Home

When Julie DeMatteo sampled the exotic matzah ball soup at Ginsberg and Wong, a former Cherry Hill restaurant that fused Jewish delicatessen fare with Chinese cuisine, an unlikely Jewish cooking career was born.

A 68-year-old retired teacher who lives in the Camden County borough of Clementon, DeMatteo is one of five finalists out of over 2,000 entrants in the Fourth Annual "Man-O-Manischewitz Cook-Off," to be held March 18 in New York.

DeMatteo's "Hungarian Chicken Spaetzl" -- a natural choice for someone who grew up in a Hungarian household in Western Pennsylvania -- will be in the running for a $25,000 grand prize including kitchen appliances and cash. She isn't Jewish, but Ginsberg and Wong's matzah ball soup with Julienne carrots, celery, and fine noodles inspired DeMatteo to start putting her own spin on Jewish food. Her matzah balls are cooked in chicken broth -- not just water -- to give them an extra kick.

"I make a mean matzah ball soup," DeMatteo told The Jewish State. Competing against cooks with names like fellow finalist Harold Cohen is "kind of daunting," but one of the points of the Manischewitz contest is to market the Secaucus-based company's products to non-Jews, DeMatteo said. DeMatteo didn't advance past the cook-off's regional competition in Philadelphia three years ago, but losing a cooking contest isn't a common occurrence for her -- she said she has won between 350 and 400 since participating in the Delmarva (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia), Chicken Cook-Off in 1991.

DeMatteo said she strives for an ethnically diverse repertoire of recipes, including Mexican, Spanish, and Thai food. She normally includes sour cream in the sauce for her Hungarian Chicken Spaetzl, but the kosher restriction against eating milk and meat together meant she couldn't do that for the Manischewitz contest. Besides for mushrooms, tomatoes, and paprika, DeMatteo's Manischewitz spin on her mother and grandmother's recipe includes Manischewitz dill mustard and the company's new all-natural chicken broth, a required ingredient for the competition.

"I just needed to give it some more flavor," she said of figuring out how to make the dish without sour cream.

DeMatteo's prizes at cooking contests have ranged from a $30,000 haul for her "Turkey Caesar Grinder" recipe in a contest for sandwiches with Carolina Turkey deli meat, to a trip to France, to a wooden apple for a second-place finish in an apple-themed contest.

Besides for making matzah ball soup, DeMatteo is trying to perfect a recipe for a cheese knish she came across at the Wildwood boardwalk when her husband Nicky was an entertainer there, but said she hasn't been successful yet. She said her favorite Manischewitz products are matzah meal and matzah crackers.

Celebrity chef Jacques Pepin will serve on a panel of judges for the Manischewitz cook-off. Other dishes in the final round included Ethiopian Chicken Stew, Rosemary Duck Cassoulet, Mandarin Dumpling Soup, and Creamy Taragon Chicken.

"We received some amazing recipe entries that reflect the diversity of our consumers who span all ethnic backgrounds," David Yale, president and CEO of Manischewitz, said in a statement. "As the leader in the kosher market, we take pride in our wide range of specialty products that inspire cooks of all types to create exciting kosher recipes."

Hungarian Chicken Spaetzl
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups flour, divided
3 tablespoon Manischewitz Dill Mustard
2 large eggs
1 1/2 pound boneless chicken thighs, cut into bite size strips
1 cup diced plum tomatoes
2 cups sliced button mushrooms
2 tablespoon sweet Hungarian paprika
14-oz. Manischewitz All-Natural Chicken Broth
Salt
Pepper

To make the spaetzl

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Combine 2 cups flour and 1 teaspoon salt in a large mixing bowl. In a smaller bowl, beat together 1/4 cup chicken broth, mustard, and eggs. Add to flour mixture and beat with a wooden spoon until well combined, adding more chicken broth, if necessary to make a very sticky dough. With back of a wooden spoon, press dough in batches through a colander with 1/4-inch holes into boiling water. After spaetzl rise to the top, let cook 2 minutes longer, then transfer with a slotted spoon to another colander set over a bowl. Keep warm.

In a shallow pie pan, combine remaining 1/2 cup flour, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper. Dredge chicken strips in flour mixture. Heat some vegetable oil in a large nonstick skillet and brown tenders on both sides, 3 to 4 minutes total. Remove to a plate. Add more oil if necessary and sauté the tomatoes and mushrooms 4 minutes. Add paprika and cook 30 seconds. Combine 1/4 cup chicken broth and 1 tablespoon flour and mix until smooth. Add to skillet with the remaining chicken broth, return chicken to skillet, and cook until chicken is cooked through and sauce is thickened, about 2 minutes. Serve over spaetzl.