On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Jeffrey Kollinger, of Spice of Life Catering in Dallas. He’s a celebrated chef, kosher caterer, and CEO with more than three decades of experience.   Whereas kosher food sometimes gets a bad rap–you can’t mix milk with meat, you need separate kitchens, you can only eat fish with scales–Kollinger believes kosher can be gourmet, delicious and fun.   “There’s so many distinctive flavors now that you could use that probably weren't available 10, 12 years ago,” he says. “There's truffle oils [and] all kinds of different spices.”   You can put a fancy sauce on pretty much anything. For instance, you can do fish with a beurre blanc and fancy vegetables.    To uplevel your kosher cooking, Chef Kollinger said to stop thinking of it as kosher. It’s just regular food. After all, an aioli, a demi glace or a sauce made from a rich stock can be done in the kosher world because you can use them in both dairy and meat.   “I think a lot of people [let] the heckscher (kosher certification) throw them off,” he says. “What you need to do is seek out ingredients that match or come close to what you're trying to [create] and play around with the dish.”    Chef Kollinger talks about his love of food and cooking, along with his personal connection to kosher catering. He also shares tons of kosher cooking tips and his recipe for Macadamia Nut Crusted Chilean Sea Bass, Basmati “Confetti,” Cippolini Onions and Carrots and Lemon Beurre Blanc, which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.   Learn more at TheSpiceofLifeCatering.com. For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.