Archive: Business & Technology

When Tal Oron Cohen caters an event she goes all out.  It is one thing to say that her table has something for everyone, whether you are vegan, lactose intolerant, unable to handle glucose, or meat or butter.  All that is true.  But it is also true that everything looks and tastes amazing, and there is a lot of it!  That's what Cohen is going for with her business, Ba-Li Cravings, which specializes in Mediterranean cuisine and indulgent deserts.

"It comes from my passion for making healthy, delicious, fresh food for people, and make them happy," Cohen says.  "When I do events I always have a buffet that is welcoming to all.  There will be something vegetarian, and vegan, and gluten-free, and dairy free, and meat if they want some meat.  The philosophy is to be very welcoming for all."

Her approach is specific to your event.  Instead of offering a menu of items a client can check, she asks about their likes and dislikes, dietary needs of their guests, and ideas about the event.  She replies with a personalized selection of dishes and desserts.  She stresses that she wants people to feel welcome at every event she caters, abandoning the stress of worrying how the food will effect them.  She arrives with a full staff, and places small cards by each dish, explaining that it is gluten free or vegan or whatever it happens to be, so people know what it is and whether they can eat it without having to ask.

"People come up to me at events to say, 'I thought I wouldn't be able to eat anything.'  They'd show me their little box of food from home.  They'd say, 'I'm actually going to take food home with me.'  It's so nice when people feel welcome."


Cohen's main focus is on events, but she does provide some items to local coffee shops and catering companies that want her desserts.  Events can be any size from a dinner for 10 people at somebody's house to a 150 plate wedding.  She doesn't make traditional wedding cakes, preferring that couples get them elsewhere, though she says that some couples opt to make their own cake.  But she does make exceptions.

"This summer I am making one wedding cake," she says.  "It is for a really, really cute couple who are having a destination wedding up here in the Finger Lakes.  This couple wanted a cheese cake.  I brought them an Israeli style cheese cake, and a New York style cheese cake.  New York style is made mostly with cream cheese.  Israeli style is made mostly with a yogurt, so it's a lot lighter.  It's not as heavy and dense.  It's a very light cake.  We decided to combine them.  We're having cheese cakes in cups with nutella and red velvet. We got a beautiful stand that will have a three-tiered cheesecake on it.  That's the kind that I think are fun."

'Ba-Li' means 'cravings' in Hebrew.  Cohen, half Israeli and half Danish, says her cooking is influenced both by Israeli cuisine and Danish baking.

"A lot of my influence comes from the Mediterranean cuisine, but also a lof of the influence on my baking is Danish.  So I use cardamon a lot in my doughs, which is very Danish.  One of the reasons I really love the Israeli food is the influence of all of the immigrants who are part of Israel.  It's a lot of Moroccan food, Turkish food, and a lot of Lebanese food, and also Egyptian food.  Then we also have som Iraqi influences, Iranian, European influences.  It's amazing to work within that.  Israel is truly a culinary empire because of all these different food trends that come and melt together."

Cohen was born to an Israeli father and Danish mother in Rishon LeTsiyon, Israel, near Tel Aviv.  She says her parents were not foodies, but they gave her leave to reign in the kitchen at the tender age of five.  She has been cooking ever since.

"I remember I actually baked cookies when I was five," she recalls.  "I turned on the oven and put them in and took them out.  My parents amazing.  they would always taste what I made, and they loved it.  As I grew I was more and more responsible for cooking when they had friends over.  By the time I was 12 or 13 I would make full meals when we had guests.  I've always loved it.  Whenever I was happy I was in the kitchen.  When I was stressed I was in the kitchen.  When I was sad I was in the kitchen.  I was always in the kitchen."

As an adult she worked in marketing and brand and product development for a large company in the food and beverage industry.  Even after she and her family moved to Ithaca she worked with foreign companies who wanted to bring their products into the US market.  That meant weekly commutes to New York City, taking her away from the community she had grown to love.

"I was traveling every week to New York City," she recalls.  "I was working for big companies.  I felt a disconnect, because while this was going on I fell in love with this community.  I volunteered in the PTAs and everything around.  This chasing big money for big companies versus being here and being present -- at some point I felt a disconnect.  I loved it at the time, but I felt it wasn't really what I was supposed to do.


About two years ago she decided to follow her passion.  She wanted to do something that would keep her involved in the Ithaca community, allowing her to participate in her three children's' school PTA and other local organizations.  She attended a Passenger to Pilot (a Rev: Ithaca Startup Works' Women's Entrepreneur Program) event for women entrepreneurs.  The speaker, Ariana Blossom, said, 'Start before you're ready.'  Cohen did.

"I went home that night and told my husband, 'I'm going to start.'  I don't have a business plan, I don't have a loan yet, but this feels right.'," she recalls.  "I started in a rented commercial space in the Finger Lakes School of Massage, schlepping all my stuff to that kitchen and taking it back  I would take my Kitchenaide and my flours and my sugars and everything.  Over a year ago I decided to build my own commercial kitchen.  To really do it up to standard, and to have the flexibility of catering any kind of event when I want to.  Part of it came from being part of the   And I took it literally.    That was the beginning of it.

Eight months later it she had a fully certified commercial kitchen and her business was officially opened.  She says part of her sucecss has been creating a business 'support group' with her memberships in the Rev Women Entrepreneurs program, her local BNI chapter, and the Chamber Of Commerce.  She also loves feedback from customers, that inspire her to be even more creative. 

"I feel that I understand the business more," she says.  "I love that I have customers who come back for the third or fourth time, or recommend me to other people.  I am now starting to build my name so when I go places and say Ba-Li Cravings they say they have heard about me.  I love that."

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