Borenstein Caterers

Kosher in-flight catering · JFK · Est. 1946

The Table
in the Sky

Somewhere over the ocean, a tray table clicks down and dinner arrives — fresh, kosher, cooked this very morning in Jamaica, New York. That moment is what we cater.

Reserve a tasting Begin the flight↓
Ascent
Chefs plating fresh meals on the line at Borenstein's flight kitchen near JFK
The line at 179-29 150th Road, Jamaica — minutes from the JFK ramp.

Cooked on the day your wheels leave the ground

Most airline food is cooked, frozen, and remembered by no one. Our Fresh Meals program refuses the freezer: every dish is cooked and packaged on the day of the flight, in the only fully equipped, complete kosher in-flight kitchen in the United States.

From that one kitchen at JFK, dinner boards more than fifty domestic and international airlines — and cruise lines, rail carriers, and institutions besides.

15,000+
fresh meals, every day
50+
airlines served worldwide
1
complete kosher in-flight kitchen in the USA — ours
1946
founded in New York; part of El Al since 1970
Cruising altitude

A service composes itself,
course by course

  1. To settle inLinen, pressed; cutlery, polished
  2. The breadChallah roll, boarded warm
  3. To beginCitrus-cured salmon, herb salad
  4. The mainBraised short rib, olive-oil pommes purée
  5. To finishDark-chocolate délice, gold dust
  6. And the wineA kosher cabernet, opened at altitude

Every course above is fully kosher — meat service, pareve dessert — because at this table, the rules are the craft.

Overhead view of a freshly composed Borenstein meal tray
Service Fresh Meals — cooked and packaged on the day of the flight. Never frozen, never yesterday's.
A long haul
Black-and-white founding-era scene from Borenstein Caterers, New York, 1946
New York, 1946. Sam & Mrs. Borenstein begin.

Eighty years before the beverage cart

Borenstein Caterers was founded in 1946 by Sam and Mrs. Borenstein of New York, feeding travelers when crossing an ocean still meant propellers. Since 1970 the company has flown as a subsidiary of El Al Airlines — kosher catering held to the standard of the airline that cannot get it wrong.

Eight decades on, the family recipe is unchanged: treat the passenger in seat 48E like a dinner guest.

The view from here
Macro shot of fresh greens mid-toss in the Borenstein kitchen
Freshness is the rebrand — and the recipe.

“Transform the concept of kosher food from a religious and ethnic food into the cutting-edge, healthy version it can be.”

— the Borenstein vision

That vision now boards every tray: OU Kosher certified, FDA and USDA inspected, and extended on the ground by Kosher4U — a grab-and-go line for travelers who want the table in the sky before they've left the terminal.

  • OU Kosher certified
  • FDA inspected
  • USDA inspected
  • Kosher4U grab-and-go

Bring the table
to your cabin

Taste the Fresh Meals program the way your passengers will — tray table down, at a tasting in our JFK kitchen. One morning with us and the catering line on your RFP stops being a line item.

Call (718) 656-3600 Read the long haul again
Borenstein Caterers, Inc. · 179-29 150th Road, Jamaica, NY 11434 · at JFK International Airport