Chulent Championship

Men of Efrat tried to break the traditional male stereotypes tonight by proving that real men make the best chulent!
The First Annual Chulent Championship was held in the Zayit Raanan Synagogue on Efrat's Zayit Hill. Fifteen men participated with chulent recipes from all over the world – Sephardi, Ashkenaz, Moroccan, American, parave, fleishig, more more more.
About 50 men came to taste their friends' food and perhaps be inspired to try their own hand at preparing the Shabbat Chulent.
A varied array of chulents needed, of course, a very varied team of judges. The honored judges were Efrat's own Chief Rabbi HaRav Shlomo Riskin, shlita, Member of Knesset Uri Orbach and the head of the ZAKA organization, Mr. Yehuda Meshi Zahav.
The judges were great sports, working their way through chulent after chulent, making copious notes, washing each plateful down with some bottled water. They were all smiles, but then again, I photographed the judges when they were only up to Chulent Number Three. They still had 12 more to go.

Still, it seems that the judges must have been in training for some time now in order to be able to ingest all the Beans. Barley. Eggs. Meat. Kishke. Zuccini. Potatoes. Because anything and everything mushed together make a chulent.

The fun and delicious evening was organized by Oria Shochat and Yechiel Fishman.
The evening was greeted with great enthusiasm. Next year, IY"H, there are going to be so many men, they'll need even a bigger dining room.

And the winners are:
First Place: Rami Kaminsky
Second Place: Oria Shochat
Third Place: Harel Avrahami

And now, we're all hoping these men will prove their altruism and share their chulent recipes with the world.

If you'd like to share the Chulent experience, you can view Voices' clip: http://www.voices-magazine.com/index.php?page=inside_page&id=178