For best friends, Minette Lee-Warden and Dena Miller, food and community is a key part of their lives.
It’s a passion they now share with the Jewish community in Sydney after opening a kosher-certified catering business, Kosherlicious.
“Our main business is catering, we make extra food on Friday and invite people into the store to pick up food and put a smile on peoples’ faces, we love having everyone here," says Dena.
Australia’s practicing Jews make up less than one percent of the nation’s population, roughly 91,000 people.
There is a distinct set of rules to cook for kosher standards which includes having two kitchens and separate dishes and utensils – one set for dairy and one set for meat.
Minette and Dena say their point of difference is that they provide a broad range of cuisines to the Jewish community which is kosher-certified.
“There aren’t many kosher caterers in Sydney, and there aren’t many places for people of Jewish faith to go out and eat, so we’re trying to create exciting food,” Dena explains.
"There aren’t many places for people of Jewish faith to go out and eat."
“We’re lucky enough to have the most wonderful Asian chefs and between the two of us, we adapt the recipes because a lot of the [traditional asian] ingredients aren’t kosher, for example, shellfish - so we work together to create the most amazing dishes.”
"We adapt the recipes because a lot of the ingredients aren’t kosher."
Both of Jewish faith, Minette and Dena immigrated to Australia from South Africa with little funds and worked hard to look after their respective families.
“I came here from South Africa in 1989 and I came here with nothing, I had two children and I had to create a career for myself and because I loved cooking that’s what grew,” says Dena.
“I’d knock on peoples’ doors and say I’ll charge you by the hour and fill up your freezer so when your kids come home they have something to eat.”
From these early experiences, Minette and Dena decided to team up to create a catering company which started as kosher-style food before becoming kosher-certified in 2013.
Since then, turnover has risen steadily as Kosherlicious can now service all of the Jewish community.
As the business has grown, so has Minette and Dena's friendship.
“We’ve grown to love each other, we fight, we scream, we cry – but we can’t go home without not talking,” says Minette with a smile.
For the future, Minette and Dena say they will build a website for the business and continue to take it day-by-day.
"Our next venture is a website, we don’t have a website yet, we’ve been too busy," says Dena.
"We're happy where we are, we don’t have a plan of conquering the world or franchising; we just want to make people happy and enjoy our journey,” Minette adds with a smile.
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