'Top Chef' Hung Huynh has a lot on his Seder plate

Huynh ladles out his non-matzo-ball soup (the dumplings are vegetables) at Solo. (Watts/News)

As the winner of last season's "Top Chef," Hung Huynh knows how to master a challenge.

Here's his latest: As the new executive chef for Solo, an upscale glatt kosher restaurant in midtown, the Vietnamese-born Huynh will be making his first Seder when Passover begins a week from Saturday night.

So with help from Solo's on-staff rabbis and Steven Taube, the restaurant's director of operations, Huynh's been taking Pesach 101. Not surprisingly, his coursework can be amusing to those who already know the ropes.

There's his first glimpse of matzo: "What's this?" he asks, holding up a thin sheet of the unleavened bread Solo buys for the holiday.

There's a lesson in haroset, the sweet mix of apples, honey and nuts meant to signify mortar on the Seder plate. (His introductory batch was made by a rabbi.)

But Huynh's Jewish culinary education really began in February. That's when he was hired to help rework Solo's menu with an Asian touch and the fresh, ingredient-focused techniques he was lauded for on "Top Chef."

"When Hung first came to the restaurant, he had no idea about kosher at all," says Taube. "He thought a rabbi would bless the food and that would be it."

But at kosher restaurants like Solo, says Taube, a rabbi has a more active role, and some have even been to culinary school. In fact Solo hires two, who split the shifts between 6 a.m. and 1 a.m.

Each day one must light Huynh's burners, take care of all the monetary transactions with food suppliers, inspect every box and every can to make sure they're kosher, and hand-wash every scrap of his produce in search of overlooked insects. (They're just as taboo as shellfish and pork.)

And all those spices, vinegars, oils and Chinatown tins of chilies and sugarcane that Huynh used to use as shortcuts? Forget 'em, unless they're certified kosher.

Fish and meat must be kept apart, so Huynh has two storage areas and two cooking areas. Because there's meat, Huynh can't use dairy, meaning no cheese, no butter, no ice cream - though he makes soy-milk "ice cream."

Even if his pantry list is limited, Huynh says his mission has stayed the same: "I'm just trying to make great food with natural ingredients.

"The food is just as good," he adds. "It's just different."

Different is also good for Solo's customers, who don't get to experience a chef who has worked at Per Se or Guy Savoy very often. For Passover, they'll be treated to lemongrass-infused chicken soup with "matzo balls" made of baby vegetables, seared Scottish salmon with horseradish and olive-oil mashed potatoes, and gefilte fish with cilantro, kaffir lime leaves and tamarind sauce.

Pulse the gefilte-fish ingredients in a food processor. Form a patty out of the mixture, and sauté in a small amount of olive oil on either side until cooked through. Mix extra-virgin olive oil and red-wine vinegar. Top gefilte-fish patty with herbs or microgreens and drizzle with vinaigrette. Optionally, you can make a tamarind drizzle or dipping sauce by mixing tamarind paste with an equal amount of water and adding salt to taste.