Cheryl Kredenser Rubin and her sister, Ina Kredenser Goldman, set up a catering business called House Parties, etc. in Rubin's house in Brockton 23 years ago and then dealt with the mishaps of a home catering venture. "There was food in all my neighbors' refrigerators," says Rubin. "Could I tell you stories!" She particularly likes the one about the day she borrowed space in a neighbor's refrigerator, was assured that the neighbor's son would be home later to let Rubin in, and then had to figure out how to get her food when the teenage boy was AWOL. She broke into the house. If anyone could roll with the punches, it's Rubin. She laughs easily and often. She, like all caterers, works a physically demanding job, and she has managed to keep up the pace for years.
She believes in getting along with everyone and calls herself a "people person." Sitting in her office, Rubin, 57, recalls the moment 13 years ago when she learned that her sister had died from heart failure. After a few shaky days of wondering whether she could go forward, Rubin continued the business.
"Ina had the genius to find the recipes and execute them," she says. Now Rubin finds the recipes. She learned a lot from her late mother, Sadie "Charlotte" Kredenser, who sat on a stool in Rubin's catering kitchen and instructed both daughters on, among other things, the finer points of chicken soup.
Now called La Bonne Cuisine, Rubin's company caters to the Jewish community south and west of Boston. People keep telling her that "my food tastes like homemade," she says.
At her stove, she shapes matzo balls with an ice cream scoop and drops them into boiling water. Rubin's matzo balls are made with chicken fat that she renders herself.
"Would you believe that I have a customer who wants to know why the matzo balls are flat on the bottom?" she asks. Rubin explains that when matzo balls are first cooked, they're soft and malleable. As they cool, the bottoms flatten. "There's no such thing as a perfectly round matzo ball." Her soup is made in small batches, loaded with vegetables and poultry, and skimmed often. Holding up a 4-inch tea strainer, she says, "The last time it gets strained, it goes through this." After the soup is done, Rubin and her staff pick all the chicken off the bones. "Do you know how many hours it takes?" Rubin asks. Her husband, Henry, is in charge of divvying up chicken and vegetables for the customers.
Chicken soup and matzo balls, of course, are on the menu of most families celebrating Rosh Hashana, which begins Friday at sundown. The end of the week will be hectic at the catering company, when customers pick up orders. Besides matzo balls, that means tzimmes made with flanken, sweet potatoes, carrots, and dried fruits; and brisket simmered with ketchup and onions.
Rubin offers ample portions of her specialties. This week, she'll make 200 matzo balls, cook 46 pounds of brisket, and simmer 100 pounds of chicken for soup. Some of it is destined for her own family, though she and her husband don't celebrate Rosh Hashana at home. When her children, Michelle, now 31, and Scott, 35, were younger, they would all go to the home of Rubin's friend of 44 years, Leona Starr, and her husband, Roger, in Norton. Now the family gathers at Scott's house, where his wife, Lisa, does everything but cook.
"I bring dinner," says Rubin. "Anybody that wants to set the table, I'll bring the food."
