in our house is
a hanukkiyyah that my wife’s
parents bought for us in Israel.

What sets this hanukkiyyah
apart from all of our others
is its design, which will be
familiar to anyone who has
been in Israel for Chanukah:
Th e candleholders sit inside a
glass-walled box that allows
you to light the hanukkiyyah
outdoors without worrying
that the wind will blow out the
candles. Even though each member
of our family lights their own
candles, lighting the “outside
menorah” is the highlight
every night: Everyone gathers
on the front stoop, sometimes
in PJs, sometimes bundled in
coats and scarves against the
snow, as we sing the blessings
together. Th e miracle of the oil —
that a single jar of sacred oil
could light the menorah in the
Temple for eight days, until new
oil could be produced in purity
and brought to Jerusalem — is
one of Judaism’s best-known
stories. But what are we really
celebrating when we remember
this miracle?
We oft en look to this story
for reassurance that, even in
times of darkness and diffi -
culty, all is never lost. Th e
timing of our celebration
reinforces this reading of the
story. We celebrate Chanukah
as we approach the winter
solstice, as the nights grow
longer. Th e nighttime also gets
darker as Chanukah begins:
Th is is the only holiday we
celebrate during the second
half of the lunar month, as the
moon’s light wanes each night
toward the darkness of Rosh
Hodesh. Here, the Chanukah
candles tell us, in the darkest
nights, we can still fi nd light.

All is never lost.

Th e Haft arah for Chanukah,
the prophetic selection read
on Shabbat morning, off ers
a diff erent window onto the
meaning of this holiday. Th e
prophet Zekhariah lived in
ambiguous times: the waning
days of the Babylonian exile,
the dawn of the Second Temple
and the Jewish people’s return
to our homeland in Israel. Th e
facts on the ground could look
very diff erent, depending on
one’s perspective.

In our Haft arah, Zekhariah
sees a vision of Joshua, the
still-exiled High Priest, as a
broken man wearing soiled
clothes and standing in
judgment before the heavenly
court. God intercedes directly,
chastising the accusing angel
and ordering that Joshua be
given new, pure garments
and restored to his post
in the Temple. In Joshua’s
defense, God refers to him
with the unique phrase, “a
brand plucked from the fi re”
(Zekhariah 3:2).

As a young boy Joshua
witnessed the
Temple’s complete destruction; grew up
in exile, suff ering unspeak-
able horrors; and now, in his
elder years, will preside over
CAN DL E L IGHTIN G
Dec. 3
Dec. 10
the Temple’s restoration.

Zekhariah’s overall vision is
one of hope and renewal — but
as the 19th-century commen-
tator Malbim points out, the
use of “brand,” is telling.

Brands are those pieces
of wood that you fi nd in the
midway point of a bonfi re: Th ey
have an untouched wooden
core, but the outside of the
log is deeply charred, cracked
and ashen. Joshua has lived
through exile to see redemp-
tion — and he is also indelibly
marked by the experience.

When I light our “outside
menorah” and watch the
fl ames fl icker and bend and
struggle in the wind, it never
seems certain that the light
will catch against the darkness.

Sometimes, in fact, it doesn’t
— now and again the wind will
blow out a candle or two before
I can close the door, and I need
to try again.

We can’t take for granted
that our light will overcome
the darkness. Each of us is,
in our own way, a brand
plucked from the fi re. Life
4:18 p.m.

4:18 p.m.

has marked us, charred our
outsides, left us smoldering.

Like the candles, we waver in
diffi cult times. Sometimes our
light goes out, and we need
someone to rekindle our fl ame.

We move between being a
fragile glimmer of heat in the
cold night air and a clear light
beckoning in the darkness.

Chanukah reminds us
that our defeats are not abject
failures — and it also teaches
us that our victories are
rarely, if ever, total. We fi nd
life’s richness in the balance
between. ●
Rabbi Abe Friedman is the senior
rabbi at Temple Beth Zion – Beth
Israel. The Board of Rabbis of
Greater Philadelphia is proud to
provide diverse perspectives on
Torah commentary for the Jewish
Exponent. The opinions expressed
in this column are the author’s own
and do not refl ect the view of the
Board of Rabbis.

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JEWISH EXPONENT
DECEMBER 2, 2021
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