kosher caterer served non-kosher food to his customers

rainbow dash

Wed, Feb 08 2012, 9:41 am

The chef and the general manager at one of Long Island's largest kosher catering companies filed court papers Tuesday against the company's owner, saying the owner has been serving non-kosher food to his unwitting clients for more than a year. Chef Michael Savitsky and general manager Tom Cataldo say in court papers that, at the same time Morrell Caterers owner Scott Morrell has been charging for kosher food but actually giving his clients treife.

http://failedmessiah.typepad.c......html

tikva18

Wed, Feb 08 2012, 11:41 am

I highly doubt that they are certified - their site gives no mention of hashgocha at all. More probably, they say they are kosher, but perhaps don't maintain those standards under a rabbi. http://morrellcaterers.com/index.php

auntie_em

Wed, Feb 08 2012, 11:56 am

In the FAQ it says:

What is your Rabbinical Supervision? •• Morrell of Woodbury is Glatt Kosher, exclusively under the Vaad of Flatbush.
•• Morrell Caterers of Lawrence and Morrell Caterers of Melville are under the
strict Kosher supervision of Rabbi Steven Moss.
•• Morrell of Woodbury can provide Glatt Kosher supervision at both
Temple Israel of Lawrence and Temple Beth Torah of Melville

chefmommy

Wed, Feb 08 2012, 12:12 pm

I think you just opened a "can of worms" I hate to be the one to start this but as an extensive family background in catering and we have been dealing with many hashgachos in ny mostly brooklyn sadly there are only a handful of them that could and would actually realize something is not right and doing something about it. when people say you need to trust the owner you can believe that because there are many ways an establishment can replace many kosher items with non kosher and if you dont believe me just look at the price difference between kosher and non kosher.

hadasa

Wed, Feb 08 2012, 12:16 pm

Neither the Temples nor Steven Moss are Orthodox. Nevertheless, it's still upsetting that people who intended to eat Kosher food were served total treif.

Ruchel

Thu, Feb 09 2012, 4:57 am

I know of Orthodox catterers who messed up (on purpose to save money or by mistake) or have such a low standard I'm not sure I would eat there without checking some things myself... Sad

DrMom

Thu, Feb 09 2012, 5:51 am

chefmommy wrote:

In th article, it says they sometimes had trief items like raw shrimp right next to supposedly kosher food. I'll bet they were aware that this wasn't okay...

grace413

Thu, Feb 09 2012, 6:07 am

So what does the Vaad of Flatbush have to say? Either their name was being used without their permission or they were negligent.

morah

Thu, Feb 09 2012, 6:56 am

I also want to know why this is only coming out now if it's been going on for over a year. Why didn't these 2 guys speak up sooner? If they've been sitting on this for a while, then why talk now?

tikva18

Thu, Feb 09 2012, 1:12 pm

auntie_em wrote:

My mistake - I did not scroll down to see that question.

tikva18

Thu, Feb 09 2012, 1:15 pm

My dh is shocked that so few people come up to him at events to question the kashrus. People make assumptions all the time - and they really should be doing their own research.

Just ftr, if my dh supervises it, then it's good Smile

However, we're in Chicago...