Our Story

Passionate’s 18-year culinary odyssey is a recipe for food, culture, and love.

For over 18 years, Passionate has been catering events in Melbourne and communities all over the world. By blending exotic spices from unique cultures, our patrons’ palates travel to places they may never have tasted in traditional Jewish cuisine.

In the dessert department, Passionate is sure to be a chocolate lover’s dream.  Only the finest Belgium chocolate is used to create exceptional non-dairy and mostly gluten-free delectable sweets, many of which are vegan and processed sugar-free.

Rabbi Chef David Trakhtman first began his cooking career catering for the boys in Yeshiva. After getting rabbinic ordination, he established his catering business from the South Caulfield shule kitchen and helped create many simchas for families all over Victoria. From 2016-2019 David ran a restaurant called Passionate.

In 2017 a guest came to Passionate and was so impressed with the food, she complimented the chef. “Your wife is a lucky woman.” David shared that he was single and imagined his match would be an energetic education enthusiast who could expand Good Food Academy, his side project of producing kosher cooking classes and creative events in the Jewish community. The customer suggested he connect with Shira Nussdorf; a dynamic teacher who taught everyone from women to toddlers and teens. Between New York, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Shira had produced some of the biggest kosher events in the world, including The Guinness World Records Largest Shabbat Dinner. David invited Shira to be a guest speaker at a singles Shabbat dinner at Passionate, and exactly 40 days later,  they got engaged! The Passionate couple closed the shop to focus on catering and touring with Good Food Acamedy and have already taken their Culinary Odyssey to Budapest, Vienna, Berlin, New York, Connecticut, Jerusalem, and Ukraine. David now uses the St Kilda Shule kitchen so that he can offer both meat and dairy options.

They’re dedicated to treating every guest like family because one never knows how far a good deed can go. Passionate where world food is served locally and the spice of life is love.