WHITEFISH BAY — A Whitefish Bay catering company is using Jewish American Heritage Month as an opportunity to share traditional foods and culture with the broader Milwaukee community.
WATCH: Whitefish Bay chef shares how food helps introduce people to Jewish culture
Mosaic Catering operates out of the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center in Whitefish Bay, where it also runs a café open to the public. Hannah, the chef behind the operation, said food is one of the most accessible ways to introduce people to Jewish culture.
"I think it's important because we're such a small community, and so it's a good way to show who we are to people," she said.
Hannah said some visitors may have never encountered Jewish food or culture before.
"May never have met a Jew, and so food is obviously a good way to introduce people to that," she said.
The menu at Mosaic Catering is made largely from scratch by a full pastry chef staff. Offerings include several flavors of rugelach, homemade chicken soup, kreplach — a meat dumpling — and homemade matzo balls. The café also serves homemade babka in chocolate and strawberry cream varieties, as well as crembo, a lesser-known dessert made with a homemade cookie, homemade marshmallow cream and a chocolate coating.
WATCH: TMJ4’s Kidd O’Shea learns to make challah during Jewish Heritage Month
Hannah said her path to running a catering company and café was not one she originally planned.
"I started running my synagogue kitchen, and so I happened into it when that changed, and I just love working with the whole community," she said.
She said the tight-knit nature of Milwaukee's Jewish community — which spans religious and nonreligious members — is something she values deeply, and that the café serves as a gathering place for all of it.
"I think it's really important. Our community in the Jewish community of Milwaukee is small, and so we're very connected, nonreligious or Orthodox, and those relationships, and I think that's a really important and good thing. And then to just bring things to those families is important, and community connects here at the café as well," she said.
The café has drawn a following beyond the Jewish community as well. Hannah said many regular customers have developed a taste for Jewish staples.
"We have a lot of regular customers that come in who've gotten to know the Jewish food. We have people who come in and get challah all week long and make their French toast or whatever they're looking for," she said.
The Mosaic Catering café at the JCC in Whitefish Bay is open Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Fridays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
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