Jewish cuisine in America is nearly synonymous with New York-style fare. Outside the city, the shorthand for Jewish food is nearly the same list of old-world Ashkenazi delicacies: gefilte fish, borscht, kugel, knishes and other Eastern European Jewish fare.

Yet contemporary tastes are ever-changing, and the vanguard of the expanding kosher palette lies where the American Jewish culinary experience began: in New York City. While tradition rarely bends to the whims of the times, tastes do—and one Chabad House has ventured into the nexus of haute cuisine and halachic permissibility.

At Chabad of Columbia University, students are doing something a bit different: sampling the finest dining options around parts of New York, while still adhering to the comprehensive laws of kashruth.

There, in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, and under the guidance of co-directors Rabbi Yonah and Keren Blum, the students proposed a monthly event of kosher food investigation and appreciation throughout the city. Originally called the Kosher Dining Club, the group moniker was altered somewhat into the more ironic Kosher Foodies of Chabad, or “KFC.”

The food club was co-founded by community member John Peter Kaytrosh, who acts as the group’s iconic “colonel.” With general approval by Chabad’s board, he helps select each month’s restaurant choice. According to Kaytrosh, the “idea of KFC is to bring people together to show them the best kosher restaurants New York City has to offer.”

Blum agrees: “When students suggested the idea for KFC, I thought what a quintessential venue for socializing and Torah learning: NYC’s legendary restaurant scene! It taps into students’ desire to explore the city and Jewish life. It also increases awareness of high-quality kosher cuisine as a plausible life choice for participants.”

The outings demonstrate that haute cuisine and strict halachic observance can go hand in hand.

For the students, it has been important to expand the repertoire beyond the obvious. Indeed, the operative terms for the Kosher Foodies of Chabad are “new experiences.”