Eating the rainbow

The David Intercontinental held Colorfood Festival at its Aubergine restaurant.

By AMY SPIRO
Updated: AUGUST 29, 2017 15:10
The Colorfood Festival’s “red” dish, which involved tuna served three ways. (photo credit: AFIK GABAI)
The Colorfood Festival’s “red” dish, which involved tuna served three ways.
(photo credit: AFIK GABAI)
Have you ever wanted to eat green? What about red? Or perhaps an artist’s palette.
The new Colorfood Festival at the David Intercontinental Hotel asks – and answers – just those questions. The special four-course meal at the hotel’s Aubergine restaurant – running just through August 31 – is inspired by photos taken by Dan Lev.
Lev, along with project cofounder Ilit Engel and the hotel’s head chef Alon Hirtenstein, worked to turn the images into edible – kosher – art.
Starting with bread served with black olive tapenade and garlic dill cream – which the hotel would like to call a course, but which, let’s be real, isn’t – each dish is a culinary romp through the rainbow.
The next dish served up is “red,” which involves tuna served three ways – sashimi, tartare and seared, dotted with appropriately-hued touches of watermelon, peppers and tomato. Next up is yellow – sea bass with coconut curry sauce; yellow carrot and saffron risotto, pineapple and a tapioca tulle.
That was followed by green, which meant a pistachio- crusted goose breast (served on the rare side), with a delicious creamed spinach and pea sauce.
Dessert was just called “Picasso,” and was a gorgeously presented but somewhat odd collection of banana panna cotta, meringues, coulis and praline creams.
Just outside the restaurant are side by side images of the photos which provided inspiration and the dishes subsequently created – from both the evening’s menu and Lev’s past projects. Lev has presented the Colorfood exhibit – side by side images of dishes and art inspiration – in Milan, Marseille, Denmark and Vietnam.
The Colorfood venture is the latest in a line of special events hosted in Aubergine, designed to presumably bring in guests and charge sky-high prices for dinner, in this case NIS 320 per person.
Most recently they hosted A Taste of Michelin, where three European chefs took over the Aubergine kitchen for three weeks, creating a menu that was NIS 340 per person (including three glasses of wine).
Everything at the Colorfood dinner was tasty, artfully arranged and thoughtful.
I still would have cleaned my plate after every course even if I’d skipped the exhibit outside and gone straight for the food. But the gimmick is cute, and a way to feel like you received both a museum tour and a full meal for your considerable entry price.
The writer was a guest of the restaurant's.