28 May, 2015 | Sharoll Fernandez

Culture

PHOTO: NICK SOMERS

Every morning, Lolita leaves her house at 8 am so she can be on time to make the bread. She has been part of the Chabad Lubavitch for four years, working for the rabbi’s family as a nanny, as an assistant in the kitchen, and, now, as the manager of the restaurant. ‘I am happy here’, she says. ‘I have friends.’ Her customers mainly consist of young Israelis who are traveling around South America and come to the Chabad to eat kosher food. Lolita knows every single detail of the meticulous kosher food preparation, and she is very respectful of it. Whenever she has to cook something, she calls one of the Jewish assistants of the rabbi by shouting: esh!!!! (‘fire’ in hebrew), and soon one will come to turn it on for her. She does this because the food, in order to be kosher, has to be prepared with fire that is provided by someone who keeps all the misvots (commandments) since birth. Lolita enjoys this peculiarity of kosher food preparation, especially when Moshe or Yossi, the rabbi’s assistants, run to the kitchen just to turn on the fire for her.